Skip to main content
Remembering Big George’s impact on boxing and history
ROGER McKENZIE writes about late boxing legend Foreman’s legacy, from his part in Rumble in the Jungle to becoming world heavyweight champion at 45

MY DAD was excitedly rousing us. ”He won! He won!” I didn’t need to hear the next line from my dad, “Ali won.” At least that’s the memory I have of dad waking us up on Halloween morning 1974.

It’s a strong memory — whether real or not — that my dad would have woken me, my brother and my sister up with the news that Muhammad Ali had performed the miracle of defeating George Foreman to win back the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

What I know for sure is that “Big George” Foreman, who joined the ancestors last week, will always be remembered in relation to his part in the so-called Rumble in the Jungle.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Features / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
The Guyanese scholar’s groundbreaking work revealed how Europe deliberately underdeveloped Africa while using its resources and people to fuel Western capitalism, writes ROGER MCKENZIE
Features / 9 January 2025
9 January 2025
China’s huge growth and trade success have driven the expansion of the Brics alliance — now is a good time for the global South to rediscover 1955’s historic Bandung conference, and learn its lessons, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Features / 2 January 2025
2 January 2025
The revolutions in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso against the old colonial powers are seldom understood in terms of Africans’ own agency and their rejection of the imperialist humiliation thrust upon them, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Features / 28 December 2024
28 December 2024
From Zimbabwe’s provinces to Mali’s streets, nations are casting off colonial labels in their quest for true independence and dignity in a revival of the pan-African spirit, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Similar stories
Men’s Boxing / 8 November 2024
8 November 2024
JOHN WIGHT explains how the eighth-round stoppage back in 1974 remains among the most important moments in the entire history of sports
Boxing / 16 August 2024
16 August 2024
JOHN WIGHT charts the inexorable rise of a Congolese heavyweight and honorary son of Scotland
Global Routes / 2 April 2024
2 April 2024
The musical progeny of the Rumble in the Jungle, and contemporary Nigerian Afrobeat