They once faced each other in the “Rumble in the Jungle” - one of the greatest boxing matches of all time.
World heavyweight champion George Foreman was sensationally knocked out by Muhammad Ali in front of 60,000 people in Kinshasa, Zaire, in October 1974.
The pair tried to batter each other into oblivion in the fight - won by Ali, then aged 32, in the eighth round.
But now they are best mates and keep in touch - by making video calls.
The two OAPs regularly speak to each other using FaceTime so they can see each other as they talk.
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In a moving exclusive interview Foreman, aged 25 at the time of his legendary fight with Ali and is now 67, told the Daily Mirror how his relationship with his old rival had mellowed and developed over the years.
And he chuckled as he looked at old copies of the Mirror with reports of his world title bouts.
Although Ali is now increasingly ill with Parkinson’s Disease, Foreman told how his former opponent’s children contact him on FaceTime so they can see each other when they speak.
Foreman said: “I am in touch with Muhammad on Facetime – that’s where we hook up.
“He will look and laugh and smile and, if you ask me, he is still the ‘greatest show on earth.’
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Getty)“He made Parkinson’s look pretty. Anything he does looks nice.
“I visited him a few months ago on his birthday and I told him how much I love him and appreciated him.
“He is like a good wine gets better over the years.
“It’s incredible that we keep in touch on FaceTime. He lives in Louisville and Arizona and I am in Texas.
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Getty)“He is still a lovely guy and tries to entertain people and make people feel good,.
“And he loves his sweets - he still loves his sweets!”
We met in Birmingham at the launch of the Simply Prestige Events “An evening with George Foreman” tour.
He doesn’t look his age and is dressed immaculately in a pin-striped suit.
For such a huge man he has a surprisingly gentle handshake and is genuinely delighted to see copies of the Daily Mirror from the 1970s.
He said: “Let me see the one where I beat Frazier first.
“Jamaica 1972 … Ha ha ha ha – that’s fantastic.
“The headline about Joe Frazier – ‘journey to nowhere’
“And of course I also want to see the Rumble the Jungle piece – let me see that. “
Ever the salesman he laughed: “Look at all that the advertising on the pages as well – brilliant.”
He became serious for a moment
“I was afraid of Frazier – I was so nervous in the dressing room before Frazier.
“He was the only man I was ever frightened of.
“There was a film made called ‘Ali’ with Will Smith – everyone asked me if I liked the movie. I wasn’t so happy about the movie because I thought I could have beaten Will Smith!”
The Rumble in the Jungle is a famous example of the so-called “rope-a-dope strategy” where the eventual victor takes punches leading his opponent to believe he is actually winning the bout.
Foreman smiled: “I have learned to nurse the story of Rumble in the Jungle.”
With Ali suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and other boxers suffering from similar conditions I gently ask Foreman if he had considered donating his brain for medical research after his death.
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AP)He pauses for a second and said: “No-one has EVER asked me that before.
“When you pass out of this life - I’m not interested in my body any more than my family may be.
“I never even considered that – giving my brain up – I think once I leave this life I will have got everything I wanted out of my brain and anybody can have some of it.
“I tell people all the time I was hit for the first time in the 40s when the doctor smacked me. I started hitting back in the 50s. I achieved Olympic gold medal in the 60s. In the 70s I became the world heavyweight champion, in the 90s I became the oldest man to be heavyweight champion of the world.
“In this new Millennium I became ‘King of the Grill.’
“If I don’t donate something they are going to try and find where my body is and digging it up and looking for the DNA what caused all this and they are going to see a phenomenon called … CHEESEBURGER!
“That will be more important than my brain!”
He burst into peals of laughter.
Outside the ring Foreman is perhaps most associated with the George Foreman fat-reducing grills, which he had a hand in designing.
More than 100 million of the grills have been sold since it was introduced in 1994.
The boxer has never confirmed exactly how much he earned out of the endorsement but it is known that Salton, the firm behind the grills paid him $137m in 1999 for the right to use his name and a cut of the profits means he has earned more from the grills than from boxing.
Foreman still keeps incredibly fit and is still working hard at being a preacher and a businessman.
He said: “I work out and train – all of that. Like an old car I’ve got to fix some things just to keep it on the road
“I have this nice gym. 3000 sq feet of the best gymnasium you have ever seen.
“But I am easing back on punching the bag every day.”
And he revealed that his passion for entrepreneurship has not deserted him as he prepares to release a range of shoes for older people onto the market.
“I am salesperson. That’s what I do for a living other than a preacher.
“I am trying to create a shoe trying to get all of the seniors up out of their chairs and walking – it will be easy to use.
“I’m going to call it the “George Foreman get-up shoes”.
Foreman is a regular visitor to the UK. He is particularly pleased about the emergence of British heavyweights in recent years.
“Heavyweight boxing is the darling of the sport again and I love that,”he said.
“Can you believe that – all of a sudden where it originated at in Britain-it’s coming back alive.
“The talk is about the heavyweights – Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, David Haye they are all making the news and they deserve it.
“Whoever is best on a given night can win.”
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Mirrorpix)Just before we end we briefly touched on politics.
I ask if he was a “Trump or Hillary man”.
He declined to answer.
But he said: “Donald Trump is from boxing a nice guy I have done a lot of business with him – he always treated you to something to eat.
“But I’m always looking at things on a broader spectrum.
“I can remember when it was Kennedy against Nixon.
“That was the first Presidential race - I remember I heard my parents with so much fear and anguish and I thought the world was coming to end. This isn’t the end
“Every four years I have to hear that stuff again and I don’t get into it any more.”
But he added: “I will vote. I always vote. I love to vote - I usually vote for the losing guy!”
Foreman is speaking on a tour which will take place October 10th-15th in London & Birmingham with Simply Prestige Events
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