Heavyweight hiatus, by George (George Foreman taking time off from HBO for family)

Sporting News / Fox Sports ^ | 12.22.03 | Fritz Quindt

[mhking]

George Foreman is retired, again.

On the eve of HBO's December 6 fight card, he abruptly hung up his headset after 12 years. Just a one-year sabbatical, he says, no relation to alleged talk of another boxing comeback at 54. Foreman claims he needs to spend quality time with his children: George, George, George, Georgetta, Freeda George, et al. He has missed PTA meetings, didn't see the kids play football all fall and, thus, didn't re-sign his contract, which expired in October.

HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg lauds Foreman as "an icon who has his priorities straight" but acknowledges his character is impossible to recast. Big George's grille is as culturally significant as his grills (50 million sold), almost. Sometimes brilliant, oft-wacky, ever unrestrained, Foreman could vent like any radio talk-show host, calling a judges' decision against Oscar De La Hoya a protest vote against Bob Arum, or toothfully deflate Jim Lampley-Larry Merchant in mid-condemnation of a John Ruiz performance: "Boys, don't be hypocritical. Yesterday, you were promoting this fight."

[mhking]

Keeping in touch with family, indeed. He knows where his priorities should be.

But watch, the Jackson-Sharpton cabal will politely ignore that....

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[Dont Mention the War]

This is odd. How much time did this job actually take up? One or two nights a month?

In any event, HBO boxing's not going to be the same without George. But it'll still be light years ahead of the deadly dull Showtime bouts.

[Quilla]

I always enjoy George's take on the way a fight is going. HBO Boxing is far, far superior to Showtime's and I attribute that to gents like Foreman and Emmanuel Stewart. Kudos to Foreman's family coming first.

[Quilla]

Many of the fights they cover are out of the United States and in cities around the country. I suspect all that traveling contributed to his decision.

[tiamat]

It's not so much the boxing that eats up his time....

It takes a while to sell all of those "George Foreman Grills"!

Tia

[jalisco555]

Ever see the film "When We Were Kings"? It's an amazing documentary about the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire. Foreman is just a completely different person than he was then. Who would have guessed at that time that Foreman would now be a star and Ali practically forgotten?

[xp38]

Ali's Parkinsons disease is a factor in keeping him out of the limelight.

[Williams]

Ali is not forgotten. He was The Greatest. I do love George Foreman as well.

[jalisco555]

A lot of people (myself included) thought Ali would retire at the top to pursue a second career, perhaps in politics. He was so bright and articulate it seemed plausible. Such a pity that he didn't know when to quit.

[jalisco555]

Another thing. Ali was arguably the most famous person in the world in the 1970's. Yet, today almost no one in my children's generation know who he is, yet they all know George Foreman, if only through his grills. Fate takes strange turns.

[jjbrouwer]

Who would have guessed at that time that Foreman would now be a star and Ali practically forgotten?

You are the only one guessing that.

Ali is still revered as the greatest and is the most recognisable figure in world sport.

Foreman was a lumbering giant, who wasn't fit to lace Ali's boots.

[BrooklynGOP]

Too bad. Larry Merchant annoys me.

[uncbob]

Gonna miss Big George

One of my fovorite sports personalities plus we love his grill

[wireman]

I like HBO's fight coverage (as long as I turn the sound all the way down).

Lampley's a pimp for the fighter with the big HBO contract, Larry Merchant is simply horrible (much like he was as a writer for the now defunct Philadelphia Evening Bulletin), and Harold Lederman is from another planet.

To paraphrase another famous boxing announcer, Big George is the only guy there who can tell it like it is.