by James Slater – Heavyweight legend “Big” George Foreman, the two-time heavyweight king who lit up the 1970s and 1990s like few other fighters at any weight, has launched a quite scathing attack on both of the Klitschko brothers. Foreman, now aged 61 and years into a happy retirement, spoke to German newspaper The Berliner Morgenpost recently, and the oldest heavyweight champion in history said neither Wladimir, the Ring magazine, IBF and WBO ruler, nor WBC king Vitali, have had a worthy opponent in the past five years!
Foreman is an admirer of the two brothers and he has some good things to say about the pair as a result, but he says that since Vitali’s great losing fight with Lennox Lewis back in 2003 neither brother has had what he calls a “pressure” fight.
“The Klitschko brothers are definitely good boxers,” Foreman told the German daily. “They have had a top education, are big, heavy and pack a powerful punch. But where are their opponents? Since Lennox [Lewis] there has been no-one else, there has been a lack of pressure..
“The Klitschkos have beaten everyone easily. Their few defeats are now years ago. I state, neither of them have had a worthy opponent in the last five years. [And] against the Klitschkos, there is no chance of somebody knocking them out with a lucky punch.”
So, is Foreman actually attacking the two men currently atop the division he himself ruled over twice, or is George laying into the current state of the heavyweight division in general? “Since Lennox there has been no-one,” Foreman states, yet, as fans on this web site have argued may times, who have the Klitschkos ducked? Nobody. It’s not their fault, then, that there have been no fighters capable of putting them under pressure.
But George is right when he says the Klitschkos have beaten everyone with ease over the last five years, and therein the drama needed to keep the division exciting has been lacking. But the two brothers cannot help it if they are simply way too good for everyone else out there, can they? Also, guys like Samuel Peter, Chris Byrd, Lamon Brewster (in a rematch) and Ruslan Chagaev were certainly worthy opponents for Wladimir; as were Corrie Sanders, Peter, Chris Arreola and Kevin Johnson (on paper at least) for Vitali – and all these men were beaten by the duo from Ukraine.
Is Foreman being overly critical or not then?
One thing that does spring to mind as being interesting, is the idea of assessing how the 1970s of even the early to-mid 1990s version of Foreman would have done against the Klitschkos. Those fights sure would have been far more interesting than most, if not all, of the heavyweight bouts that are taking place these days!