ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the history of public reception to the boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman throughout their respective lives. It illuminates the relationship that religion, in particular the evangelicalism practiced by most whites though not necessarily limited to it, has with the domestication of previously fearsome, angry Black men that rendered both Ali and Foreman palatable and safe for the American stomach. Ali put together an impressive string of fights that earned him a duel with the heavyweight champion, Sonny Liston, in February of 1964. Immediately after Ali’s stunning victory, he did little to endear himself to white America. Ali confirmed pre-fight fears that he had joined Nation of Islam by announcing this news the day after. Ali was banned from boxing for three and a half years during the prime of his fighting prowess for refusing to go to Vietnam. The transformation of George Foreman happened not only because of his deracinated politics and conversion to evangelical Christianity.
