美国国家公共电台 NPR Total Failure: How George Foreman's Losses Showed Him The Light
时间：2019-01-17 作者：英语课 分类：2017年NPR美国国家公共电台5月
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
All this month, in a series called Total Failure, we're learning about how setbacks shape our lives. Today, George Foreman, former heavyweight boxing champion. In 1974, Foreman suffered one of the greatest upsets in sports history, and he was not prepared for the aftermath. NPR's Michael May has the story.
MICHAEL MAY, BYLINE 1: George Foreman at 25 years old was a fearsome champion - 6-foot-4, biceps thick and gnarled as oak, a permanent scowl 2 on his face and a right hand that flattened 3 every opponent he faced. So when Ali challenged him in 1974 for a championship fight in Zaire dubbed 4 The Rumble 5 in the Jungle.
Most bets were on Foreman. Ali was seven years older, past his prime. He'd had his title stripped after refusing the draft in 1967, and he was struggling to become a contender again. Foreman was undefeated and planning to stay that way.
GEORGE FOREMAN: I could knock him out in one or two rounds. I just knew it. This was going to be an easy fight for me. I figured, boy, $5 million for two rounds? Wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: Look at this now as they stare. Muhammad Ali beginning to talk to George Foreman.
FOREMAN: Walked up to me, and they were giving an instruction. I was staring him in the face trying to intimidating 6 him. And he said, George, you were a little kid going to high school when I was champion of the world.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: Is George Foreman's thundering punches going to be too much for him? Is the left hook that is so devastating 7, the tremendous left hook...
FOREMAN: The first round, he withstood the power. And I figured I'll knock him out the second round.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: He's ready to go here. He's not staying away.
FOREMAN: I hit him in the side, and he leaned on me. And I thought, well, maybe he's going to fall. And he just whispered, that all you got, George? And I knew from that point on this guy could take a punch and endure.
MAY: And Ali kept enduring. He would lean back on the ropes and just let Foreman hit him over and over. Foreman had never gone more than two rounds in a professional fight, and by the eighth, he was exhausted 8 from throwing punches.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: Here we go, the bell sounds. Round number eight and an even fight here live.
FOREMAN: He came off the ropes, and I came off the ropes with my hand down to come after him, and he hit me with the fastest right hand I'd ever remember receiving in the boxing ring.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: (Unintelligible).
FOREMAN: It was so fast, more than anything - pop-pow (ph). And I thought no way, I'm going down. And I tried to catch my balance, but I hit the canvas - boom.
MAY: Foreman had never lost before, and it was devastating.
FOREMAN: You didn't know how important that people look at you and they had somewhat of a - I hate to say fear, but, well, respect is kind of like fear, you know? Now all of a sudden these people looking at me with a pitiful eye.
MAY: So you have to understand, Foreman didn't really have anything in his life except boxing. He'd grown up poor, literally 9 hungry without enough food. He was so ashamed he'd bring an empty lunch bag to school.
FOREMAN: I've seen that pity before when you go look for a job. Years ago, when I was a teenager, and, you know, you fill out the application. People look at you, oh, we don't have - you know, that's all - we don't need anyone now, that kind of thing. There I was back in that same position, and I didn't like it.
MAY: Back then, he channeled that rage and frustration 10 into fighting - first on the streets, then in the ring. And after losing to Ali, he became paranoid, didn't trust anyone, kept to himself.
FOREMAN: Started trying to get a little hate going on in you, you know? I'm going to pay the world back, I'll show them, that kind of thing.
MAY: He won his next five matches. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated 11 with the headline - I want Ali again.
FOREMAN: It was no longer the title. It had become my title.
MAY: But Ali would not accept the challenge. Foreman finally got his chance for redemption in 1977.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: We're back, about ready.
MAY: He took on a talented fighter named Jimmy Young. Everything depended on this fight. If Foreman won, Ali would be forced to accept a rematch. He'd get that chance to win back his title.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: Now look at Joe, somber 12, using the stand.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: Bout's underway.
MAY: It was clear from the first round this wasn't going to come easy. And by the 12th, Foreman was clearly exhausted. At one point, he fell to his knees.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: Foreman, desperation registered in his face.
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #3: Less than a minute, Howard (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Jimmy Young.
(CHEERING)
MAY: The judge's decision - Young won. Foreman headed to his dressing 13 room. The air conditioning wasn't working in the arena 14, and he began to pace back and forth 15 to cool off.
FOREMAN: And you're told don't sit down after a boxing match.
MAY: Foreman says he became convinced he was going to die, says he could literally smell death in the room. He wasn't a religious man, but he started to pray to God for his life.
FOREMAN: I start walking faster and faster. Everybody's looking at me, and my legs started to curl. And I told everybody in room, I said, y'all, I'm fixing to - before I could say another word, Before I over my head, under my feet, around me, nothing. I was in this deep, dark junkyard of nothing.
MAY: Foreman collapsed 16. His trainers had to pull him up and lay him down on the table.
FOREMAN: There wasn't any hope. I said, I don't care if this is death, I still believe there's a God. When I said that, a gigantic hand reached in. And I jumped off the table. And I started screaming, Jesus Christ has come alive in me. I got to save the world. They said, no, you need clothes on. But they held me down on the dressing room table until the ambulance came and took me to intensive care there in the hospital. That changed me forever.
MAY: Foreman gave up boxing that day. He became a minister. He opened a youth center, but the biggest change was right there on his face. George Foreman started smiling. Foreman looks back now and it's like his whole biography has been turned upside down. He now sees those early successes as the real failure because he didn't appreciate them.
FOREMAN: I had gone over to Africa. You know I didn't see a wild animal in the natural? Missed all those things, whole lifetime missed. I was too concentrated on the one-two, left hand, right hand punch.
MAY: Ten years after losing to Jimmy Young, Foreman entered the ring again. He says he did it to raise money for his youth center, but there was something else - he wanted to show he could still win, but this time without hate or anger.
FOREMAN: The second time I got a chance to journey in life. I was going to find out words like konichiwa, what they mean. I went back to South Africa. I wanted to meet - see the different tribes. You get a second chance to live and it makes a better person out of you. You realize that wasn't really a loss for me in Africa, it was a game that I didn't appreciate.
MAY: In 1994, George Foreman regained 17 his title at age 45. He was the oldest fighter to ever win the heavyweight championship. Michael May, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SHAPIRO: And next week in our Total Failure series, the man who designed what's been called the worst video game ever made.
[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In a previous version of this story, we said George Foreman had never gone more than two rounds in a professional fight. In fact, he had not gone more than two rounds as world champion.]
- His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
- We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
- I wonder why he is wearing an angry scowl.我不知道他为何面带怒容。
- The boss manifested his disgust with a scowl.老板面带怒色，清楚表示出他的厌恶之感。
- She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
- I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。
- Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
- Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》
- I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
- We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定，天要下雨了。
- They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
- This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。
- It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
- Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。
- It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
- Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。
- He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
- Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
- He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
- He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
- He had a somber expression on his face.他面容忧郁。
- His coat was a somber brown.他的衣服是暗棕色的。
- Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
- The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。
- She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
- He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。
- The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
- He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
- Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
- The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。