George Foreman Was Drugged Before Getting KTFO

In the most laughable case of denial in sports, George Foreman is now claiming that he was secretly drugged prior to 1974′s Rumble in the Jungle – the heavyweight title bout against Muhammad Ali in Kinsasha, Zaire. 

Foreman believes his trainer gave him a tainted cup of water (he only remembers it as being "strange-tasting") just prior to the fight:

"I almost spit it out … Man, I know this water has medicine in it," Foreman told his trainer at the time, according to his book. "I climbed into the ring with that medicinal taste still lingering in my mouth … After the third round, I was as tired as if I had fought 15 rounds. What’s going on here? Did someone slip a drug in my water?"

No, George. Muhammed Ali rope-a-doped you to death in oven-like heat until you’d punched yourself into exhaustion. And when you were finally gassed, he dotted your face up with combinations before busting you in the jaw and sending you head first into the canvas. How hard is it to wrap your brain around that result?

If you’re Foreman, I know it’s probably easier to think that one of the greatest sporting events of the 20th century – and likely all time – was rigged.. that there exists some plausible explanation for why you – the single greatest puncher in heavyweight history, the man that turned Joe Frazier into a beaten child in two rounds – lost a fight because your opponent essentially allowed you to punch yourself into oblivion. But there is none. Ali’s strategy was legal and if Foreman had been poisoned, he would have gone down long before the 8th.

In the end, it comes down to this – did you win? If not, sell your grills and shut your mouth. It’s been 30 years.

As a side note, I can’t help but be amused at the title of Foreman’s memoir, "God in My Corner." Say George, where was God when your trainer slipped you that mickey finn? Maybe he was in Ali’s corner working on a conversion.