There are points where those of us who cover the sport, who follow their passion and love for Boxing, often referred to as “The Fight Game," where one reflects on those who helped build that love for the sport. Unfortunately, such reflections often come upon sad news that as time goes on, one knows the time will come where it will be time to pay tribute to legends as they unfortunately leave us. Although this observer does not look forward to penning such pieces, if one is a true Boxing lifer, which I am proud to be one, and takes the vocation of covering the sport seriously, it unfortunately comes with the territory.
The Boxing world was hit with a massive blow on March 21, 2025 when news emerged that former Olympic Gold Medalist, two-time World Heavyweight champion, ordained minister, preacher, entrepreneur, pitchman, one-time actor, author, Boxing commentator, and Hall of Famer “Big" George Foreman passed away in his native Houston, TX at the age of 76. Frankly, even though I obviously knew that Foreman was in his 70’s, and had not fought in a Boxing ring in nearly 28 years, the news of his passing still hit me hard.
Perhaps the reason for that is because Foreman along with several others all influenced me to not only follow the sport to the point where the term “Boxing Lifer” is more than appropriate, but to ultimately enter Boxing as well as other combat sports as a writer. Obviously, there will be scribes throughout the sport that will talk a great deal about Foreman winning the Gold medal in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, and the reign of terror he inflicted upon the Heavyweight division upon turning professional and throughout the 1970’s highlighted by his destruction of Joe Frazier to win the World Heavyweight championship in 1973, his equally brutal knockout of Ken Norton in 1974 in a title defense, his losing the title to Muhammad Ali as the victim of Ali’s “Rope A Dope" strategy that saw Ali take a brutal beating at the hands of Foreman for seven rounds before turning the tables on an exhausted champion and knocking him out in the eighth round to take the title from him, to the time when he once fought five men in one night in a sideshow exhibition, to his legendary battle against Ron Lyle, to his loss to Jimmy Young, which led to his embarking on a path that saw him become an ordained minister. All of which are important to Foreman's story and deserve to be discussed as I am doing here, but yours truly has a bit of a different perspective on Foreman's career.
While I studied all of the above and all of Foreman's career, I did not enter the world until the 1980’s and as such, my exposure to George Foreman began during his comeback period, which started in 1987. A comeback that would go down as probably one of the greatest in all of sports was initially viewed by many as skeptical and treated by some as an outright joke. The reason for this is Foreman was not only returning to the ring ten years after retiring following his loss to Jimmy Young in 1977, at the age of 38, which was unheard of at the time, but also Foreman returned not as a scary, physically imposing monster he had been back in his prime, but as a pudgy pitchman, who was a master at drawing interest in his fights as well as being a much more outwardly publicly engaging, friendly individual than had been the case in his prime.
At the time as a young kid, one of my favorite things to do was watch Boxing with my father. In the late 1980’s, there were weekly series on cable television dedicated to Boxing here in the United States, which aired on both USA Network and ESPN. Along with Heavyweights like Ray Mercer and future Foreman opponent Tommy Morrison, who were just starting their professional careers, both networks served as platforms for Foreman's comeback in its early stages. While frankly most of Foreman's opposition from 1987 to 1990 were overmatched opponents designed to help Foreman work off what is often referred to as “Ring Rust," every time Foreman fought, my father and I were watching. It did not take long for me to become a fan and part of that was aided by my father telling me stories about Foreman in the 1970’s as well as helping me gain access to footage of classic fight films whenever he could.
In 1990, however, Foreman's comeback was turned serious by those who initially scoffed at his attempt to return to the ring to reclaim the World Heavyweight championship. First in January of that year and in an attempt to test the waters of his marketability over age 40, Foreman headlined a pay-per-view card where he scored a brutal second round knockout of longtime Heavyweight contender and former world title challenger Gerry Cooney, sending him into retirement. Although some remained skeptical given that Cooney was attempting a comeback himself following a three year hiatus when he fought Foreman, the skepticism began to quiet down when in June of that year, Foreman took on South American Heavyweight champion Addilson Rodrigues, who had recently fought Evander Holyfield, who at the time was the number one Heavyweight contender, and, despite losing to Holyfield, still maintained a top ten ranking amongst the sport’s respective sanctioning organizations.
As he had done to Cooney, Foreman made quick work of Rodrigues, knocking him out in the second round. Following a one round knockout of veteran Terry Anderson in September of that year, Foreman found himself in position to face the new Undisputed World Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield in April 1991 in an attempt to regain the title.
Known as “The Battle of the Ages," many did not give Foreman a chance outside of a possible quick knockout citing both his age 42 at the time, as well as a superbly conditioned Holyfield, who was just entering his athletic prime and had introduced methods into his training regime that had never been seen in the sport before. To the surprise of some, Foreman proved to be competitive, engaging in a twelve round toe to toe classic battle with Holyfield including somehow being able to withstand a brutal barrage of punches from Holyfield in the seventh round, where the champion fired off twenty-six unanswered punches, many of which landed flush, but could not knock Foreman down.
Despite his ability to stand up to that assault, which to this day, this observer still cannot figure out how he was able to, and putting up a great fight, Foreman did not succeed in taking the title from Holyfield in losing a twelve round unanimous decision. Although at this point, Foreman had proven to be just as legitimate a fighter as he had been in the 1970’s when he was champion and arguably the most feared fighter in the sport, as well as being a better fighter in terms of technique and ability to be both patient and relaxed in the midst of battle during his comeback rather than the physically imposing figure that frankly steamrolled most of his opponents, following the loss to Holyfield, almost instinctively, speculation started as to whether Foreman would continue fighting.
In some ways, it was understandable given his age, but again such speculation was largely rooted in the fact that Foreman was doing something that had not been seen before in Boxing in coming back after a long retirement and doing so at an advanced age. Even though the inspiration for such an attempt was likely at least in part due to the legendary former Light-Heavyweight world champion Archie Moore, who pioneered the concept of fighting to an advanced age retiring at age 49 in 1963 and who assisted in Foreman's training going as far back as the 1970’s, who was also still in his corner for many of his fights along the comeback trail, even Moore had not done what Foreman had in taking a lengthy absence from the sport to come back much further down the line.
The speculation of what Foreman would do after the Holyfield fight did not last long as he went back to the drawing board and began working his way back towards another opportunity at a world championship. While today it is unfortunately common to see fighters at times use their name recognition value as a means of trying to get opportunities to fight for world titles rather than fighting their way into that position, Foreman chose to fight three times between his return in December 1991 following his loss to Holyfield and 1993, going 3-0 with 2 Knockouts during that stretch.
This set him up for another title shot, this time the WBO World Heavyweight championship, which was vacant at the time. The shot would come against fellow “Knockout Artist" Tommy Morrison on June 7, 1993. Although the WBO was not viewed by some as a legitimate sanctioning organization at the time, it was still for a version of the World Heavyweight championship and thus, offered Foreman a chance to achieve his goal of regaining a world title.
Unlike in his previous title shot two years earlier, Foreman, 44 at the time, was considered the favorite over Morrison, who himself was making a second attempt at a world title after being on the receiving end of a brutal knockout at the hands of then unbeaten WBO world champion Ray Mercer in 1991. Perhaps because of what happened in that fight as well as Morrison's come forward style, which while exciting, also left him vulnerable to being caught and hurt by an opponent's offense, was the reason why many including yours truly felt Foreman's experience, his own punching power, and technique would be too much for the always “Game," but seemingly limited Morrison.
Despite every metric that one could use as a comparable breakdown with the exception of age seeming to tip in the favor of Foreman and the expectation of most of a short, but explosive fight for as long as it would last, Morrison went against his come forward, aggressive nature in producing what would turn out to be the performance of his career, a tactical Boxing strategy that resulted in a not so entertaining fight to defeat Foreman and win the title via twelve round unanimous decision.
As was the case following his loss to Holyfield, instinctively, many felt that this for Foreman, who had already begun to establish what would be an outstanding and respected career as a commentator working for HBO Sports two years before the Morrison fight, would be the end for him as a fighter. Although Foreman never made any official announcement, it appeared more or less confirmed when advertisements for various products including Meineke began populating both television and radio featuring “Big" George the pitchman. Foreman would also be featured in several video games as well. This would be followed by Foreman starring in his own sitcom “George" in which he played George Foster a retired boxer and former World Heavyweight champion who ran an after school program for troubled students, which ran on ABC television here in the United States from November 1993 to January 1994. While in many ways obviously inspired by Foreman’s own work as a minister in also running the George Foreman Youth and Community Center in his native Texas, which ultimately led to his returning to the ring in 1987 looking in part to keep that center open, the series, which this observer thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to watching on Tuesday nights at the time, shortly before flipping to USA Network to watch the weekly Tuesday Night Fights series, did not last long.
Perhaps the reason for that was, despite having a successful career as a broadcaster, what would eventually become a very lucrative career as a pitchman and entrepreneur including the now world famous George Foreman Grill line of products, and seemingly venturing into the general entertainment space, Foreman still had unfinished business in the Boxing ring.
In November 1994, Foreman would return once more, this time opting to use his name recognition clout to secure an opportunity for another title shot, this time against unbeaten two-time Heavyweight world champion Michael Moorer, who held the IBF/WBA unified world championship at the time. Although Foreman was criticized heavily for receiving this opportunity given what had not been a good performance against Tommy Morrison a year earlier and attempts by the World Boxing Association to prevent the fight from happening, which saw Foreman successfully defeat the WBA legally, the fight would happen on November 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
At this point in my life, I was about a year away from stumbling upon the journey that I am still on covering the sport. I was, however, very much looking forward to the fight as I do for mostly any fight that I cover or watch to this day with rare exceptions. My father was also looking forward to seeing Foreman getting one more chance to regain the title, but we both felt that after what happened against Morrison that if it were going to happen, Foreman would have to catch Moorer early.
There had been evidence in the years prior that the possibility of Foreman catching Moorer early existed, despite the champion being younger, unbeaten, and just entering his prime at the time of the bout. Both Bert Cooper, who Moorer defeated in 1992 for the vacant WBO world title and Alex Stewart, who Moorer had knocked out in one of the best fights of 1991, coincidentally two former Foreman opponents that he had defeated during his comeback period, had each come close to knocking Moorer out, and in Cooper’s case, had knocked Moorer down in their fight, before both ultimately were stopped by Moorer. Despite these facts, conventional wisdom of Moorer defeating Foreman, much like Holyfield had done three years earlier, seemed to be the opinion of most fans and experts.
For most of the fight, it appeared as though that would be the case as Moorer put forth a superb Boxing performance, using his movement and combination punching to keep Foreman off balance and unable to get his punches off consistently. As this fight was going on, my father casually told me that he felt Foreman was setting a trap and was setting Moorer up. What would follow is a memory I cherish and a memory for the Denison family that is still talked about by yours truly whenever I talk about this fight, which has also become emotional for me since losing my father any time I watch this fight back to this day.
For a significant period of my youth my family and I had a floor television that my father referred to as “The Old Girl" because it was a television encased in a large wooden cabinet that would take my father using a hand truck and someone who was physically able to spot him whenever the television had to be moved so he would not drop it or otherwise damage it. The reason I bring up that story, particularly for those who may not be old enough to remember floor televisions, is it was not uncommon to lay on the floor and watch TV during those days. Some of my favorite memories as a child were spent in front of that television with my father and my sisters.
On the night of Moorer-Foreman, as the fight became increasingly one-sided in favor of Moorer, I began to nod off on our living room floor in front of the TV. Not because I lost interest, but likely because I got comfortable. In any event, as the fight progressed and I continued to nod off as Moorer was frankly dominating with each passing round, my father, who was sitting on the couch continued to say with conviction, “Beau, I'm telling you Foreman is setting him (Moorer) up." I did not disagree with him, but I told him that it looked like Foreman was having trouble getting his punches off. A sentiment that was echoed by the late great trainer and broadcaster Gil Clancy, who was serving as a commentator for HBO Sports in the role usually filled by Foreman. Clancy, who was empathic in the pre-fight discussions prior to the bout in saying he did not see a way Foreman could win. As the fight went on Clancy continued to drive his point home saying Foreman was a 45 year old man in a young man’s game and alluding to Foreman's inability to get his punches off consistently as attributable to slowed reflexes, which is a common issue for fighters as they age.
As this was going on the legendary Teddy Atlas, who was Moorer’s trainer, told his charge that though he was proud of what he was seeing, to not stay in front of Foreman for too long because Atlas felt that Foreman was looking to set him up for one shot, appearing to see the same thing my father had seen from very early in the fight. By the ninth round, I was going in and out of consciousness, but I had no idea that history was looming and about to be made.
Towards that point in the fight, Moorer though still in control, had stopped using as much movement and seemed more comfortable to stand in front of Foreman, appearing to give the impression that whatever punching power Foreman had did not concern him. In round ten, Foreman gradually took control landing punches that moved Moorer into position for two one, two combinations, the second of which put Moorer flat on his back on the canvas.
When this sequence happened initially, I had nodded off and did not see it initially. My father, who was a big and imposing figure in his own right proceeded to jump over our coffee table and in a scene that likely resembled the late professional wrestler King Kong Bundy going for his finishing maneuver a big splash, my father came down onto me and roused me up screaming as loud as he could, “Beau It's Over, Foreman Won!" After having the living hell scared out of me, I turned and looked at the television and saw Moorer stretched out on the canvas and Referee Joe Cortez counting him out. Amidst the pandemonium both in the arena in Las Vegas echoed by Jim Lampley’s legendary and emotional call “It Happened, IT HAPPENED!" as well as what was occuring in the Denison household, my father grabbed and hugged me. It was one of the few times I ever saw my father cry. He was genuinely happy to see Foreman regain the title he had lost to Muhammad Ali twenty years and one month earlier in October 1974. While all the excitement was going on, Foreman did not celebrate his triumph, instead when Cortez officially waved his arms over the fallen champion, Foreman knelt in prayer. Clearly, his achievement had a much deeper meaning than simply regaining the Heavyweight championship of the world.
The moment for my father and I would be something he would talk about for the rest of his life and called it one of his favorite nights with his son. Subsequently upon my beginning my writing journey in November 1995, I was able to cover Foreman's last three fights against Crawford Grimsley, Lou Savareese, and Shannon Briggs between 1996 and 1997 when I was a teenager, the latter a controversial decision loss to Briggs for the then 48 year old Foreman, a fight I will always believe he won, ultimately was a sour end to a great career that should serve as a testament to anyone to never give up.
As I reflect on this incredible man and what was a journey for me as well as I experienced this inspirational story unfold in real time as Foreman went on this comeback, which he also called a private quest, I think about not only the memories it provided me with my father, which I think of more now and appreciate than I can ever put into words, but also the lesson Foreman taught of never give up. For someone who was born with cerebral palsy and has gone through his own ups and downs along the way admittedly, it's a lesson that I have had to remind myself of from time to time, but it is a lesson everyone should learn.
One of the things I am proud to be noted for is as a Boxing historian, I spend just as much time in the present day watching fight films as I did in my youth and that includes continuing to watch many of Foreman's bouts both from his first chapter and from the comeback period, all of which I recommend watching. When I was informed of Foreman's passing, it did as I said hit me hard, but at the same time, it instantly brought back all those fond memories. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet George Foreman in person as I have continued covering the sport I love, which he is one of the people who inspired me. It is something that I will always regret for the simple reason that I will be unable to say thank you in person for both the inspiration and for providing me with memories with my father that I will forever cherish. Mr. Foreman, thank you for the inspiration you provided me, for giving my father and I so many memories, and for your endless contributions to the sport of Boxing, but to humanity as well. Your legacy will live forever. God bless you. Rest well.
“And That's The Boxing Truth."
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