Fight Land: George Foreman III’s Boxing Beginnings
Fight Land – Photos via ‘The Club By George Forman III’s’ Facebook account.
There are a multitude of reasons why fighters follow the unconventional career path. For some it was a necessity; a young Thai boy sent to one of the kickboxing camps to earn money for his family so they had enough to eat. For others there was more of a gradual evolution; wrestling in middle school turned into wrestling in high school and college, but after that there was a competitive void in their soul that they needed to fill. Mike Tyson talked about how his first fight was because someone tried to steal his pet pigeon. Georges St-Pierre started studying Shotokan because he was bullied as a child.
For George Foreman III, his beginnings weren’t so glamorous: his brothers would make fun of him for being chubby. Yes, the undefeated 16-0 heavyweight boxer, and second son of two-time heavyweight champion and grill salesman extraordinaire George Foreman, started his boxing career because he was teased for being overweight.
As comically underwhelming a start as one might find that to be, the decision to lose weight was only the spark; there was 24 years worth of tinder there that was amassed from being raised pretty much in the gym, and once that spark was there it ignited the fire that’s still in him today. It was an awakening of a feeling inside of George that he hadn’t known existed. He was a fighter down to his core; it only took him 24 years to realize it.
All of George Foreman’s sons might share the same name, but it was the second son with the strongest desire to step into the ring. It was the same feeling that his father felt—the same drive that compelled his dad go for the heavyweight title a second time at an unheard of 45-years-old.
Fight Land
