As the tributes poured in, one of the many things we learned following the death of George Foreman was that his opponents were also his collaborators. We learned, for example, that it wasn’t possible to tell the story or explain the greatness of Big George without mentioning the following: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and Michael Moorer. For the full picture, and a complete understanding, there were others too: Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, Jimmy Young, Evander Holyfield, Tommy Morrison, and so on.
Some of these men beat Foreman and some were beaten by him, one or two emphatically. Regardless, they all helped Foreman to build his legacy and were in turn enhanced by their association with him, however long or short.
Most of them, alas, are now dead, outlasted by Foreman in the greatest fight of all, yet a couple — that is, Holyfield and Moorer — are still upright and throwing, now relics from a time when Americans ruled the heavyweight division. Each of the collaborators mentioned, in fact, were American heavyweights. Not only that, such was the circuitous nature of George Foreman’s career, they happen to cover two distinct golden ages of American heavyweight boxing. For the 1970s, you have the likes of Ali, Frazier and Norton, and then, representing the '90s, you have the likes of Holyfield, Moorer and Morrison.
Wherever Foreman looked, it seemed, American heavyweights were all he ever saw. Big ones, small ones, righties, lefties. No matter his age, and no matter the decade in which he competed, Foreman knew his greatest challenges would be countrymen, and he knew, moreover, that his target — the heavyweight champion of the world — would invariably speak the same language and wave the same flag.
Though never intended that way, Foreman’s first pro fight was against an American (Don Waldhelm), his last pro fight was against an American (Shannon Briggs), and everything in between served to highlight America’s dominance in heavyweight boxing. Back then the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) heavyweight title, on the line when Foreman beat both Frazier and Lyle, really meant something and was a belt a fighter actually wanted to win. After all, to be the best in America in those times was to be the best in the world.
Then, by the new millennium, everything changed. Evander Holyfield went from a rivalry with Lennox Lewis to a rivalry with John Ruiz, while Mike Tyson, himself a one-time Holyfield rival, was fresh out of jail and about to take his show on the road, flogging what was left of his snarl and stamina for a hefty fee. They both faded, in other words, as all of them do, only in this instance there were no young Americans coming up from behind to quicken the passing of the baton or tell them their time was up. Instead, as Tyson went to Britain to play the monster and Holyfield sought comfort in the arms of Ruiz for 36 rounds, the division moved on and looked elsewhere for both targets and inspiration.
Now the focus switched from Americans to a couple of Europeans, both of whom shared a surname and were dubbed the future ...
