Where Would a Conor McGregor Win Rank Among Combat Sports' All-Time Upsets?

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George Foreman had added 100 pounds to his frame since retiring from boxing after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977. As he wrote in his autobiography, By George, he'd undergone a dramatic transformation in the locker room after the fight, where he said he felt the hand of God reach down and touch him.

His trainer thought George was experiencing the usual heartache that comes along with losing a fight, but the next decade would illustrate Foreman's new lease on life. He became an ordained minister, speaking across the globe and heading up a children's center. Boxing was in the past.

But then, while speaking at an evangelical conference in Georgia, Foreman experienced another life-changing moment. The minister was asking the congregation for funds to help Foreman's community center for kids. Foreman wrote about the incident in his book.

"'We're going to raise some money for George,' he said. 'He's helping these kids, our kids.' I thought about becoming invisible. And it got worse. 'Come on,' he pleaded as the cash got passed forward. 'You can give more money than that. You help George, for our kids' sake.'

"They were looking at me, and I had to look back at them, and pretend I wasn't ashamed.' I vowed at that moment, sitting on a hard bench in front of those people, that as long as I lived I would never again be involved in a stunt like this. Yes, those kids needed me, and I wouldn't desert them. I'd just have to find another way to raise funds.

"And then the thought struck me: 'I know how to get money. I'm going to be heavyweight champ of the world. Again."

It was 1987, and Foreman was 38 years old. He was fat. And yet he experienced a late-career resurgence that mirrored the one by Randy Couture in mixed martial arts many years later. Foreman started winning fights, and winning more fights, until he found himself seven years later staring across the ring at the 26-year-old Michael Moorer, the world heavyweight champion.

Moorer was better than Foreman in every way, and he was much younger. He was undefeated, and the early rounds of the fight showed Foreman to be at a significant disadvantage. But then came the 10th round, where Foreman started to batter Moorer.

It was a right hand that did the trick, sending Moorer to the canvas for the count. George Foreman, 45 years old and two decades removed from his last world championship reign, was once again the heavyweight champion.

"You know, this was a 2-to-1 fight, but in my mind it was a gazillion-to-one that George Foreman could ever win the heavyweight championship again," HBO commentator Larry Merchant said. "This is a really remarkable achievement, and it has to stand on its own. We're in a show-and-tell medium, and show does it all."