The Boxing History Blog

 George Foreman George Foreman spent ten years out of boxing, practicing as an ordained minister at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Texas, which he founded and built. He accredited the loss to Muhammad Ali as, “The best thing that ever happened to me” as it led him to “get my message out” through preaching. In a BBC article, he stated that his preaching started small on street corners and with friends, before growing. “We began meeting informally at various homes in Houston, and before long, the crowds became too large for most houses to accommodate “Eventually, we bought a piece of land and an old, dilapidated building on the north-east side of Houston.” He also founded the George Foreman Youth and Community Center , just down the block from his church. It was a large warehouse that was abandoned by a building contractor before completion. Foreman formed a charitable foundation that bought the warehouse, paid for refurbishments, and kitted it out with weights, boxing equipm...

Tony Bellew was enjoying his honeymoon in Mykonos after marrying the mother of his three children, Rachael Roberts, when he watched on a phone in a bar, Oleksandr Usyk claim the undisputed cruiserweight title with a unanimous decision over Murat Gassiev in Moscow. In his broken English, the new champion from Ukraine called out the only challenger left to him before his inevitable move up into the heavyweight division; Tony Bellew.  The thirty-four-year-old Bellew, who had won the British, Commonwealth and WBC silver light-heavyweight titles and the cruiserweight WBO International and European belts after his failed WBC light-heavyweight title challenge to the hard-punching Adonis Stevenson, also captured the WBC cruiserweight title in front of his home city fans at Goodison Park stadium, the home of his beloved Everton FC. His back-to-back victories over David Haye at heavyweight cemented his legacy in the sport and secured him and his family financially. The WBC granted Bellew Cha...