We sometimes forget these days how mean and truly all-powerful “Big” George Foreman really was back in the 1970s. It was on this day in 1976 that Foreman, who was on the comeback trail following his devastating KO defeat at the hands of the incomparable Muhammad Ali, gave an incredibly tough and game Scott LeDoux both barrels as far as his vaunted punching power was concerned.
Foreman, who had picked up 5th-round stoppage wins over Ron Lyle (this an up-from-the-floor win in one of the greatest heavyweight slugfests ever seen), and Joe Frazier (in a return bout), was now trained by Gil Clancy, who had shortened Foreman’s punches up and had pounded into Foreman’s head the needed knowledge that he could take his time and pace himself in a fight.
Against LeDoux, who was nicknamed “The Fighting Frenchman,” Foreman showcased his patient brutality. Foreman was 27 years old, as was LeDoux. Foreman had tipped in at 229 pounds, LeDoux being six pounds lighter. And Foreman was 42-1(39), LeDoux 18-3-1(11). Also, LeDoux had never been off his feet in a fight.
For two rounds, LeDoux boxed well, Foreman patiently, with the former champ using some movement. However, co-commentator Jerry Quarry soon expressed his very real surprise at how LeDoux slipped Foreman’s big bombs. Round three was brutal. Foreman hit LeDoux with both hands, seemingly at will. Yet LeDoux, refusing to accept the inevitable, fired back as he took all that came his way, with the underdog even taunting Foreman and beckoning him in at one point.
Finally, with just a few clicks left on the clock at the end of the round, Foreman put LeDoux down heavily on his face, this with a crushing right uppercut to the jaw. LeDoux tried his best to get up, trying to hoist himself up with the aid of the ropes, in doing so looking very much like the fictitious ‘Rocky Balboa’ when he was trying to claw his way back up after having been sent south by ‘Apollo Creed.’
It was over, and now Foreman could afford himself a smile. Speaking calmly when being interviewed, Foreman said he planned to box again soon and didn’t care who he fought, just so long as it was for the world title. Forman did add how he felt that Ali “has been ducking George Foreman for two years now.”
Foreman lodged two more wins in his comeback before losing in a stunner to Jimmy Young. Foreman, as we know, never did get that second go at Ali. LeDoux, truly an authentically tough man who used what skills he had in the ring, went on to hold two heavyweight champions, either former or future, to a draw, these fighters being Leon Spinks and Ken Norton. LeDoux also fought names like Ron Lyle (dropping a split decision), Mike Weaver (LU12), Larry Holmes (in LeDoux’s only world title shot, TKOby7), Greg Page, Gerrie Coetzee, and, in his final fight, Frank Bruno, with Page, Coetzee and Bruno all stopping him.
LeDoux, who sadly passed away after a battle with ALS, left us in August of 2011. He was just 62. Scott’s final record reads 33-13-4(22). LeDoux fought the best, and for a while, LeDoux took George Foreman’s best.
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