Everyone a Winner

 

Oleg Gordievsky with his
book on the K.G.B.

In the past ten days or so, two men have died, each of which, in different ways, had led extraordinary lives: George Foreman, former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, and Oleg Gordievsky, spy and double agent for Russia and the U.K. The only connection between these two lives is the synchronicity of their deaths though one also might observe a similar tenacity and determination in each man.

George Foreman in his maturity

Although I have never been interested in the art of boxing one can observe how a career as a professional boxer has enabled many men to escape from early lives of poverty and deprivation to go on to fulfilment and perhaps riches eventually. There is a dreadful risk of injury, including brain injury, which exists, and which has adversely affected many such as Muhammad Ali, World Champion and confident wordsmith. His later Parkinson’s may well have been his destiny but sustaining constant serious punches to the head over many years must also have been an important contributing factor.

George Foreman at the 1968 Olympics celebrating winning
the Gold Medal. He was 19 and a boxer for almost four years.

George Foreman’s life did not proceed in a conventional way. He was Texan born in an impoverished, inner-city area and inevitably became a troubled child, dropping out of school at 15, joining friends in petty crime before seeking to become a carpenter and bricklayer. He was a big-muscled teenager and discovered boxing at 16 only after he joined the Job Corps, a U.S. government scheme to help young people learn a trade. He loved boxing and was a quick learner with natural boxing power, rising through the amateur ranks to win a stunning gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. He caught the eye of the American public on that occasion when he famously waved a small American flag in the ring, winning both the gold medal, the approval of many and the approbation of others!

Joe Frazier

He turned professional in 1969 at the age of 20 and quickly earned a reputation as a ‘killer’! He rose rapidly as a pro with a series of 37 brutal knockouts in the heavyweight division, leading inexorably to a title fight with the undefeated champ, Joe Frazier in 1973. Foreman was the underdog at the beginning, but he stunned the boxing world by knocking down the champion six times in two rounds before the referee stopped the fight. Much later in his more adult years, Foreman confessed that as a young boxer, all he aimed to do was to kill his opponent.

Rumble in The Jungle. 
Demonstrating Muhammad Ali's 'rope-a-dope'
 tactics for the first eight rounds.

Foreman defended his title only twice before facing Muhammad Ali in what became known as The Rumble in The Jungle in Kinshasa, Zaire [now the Democratic Republic of Congo.] Foreman’s reputation meant that he was widely expected to win, but he fell victim to Ali’s famous so-called ‘rope-a-dope strategy’ in which Ali stopped moving away around the ring, from Foreman’s onslaught, leaning against the ropes and absorbing his opponent’s early punches. Effectively this enabled Ali to wear out his opponent while retaining much of his own energy leading to an energetic return onslaught by Ali and the forced finish to the fight in the eighth round. It was a defining moment in boxing history; the brutal might of Foreman felled by the intelligence, resilience and psychological effectiveness of Ali. Defeat was devastating for Foreman causing him to doubt his own ability and skill. He fought only five more matches, including a second knock-out against

Muhammad Ali
Famous for his boxing and his poetry
'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.'

Frazier before losing to Jimmy Young in 1977 when he claimed to have had a near-death religious experience in his dressing room afterwards which led him to quit boxing and become an ordained minister. However, he did later stage an extraordinary sporting comeback, returning a decade later and reclaiming the world title at the age of 45, the oldest heavyweight champion ever. His return to boxing was to fund the youth centre he had established.

World Champion, first
won at 19 and reclaimed
at 45.

His talents were not limited to boxing. He became a successful entrepreneur making much more money from his famous electric grill that he ever did from a highly successful boxing career. He admitted to earning $8million a month from his Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, earning subsequently more than $200 million from the one endorsement. He also commented on boxing for many years for the American cable TV network HBO while also known for occasional acts of extraordinary generosity such as the cheque for $50,000 which he quietly handed to a woman who did a fairly low-paid job in Las Vegas and who fell on hard times. He also often funded scholarships to enable many young people to attend college. After the Rodney King debacle [King was beaten by policemen after they arrested him; the entire incident was captured on video though the police were subsequently acquitted leading to the 1992 riots in L.A.] most of the drug stores in downtown Los Angeles closed and Foreman wrote a cheque for $1m to keep prescription drugs for the poor elderly, flowing. Much of George's civic generosity was low key and unheralded, tending to be directed at people from humble backgrounds like his own. It was his version of 'giving back', of acknowledging his own good fortune in life.

George and his grill

In a multi-faceted career, Foreman achieved the heights, both in his boxing and in his entrepreneurial endeavours due not only to immense boxing skill but also to economic and commercial judgement and an extraordinary resilience developed after a difficult, deprived childhood. His resilience was, perhaps, the key to his impressive success in life.