‘Big’ George Foreman once revealed why he turned down a huge rematch against Muhammad Ali.
The heavyweight greats locked horns in one of the biggest fights in boxing history back in 1974, in what was perhaps best known as ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’.
Foreman went into the fight as a heavy favourite with the bookmakers, with many fans and pundits predicting a dominant knockout victory for the unbeaten champion who at the time was unquestionably the hardest puncher in the sport.
Despite the expectations for a routine victory for ‘Big’ George, this proved to unravel on the night as Ali absorbed an abundance of punishment in the earlier rounds, wearing the champion down with his infamous ‘rope-a-dope’ style to eventually stop him in the eighth round in a monumental victory for ‘The Greatest’.
A rematch between the pair came very close to happening in the years that followed, although Foreman revealed the one condition that Ali set to allow a second fight to happen, which seemed to put ‘Big’ George off the idea.
In an interview on YouTube, Foreman revealed how Ali said that he would only agree to a rematch if he teamed up with his former trainer once again, which he respectfully declined.
“He called me once and we talked on the phone about doing a match. I’ll do the match but you’ve got to hire Dick Sadler. I said I’ll never work with Sadler again.
[Ali said to Foreman] ‘That’s your problem you never work with anybody that’s why you’ll never fight for the title’ and hung up on me. We got that close to a boxing match but it was about taking Dick Sadler back. Once is enough.”
Shortly after his battle with Ali, Foreman would suffer defeat once again at the hands of Jimmy Young, which lead to the former champion taking a 10-year hiatus from the sport to pursue a career as a preacher, although he would end up returning to the ring in 1987 in a sensational comeback.
