George Foreman still insists he was drugged before his famous 1974 clash with Muhammad Ali in Africa but says the defeat was good for his soul and he is not sore about it.
Ali won that bout with an eighth-round knockout to reclaim the World heavyweight title in what many regard as the greatest upset in boxing history.
It was also the pinnacle of Ali’s dramatic career and for legions of his fans its status as a sporting event is almost sacred.
Foreman, who has revisited the bout and the doping allegation in his just published book ‘God in my Corner: A Spiritual Memoir’, says he cherishes that bout because it put him on a path that led to his ‘rebirth’ as a devout Christian.
He also maintains that he is not trying to spoil the magic of the fight. He just wants to tell the truth.
“That magic existed... But what’s wrong with the truth? I’ve had people that say ’man, why are you crying sour grapes?’ But remember I came back to be heavyweight champ of the world,” Foreman said in an interview.
Foreman did regain his World heavyweight title in 1994 at the age of 45 — the oldest man to do so.
But his most famous fight was with Ali on that steamy night in October, 1974, in Kinshasa, the capital of what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Foreman first made the doping claim shortly after the bout and in his new book he reiterates that he was drugged before a fight that many thought he would easily win. He says it was an inside job involving his trainer at the time, the late Dick Sadler.
Foreman insists that Ali himself had no part in the plot and would not be drawn on the possible motive of his own camp.
But Foreman was heavily favoured, with odds of up to 8-1, so anyone with inside information that he was drugged stood to win big money that night with the bookies.
That at least makes his allegation plausible.
“Just before the fight with Ali, my trainer handed me a glass of liquid and said ‘Here’s your water’,” he writes.
“As I took a swig, I almost spit it out. ‘Hey, this water tastes like it has medicine in it’,” Foreman says he replied.
‘The same water’
He says Sadler insisted defensively that it was “the same water as always” and so he finished drinking it.
“I never worked with Dick Sadler after that... We both knew something happened that night,” Foreman told Reuters.
The conventional wisdom holds that Ali won the fight by laying on the ropes — the so-called ‘rope-a-dope’ — and allowing Foreman to punch himself out.
The tropical heat and humidity of the Kinshasa night has been cited as another reason why Foreman tired so easily.
But Foreman had trained there for several weeks before the bout and he hailed from Houston, a city that can also be a sweltering furnace.
“I was one strong heavyweight punching fighter. I was one punching machine and that was the first time I delivered everything I had and nothing worked,” Foreman said.
That is no idle boast. Foreman was a force in his day and his raw power alone was what made the victory by Ali, who was several years older, such a stunning upset.
Foreman had easily destroyed mighty Joe Frazier to win the World Championship in the first place and had pulverised Ken Norton in a title defence.
Ali had fought both men twice. Each had defeated Ali the first time and Ali had won the grudge matches in hard-fought contests that had gone the distance.
It is against this backdrop that his victory and bravery — Ali came out swinging — are seen as such monumental achievements.
Foreman himself says the loss was “the best thing” that ever happened to him.
“In my trophy case, I have a photograph on display... The picture shows me being knocked down and Ali standing over me,” Foreman writes.
“As I’ve gazed at the picture that captured my first professional defeat, I’ve fallen in love with that moment.”
Countless boxing enthusiasts have also fallen in love with that moment — though Foreman’s steadfast insistence that he was drugged is bound, like the medicinal water he claims to have drunk that night, to leave a bad taste in their mouths.