Boxing: Both incarnations of Foreman were among foremost fighters

Shortly before the turn of the year, running late, which is usually my form, I pored over a list of fist fighters from which 10 had to be nominated for possible inclusion in The International Boxing Hall of Fame. You may think this no big deal, however it is not a task I lightly undertake.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame, a typically American enterprise, can be found in Canastota, New York under the direction of Ed Brophy, a man of boundless enthusiasm who appears to spend a great deal of time firing off faxes to boxing enthusiasts and experts. Presumably, Brophy includes me in both categories, although the latter is a fragile concept.

On the face of it, you might suppose the task is not difficult. Trouble is that the list always contains names with which I am only vaguely familiar. We're talking about the past here, not the present. Posthumous election is frequent.

Sometimes, I call a friend. "Yeah, the guy could fight, deserves to be in," he might say, or "Forget him, no more than a club fighter." I don't know how he arrives at these judgements, but his knowledge is deeper than mine.

Sometimes, a name leaps out. This time, it was that of a television salesman who has made many millions, more than a hundred they say, from the promotion of a hamburger grill. George Foreman.

Thirty years ago this month, the 22nd to be precise, Foreman demolished Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, to become the undisputed heavyweight champion and set off a chain of events that led to the most dramatic of all boxing events, his encounter with Muhammad Ali in Zaire.

Some time after Foreman launched the second, and most lucrative phase of his career in the ring, becoming, at 46, the oldest man to hold a version of the heavyweight title, he defeated Gerry Cooney in Atlantic City. Two or three days before the contest took place I went to his hotel suite with two friends, both now retired, Ed Schuyler, of the Associated Press, and the Sports Illustrated boxing writer, Pat Putnam. We were no sooner in Foreman's presence than Schuyler said, "George, you used to be such an asshole." Foreman replied, "I guess you're right." Which then is the real George Foreman, the ogre that was or the genial preacher he became? Nobody has ever been sure.

Schuyler's estimate of the first model was entirely accurate. The model Foreman took for himself was Sonny Liston. In and out of the ring, he took on Liston's persona. Like Liston, even more so, he was an awesome puncher. His stamina was suspect but Frazier wasn't given an opportunity to find out. I watched the fight sitting close to Frazier's corner, so close that I had one foot in the resin box. At the start of the second round, Frazier's handlers, Yank Durham and Eddie Futch, had barely climbed down from the ring apron when Frazier was struck almost senseless. "Jesus," I heard Durham say. Negotiations for a defence against Muhammad Ali ended right there.

In the enormous reverberation of Frazier's downfall it seemed that Foreman was unbeatable. On the night in 1974 that Ali outpointed Frazier in an unofficial 10-round eliminator for his title, Foreman walked out in the middle of the sixth round, theatrically declaring his disgust with the contest. "That's one mean bastard," somebody said.

The following day a press conference was held ahead of Foreman's forthcoming defence against Ken Norton in Caracas, Venezuela. Dressed in studded blue denim, appearing to tower over everyone in the room, Foreman growled, "I can't make up no poems, can't tell no jokes, but I'm the best there is at knocking people down." There was proof of it in Foreman's unbeaten record – 36 of 39 opponents had failed to last the distance.

Norton was no exception. He had nothing with which to question Foreman's reputation. The last vestiges of his confidence were laid to waste within seconds, in fact from the moment Foreman climbed into the ring. "I hit a guy and it is like magic," Foreman said after knocking out Norton in the second round. "You see him crumbling to the floor." Ali didn't crumble. Remarkably, he withstood Foreman's hammer blows before knocking him out in the eighth round. The real George Foreman? Either way he is a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame.