George Foreman: The Comeback

George Foreman: The Comeback

It looked like a comeback that had nowhere to go. The feeling was that it would soon fade away, and George Foreman would end his perceived ill-judged return to boxing. The ending could and perhaps should have been quick and riddled with embarrassment and Foreman being knocked back to reality. But the comeback that looked doomed to failure, turned out to be anything but.

In 1987, Foreman was 38, and just a few days away from celebrating ten years in retirement. The former heavyweight champion of the world had ballooned to 315 pounds since he lost to Jimmy Young in 1977 and had his religious post-fight experience in his dressing room and became a full-time preacher thereafter.

In retirement, he had formed the first George Foreman Youth and Community Center, but the funds had run dry, it had taken virtually every dime that he had. Most comebacks are about money. This one was very much part of that narrative. Foreman had run out of money. Ten years earlier he had found God. In 1987, he found boxing again.

Foreman modelled his championship days moody surly persona on his hero Sonny Liston. But the fighter on the comeback trail was very different from the one we had previously seen. Softer, less sculptured, heavier and full of media-friendly one-liners. A magazine front cover of the time asked if the comeback of Foreman was a joke or if the joke was on us. In time we got our answer. But in those embryonic moments of his comeback, it was viewed very much as farcical and when Foreman ran the line he would be the heavyweight champion of the world once again. Most, if not all, laughed at his claims.

The return to the life of a boxer saw Foreman lose some of the weight he had accumulated in his retirement, and when he landed in Sacramento he was down to 267lbs, not quite trim and ready, but for Steve Zouski, it was enough. Foreman was slow and ponderous, but the power remained, and when Zouski had been removed in four rounds of little discomfort or hope, the unlikely comeback had begun.

The Los Angeles Times said of Foreman after the Zouski fight:

‘Foreman, 38, showed little sign of being able to live up to his hope of returning to championship form.’ They were not alone in those thoughts.

Dr Ferdie Pacheco was far harsher: “This is pathetic. It shouldn’t be allowed. He’s overage, inept. This whole thing is a fraudulent second career to build a big money fight with Mike Tyson.”

The comeback on the perceived road to nowhere, or worse continued, with the usual suspects, opposition that barely threatened and offered little resistance. Fighting in the small dark corners of the boxing world, Foreman kept winning but did little to convince the many doubters his comeback had any real validity about it. A curiosity, a novelty act, his repeated calls to fight Mike Tyson drew much derision and had the look of a mission to oblivion. The opposition was picked for a reason, a lack of quality or threat saw Foreman navigate those tentative early baby steps. Although as the comeback progressed nothing much changed.

But Foreman ignored his many critics, and as the weight dropped and the ring rust slid away the wins kept coming. Win number eight got a little more attention. A trip to Las Vegas and a date with the former two-weight world champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1988 got him some semblance of credibility. Qawi took the fight, a familiar theme by that point in the comeback, on short notice and was himself way past his prime and he certainly was no heavyweight. But Qawi did have early success before his early resistance ran out in the 7th round.

By 1990, the now jovial giant had moved to 19-0 in his unlikely comeback, and the time had come for a much sterner test, at least on paper. Gerry Cooney was wheeled out of his own retirement to square off against Foreman. Cooney hadn’t boxed since a shattering five-round stoppage defeat to Michael Spinks in 1987 and was battling his own demons with drink and drugs, and while he insisted he was now on the road to recovery, the damage was irreparable to his body. Bob Arum labelled the fight as ‘The Preacher and The Puncher’ and Cooney started the better wobbling Foreman in the opening round before Foreman recovered to blast out Cooney in the next round. The impressive win in Atlantic City, albeit against a badly faded Cooney, started to convince many of the doubters that the comeback had some merit, and talk of a fight with the unbeaten and fearsome Tyson intensified. But that talk soon faded away when less than a month later a badly out-of-shape Tyson went to Tokyo and found an inspired James ‘Buster’ Douglas in the opposite corner. The upset win for the unheralded Douglas sent shockwaves through the boxing world and cost Foreman any realistic hope of meeting Tyson. A fight that once seemed so ludicrous, dangerous even, had the look of a fight with real intrigue until Douglas did the unthinkable.

But all the hunger and desire Douglas had for Tyson quickly evaporated and a different type of hunger emerged, and when a bloated champion defended his title against the former undisputed cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield his short reign was over in less than nine minutes. And at 42, Foreman would finally get a chance to regain the world heavyweight title he had lost to Muhammad Ali in 1974 on that famous night in Africa.

Foreman was now 24-0 in his comeback, and ‘The Battle of the Ages’ was a huge financial success generating a reported $55 million from pay-per-view buys, a clear indication that all the derision about his return to boxing had now largely subsided. But Foreman was still given little chance to upset the odds, and the fight was still expected to deliver very little and was still expected to be the night where it all ended. But even in defeat, Foreman came out a winner. It was far more competitive than anyone could reasonably have expected, Foreman more than had his moments, and withstood everything Holyfield threw at him. Which was plenty. The old champion lost clearly on points, but his reputation and the comeback were enhanced.

After the fight with Holyfield, Foreman got endorsements, commercials, a TV commentary gig, and his own sitcom. But the boxing suffered. Winning a close decision over Alex Stewart was uncomfortable in many ways and poor preparation badly hampered Foreman when he fought Tommy Morrison for the WBO heavyweight title in 1993. He lost on points in a disappointing fight from his perspective, and his comeback looked to have run its natural course. But boxing, as ever, found a way.

Michael Moorer had upset Holyfield, and the new heavyweight champion of the world saw money and little danger in Foreman who hadn’t boxed in nearly a year since the night Morrison beat him. Foreman was 45 and was thoroughly undeserving of a fight with the unbeaten Moorer. The fight in 1994 went as per the script for 9 one-sided rounds. It looked like a sad predictable painful end to his career, Moorer was winning handily on points against a champion who started to look a lot older than he actually was. But Moorer got greedy, became stationary, and forgot the last thing to go in a fighter, is his punch. Foreman found the target in round 10 and became the oldest world heavyweight champion in boxing history. In winning the WBA and IBF titles from Moorer he also was once again the lineal heavyweight king. But the WBA was quickly discarded so he didn’t have to face his mandatory challenger Tony Tucker.

Foreman defended his IBF title against the unheralded German fighter Axel Schulz in Las Vegas. One magazine said of Schulz: ‘Axel Rose, the lead singer of rock band Guns ’N’ Roses would be better equipped at giving Foreman a fight.’

But Schulz surprised everyone and appeared to have won with some ease, but the judges gave Foreman a gift of a decision and when the IBF ordered a rematch, Foreman declined the invitation and the IBF version of the heavyweight title was let go to pursue fights of a little more comfort. A little hiatus from the ring ended in 1996 when he outpointed one Crawford Grimsley and another points win over Lou Savarese set up one final fight for Foreman. The luck he had against Schulz ended when Shannon Briggs controversially outpointed Foreman in 1997. Foreman still clung on to the lineal status but when Briggs somehow was given the decision, even that wafer-thin claim ended. Briggs told esteemed writer Thomas Hauser:

“I was lucky. The judges were nice to me.” In truth, they were extremely nice to him. All the cries of robbery and corruption changed nothing. Foreman never fought again and finally called time on his career the following year with a resume of 60-6-1. Very much a career of two halves.

The end to the comeback and indeed his career was regrettable, and for many reasons, the final dance should have been that incredible history-making one-punch destruction of Moorer. But the return to boxing after so long removed from it and closing in on 40, can only be labelled an undoubted success. Yes, the quality of some of the opponents couldn’t be disguised, but they served their purpose. The destruction of Cooney, and the heroic defiant stand against Holyfield before that unbelievable night in Las Vegas when he reclaimed the heavyweight championship of the world, stand out as the highlights since that night in the boxing backwaters in 1987 where it all started out in Sacramento that promised very little, but ultimately delivered everything.