Boone "Boom Boom" Kirkman faces the biggest challenge of his career to date, the young and hungry, "Big" George Foreman. Kirkman was also considered by some as Foreman's biggest challenge to date as well, on paper anyway. More info below...
Boone Kirkman had turned pro in 1966 after a successful amateur career in which he captured the 1965 National AAU Heavyweight title. In just his second fight, Kirkman stopped undefeated Gail Wright in the 1st round to win the Idaho State Heavyweight title. Kirkman went undefeated in his first 11 contests before suffering his first defeated against the experienced and often underrated, Doug Jones. Jones caused a cut over Kirkman's eye in Round 1 that got progressively worse as the fight went on, and even though Kirkman was hurting Jones, the ringside doctors stopped the fight after 7 rounds. 2 months later Kirkman would get his revenge in a rematch however, scoring a TKO in 6. Kirkman then went undefeated over his next 10 fights, winning all bar 1 by KO, to take his record to 22-1.
George Foreman had only been boxing as a pro for 18 months but already racked up 23 fights, all wins, 21 by KO. He was an absolute monster, lacking finesse, but more than making up for it with his power and aggression. He had beaten some tough opposition in George Chuvalo, Gregorio Peralta, Jack O'Halloran, Roberto Davila and Chuck Wepner but none of them were exactly young up and coming fighters like himself. Although Kirkman was slightly older and had been on the circuit for 3 years longer than Foreman, but he was seen by some as representing Foreman's first meaningful fight in the sense that they had similar records, both were known as power punchers and both were still young and hungry.
Although on paper it may seem like both men were near equal, once they got in the ring, it was clear Foreman had all the advantages. Foreman bullied Kirkman around, illegally pushing him to the canvas multiple times that resulted in the ref giving the first round to Kirkman, the only positive thing Kirkman had go in his favour the whole fight. Early in Rd 2 Foreman dropped Kirkman with a right hand, but Kirkman rose on unsteady legs and the ref surprisingly let him continue! The fight was stopped when Foreman landed 5 unanswered power shots to Kirkman's head and throat that left him out on his feet. Kirkman fell to his knees against the ropes as the ref called off the fight. Another early stoppage for "Big" George. Just 6 months after this fight, Foreman would win the vacant NABF Heavyweight title by stopping, Gregorio Peralta, in a rematch.
Kirkman bounced back with 10 decent wins in a row after the loss to Foreman, outpointing the likes of USA California State Heavyweight Champion Jack O'Halloran, rugged journeyman George Johnson and his biggest scalp, former WBA World Heavyweight Champion, Jimmy Ellis. 1974 and 1975 were bad years for Kirkman suffering his first ever back to back losses. It started with a huge KO upset loss to Al Jones (5-20-2), followed by retiring on his stool against Ken Norton, then suffered a TKO because of cuts against Ron Lyle and finally outpointed over 10 rounds by New Jersey native, Randy Neumann. Kirkman decided to retire in 1975 but just under 2 years later he was back, picking up a final 4 wins (against some decent opposition that included Jose Roman and Pedro Agosto) to end his career with a 36-6 record.
