George Edward FOREMAN
(Heavyweight)
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Lugar de Nacimiento: Marshall (Texas), USA.
Fecha de Nacimiento: 10 enero 1949.

Récord Amateur: 27 fights; 22+, 6-
1968 Mexico: Heavyweight Olympic Champion (Vs. Ionas Chepulis)
Récord Profesional: 81 fights; 76+ (68 KO), 5-
1972-1974: World Heavyweight Champion
1994-1997: World Heavyweight Champion

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Born in Marshall, Texas, January 22, 1948, to a railroad construction worker, Foreman, fifth of seven children, spent most of his early youth in trouble. In his words, "You name it, I'd done it." He credits the Job Corps, which he joined in 1965, with his complete turnabout in attitude and direction.

He was born and raised in the Fifth Ward, a poor neighborhood on the north side of Houston. There he made a name for himself as a brawler, drinker, petty thief, and gang leader, quitting school before he got to the ninth grade. Lester Hayes, a member of the Los Angeles Raiders football team, grew up in the same neighborhood and described the George Foreman he remembered in Sports Illustrated. Foreman, Hayes said, "was a very, very big kid and had a reputation for savage butt kickings. That was his forte. So by the early age of 12, I had met George Foreman twice and I found both occasions extremely taxing." Hayes added: "I will say this of George. He was a smart gangster in that he would tax you first and then kick your butt. But he wasn't a very nice thing."

Foreman told Sports Illustrated that he thought a hero was someone with "a big, long scar down his face, a guy who'd come back from prison, a guy maybe killed a man once." He even went so far as to wear bandages on his own face so it would seem like he had a scar. Without any proper role models Foreman just drifted, with no clear idea how to make a life for himself. He was growing up in a single-parent family and spending most of his time in the streets. "I remember once," he said in Sports Illustrated, "two boys and myself, we robbed a guy. Threw him down. I could hold the guy because I was strong, and the sneaky fella would grab the money. And then we'd run until we couldn't hear the guy screaming anymore. And then we'd walk home as if we'd just earned some money on a job, counting it. We didn't even know we were criminals."

One day Foreman was watching television at his Houston home. A commercial came on featuring athlete Jim Brown, one of the few men Foreman actually admired. In the commercial, Brown urged young people to join the Job Corps in order to "be somebody." Foreman took the challenge. All alone, the teenager traveled from Texas to Oregon, where he joined a Job Corps camp. All was not rosy right away, though- -Sports Illustrated contributor Richard Hoffer described the youth as "principally a thug in a new outfit." Shortly after joining the Job Corps, Foreman was involved in a savage fistfight in the town of Pleasanton, California. When a group of counselors could not pull Foreman off his victim, they called upon the supervisor, Doc Broadus, for help. Broadus stepped in and stopped the fight, noticing in the process that Foreman seemed to be crying out for understanding, that he was indeed a confused boy wasting his strength in fits of frustration.

Broadus's special interest was developing boxers. He took Foreman to the gym and began to teach him how to channel his energy for productive purposes. In a short two years, Foreman developed into a powerful amateur heavyweight. 

In 1967, he terminated his training in the Job Corps after winning the National A.A.U. heavyweight title in Toledo, Ohio. This assured him a spot on the ten-man Olympic team to compete in Mexico. With just 18 amateur bouts under his belt super heavyweight George Foreman won the gold medal in that class at the 1968 Games in Mexico City. In the final, he stopped Soviet Jonas Cepulis in the second round.

When he held an American flag in his hand as he stood on the victor's stand, a few members of the black community chastised him for being an Uncle Tom. Others, especially the conservative community, championed him for being a patriotic American during a time of political upheaval and strife in America. In his autobiography, Foreman himself states that he got a postcard from one man, who championed him for "returning pride to this country that Jackie Onassis took away" (this is in reference to her marrying Aristotle Onassis after John Kennedy's death).

At 19 years old, Foreman stood at 6 feet 3½ inches (192 cm) and weighed 218 pounds (99kg).
 

Palmarés Amateur de George Foreman:

1966

1967

1968

1969

REGRESO A PÁGINA DE INICIO

Nota: Éste palmarés está incompleto y puede ser inexacto.

Responsable: [email protected]
(Ultima actualización: Sep-02-2007)

Special Thanks to Mike DeLisa