Heavyweight living legend “Big” George Foreman is as excited as the rest of us ahead of the big (very big; 90,000 tickets sold for a monstrous Wembley sell-out) Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko heavyweight title fight showdown.
And Foreman – who of course featured in THE biggest ever heavyweight title fight in history, his unforgettable Rumble in The Jungle with Muhammad Ali, in terms of global viewers, pulling in the most numbers – has revealed who he thinks is the ever so slight favourite to win on April 29. Speaking with German newspaper BILD, the former two-time king, perhaps surprisingly, sees unbeaten, 18-0 IBF champ Joshua as the favourite.
“If I were a gambler, I’d see Joshua as a 6-5 favourite,” Foreman said. “So I’d put him just in front. Klitschko knows how to win and how to use his body size. It will be a difficult fight. If he wins the world title again – oh, my God, imagine that! If Klitschko wins the boxing world will flip out.”
Will it really though? At age 41, Klitschko with a win over AJ, would become the second oldest heavyweight champ in history (Foreman, who at age 45 regained the crown with a sledgehammer KO over Michael Moorer in 1994, holds the record as the oldest) – but many people see him doing it. Unlike Foreman, many people have Klitschko as the favourite to win this month.
It would nonetheless be a considerable achievement on Klitschko’s part if he were to reach the very top again, having come back from that bad loss to Tyson Fury. Maybe Foreman is right though, and the younger, less experienced man will emerge victorious in London.
Here’s another thought: how would Foreman – either the 1970s or the 1990s version – have tackled Joshua or Klitschko? If “Big” George was around and fighting these days, would he be leaving a wake of destruction in his wake? Very possibly. Klitschko-Joshua is a big fight, but does it have the sheer excitement some of Foreman’s epic Superfights carried?