Big George Foreman

Who can beat a man who does roadwork with a heifer on his shoulder?  Muhammed Ali managed the super human feat.

 

 

Here is the famous picture of Foreman lifting a cow and carrying it on his back. If I had to “guesstimate” this cow looks like it weighs around 300kg +. The nearest powerlifting exercise that equates to this position is probably the squat so I think we can assume that Foreman excelled at squatting. But I doubt very much if Foreman squatted this cow up from the ground- more likely the cow was loaded onto his back directly from a cattle truck. Also you have to take into consideration the shape of the cow which is more awkward than a conventional barbell in a gym. However there is another variable to consider here & that is a live weight ( a cow) vs a dead weight ( barbell). 

In the modern era of boxing, Foreman is generally regarded as the most physically empowered HW specimen and his pure feats of strength are seriously freaky.

Here we see him pulling a jeep on a slight uphill incline. Given that this vehicle probably weighs somewhere in the region of 2 tonnes- this is another jaw-dropping feat of strength- at least by boxing standards. So Foreman was SERIOUSLY strong & he successfully incorporated this “real-world” strength into his boxing. I think when he man-handled Joe Frazier way back in ‘73 that was as much to do with superior strength as it was with superior punching power. Several times he pushed Frazier away with comparative ease that was clearly the result of his superior strength.

Now professional strongmen pull aeroplanes so although Foreman was tremendously strong- his strength is measured compared to his field, which was boxing. So it is unlikely that he would have been strong enough to compete as a professional strongman, not impossible mind you but he would probably finish last. Also remember those guys weigh well over 25 stone+ in the off-season whereas Foreman in his prime was around 20 stone in the off. In other words, it could be that Foreman’s P4P strength was the equivalent of a pro-strongman but in order to successfully compete he would have to bulk up.

Johnny Walker

, Boxing historian at Antiquity (2019-present)

Updated April 10, 2020

Jim Brown fabled NFL hall of famer, wrote an article about George Foreman, Jim was talking to a young Foreman and George casually picked up a yearling horse and walked around with the horse around his neck! 

Brown who had been around seriously strong men all his life said it was the greatest feat of strength he had ever seen! 

As to being a strongman, why would George lower his monetary standards to do that? Heavyweight champion boxers are very well paid

The big question is—Was the cow to experiment with the first models of “The George Foreman Grill”? Did anyone tip the cow off about the grill?