As preteen, I was confused when my father told me about George Foreman, because what I saw on television did not quite fit what he tried to explain.

“This guy?” I asked when Michael Buffer announcer presented Foreman about the heavyweight title of Evander Holyfield on April 19, 1991. Foreman wore a red robe with a hood covering his bald head. The white towel covered the front of his 257-pound frame when he was circling there. During the introductions, Buffer said that Foreman was “considered the most destructive puncher in the history of boxing.” For me it sounded ridiculous, because Mike Tyson was the most destructive puncher I saw with my two adolescent eyes.

Foreman took off his robe and met Holyfield in the middle of the ring, his 42-year-old body clearly contrasted the carved Adonis, which stood opposite him. I grew up with a charmed professional, so I was a very “body guy” and the foreman did not look like Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan or “Macho Man” by Randy Savage. Foreman was a bit round and fluffy. He looked like he didn’t belong to the same ring as Holyfield. In wrestling conditions he looked like “Jobber” – a guy routinely sent to “Squash matches”, so that the talent of the main event looks great. Tyson beat a lot of work. Foreman looked like a boxer Tyson would send in the first round.

“This guy?” I asked again before the fight began.

The foreman would lose by a unanimous decision, but he was badly shaken by Holyfield in a fantastic seventh round, in which both warriors consume a huge punishment. That night, television commentators survived Foreman’s performance and routinely talked about the earlier version of the boxer, the one who fought with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. This confused me, because Ali and Frazier were legends that I heard about and saw on VHS tape recordings. They were vintage now. They fought with a foreman?

In hip-hop music, sampling contains part of the existing sound recording in a up-to-date song. The sound is familiar, but has been changed in some way to exist in the present day. As someone who grew up on hip-hop, the gate was to meet artists from the past. “Electric Relaxation” of the “Electric Relaxation” tribe was presented to me by “Mystic Brew” by Ronnie Foster, “Doggy Dogg World” Snoop Dogga opened me to the “Summer Madness” gang and what is the hip-hop artist without the “funky drummer james brown” sample?

The Foreman version I watched, taking place with Holyfield, was a sample and I decided to find the original.

And what I found surprised my mind.

I am not entirely sure how I found vintage Foreman material, but I was surprised by this slim version that had a full head of hair and absolutely destroyed his opposition. Observing his two -bone Ten Joe Frazier in the first fight in 1973 made me admiration in the way the Clubged Frazier brigadist on canvas six times in less than six minutes to the notable call of Howard Cosell: “Down Goes Frazier!”

And then I saw “rumbling in the jungle”.

I was embarrassed by how Ali allowed Foreman to constantly hit him for seven rounds, then I turned the tables and they were notable for “Substantial George” in the eighth round of their epic clash of 1974. It occurred to me that I saw Foreman at the wrong end of this attraction Ali, but my adolescent brain could not connect the present with the past.

Another sample. Another version of the warrior who was remembered and worshiped in various eras. Until now, I was fascinated by the life of a foreman. I would not say that he was my favorite warrior, but he aroused my curiosity and served as a bridge between the past and the present. Although he lost to Holyfield, he forced me to think about what it means to be “vintage” in boxing and life. I looked at my father. People at the age of 40 were not destroyed and on the threshold of death. There was so much life to life as long as you were devoted to your fullness.

Foreman was devoted to life and creating a up-to-date chapter of his life.

Quickly forward until November 5, 1994 I was now a teenager and a devoted box of boxing. Foreman just lost to the rising star Tommy Morrison and I was surprised when he was announced an opponent of heavyweight master Michael Moorerer. Foreman was approaching the age of 46 and did nothing to justify the fight against the undefeated warrior 19 years of his junior. I assumed that it was a time when Foreman would “performed”, being a popular Moorer, could put his CV to raise his star power. In terms of wrestling, the vintage man “put Moorer”.

Everything that had to be done became a second man who knocked out the foreman, but Foreman was able to push the left stab through the relaxed guard Moore and follow the right hand that caused the master in a stack.

“It happened! It happened!” Commentator Jim Lampley shouted in disbelief.

Foreman proved that “age is nothing but”, he was more than a song of the deceased Aaliyah Haughton. He opposed his chances and would not let his father laugh.

Foreman fought four more times after this historic night and put down the gloves for good when he lost most of Shannon Briggs in 1997. Foreman was only a few weeks after his 49th birthday, but he was already in the process of discovering himself as an entrepreneur and a businessman with a charming smile and a product that got a lot of adolescent adults.

George Foreman Grill.

Yes, he too. And for many unspecified fans he will be remembered more as a grill guy than a risky boxer.

In a sense, what Foreman achieved over 30 years ago made the NBA star Lebron James still do in his amazing season 40 years, because the template was set.

Again again. Opposing the opportunities. Overcoming the father’s time. And he did it with a smile.

For me, George Foreman will always be remembered as “this guy.”