George Foreman's KO of Michael Moorer, 15 Years Later

Thursday marks the 15th anniversary of George Foreman's dethroning of Michael Moorer with a 10th-round knockout, making him the oldest man to earn a heavyweight title.

Foreman, 60, was knocked out by Muhammad Ali in The Rumble In The Jungle 35 years ago this past Friday.

There was a 10-year span between Foreman's first retirement -- following a unanimous decision loss to Jimmy Young on March 17, 1977 -- and his return to the ring with a fourth-round knockout of Steve Zouski on March 9, 1987.

Beginning with this, the first installment of a four-part series, Foreman discusses his transformation from a stoic, surly brawler, to philanthropic evangelist, to a patient and more cerebral fighter who left his mark in boxing history by dominating younger men.

FanHouse: What was your inspiration for a youth center?

George Foreman: My brother, Roy Foreman. He worked at a youth center that was placed further into the city of Houston, and that's how I got the idea. My brother was a volunteer. So I stopped by one day at his place -- where he was working with some kids -- just to visit him.

And he was signing them up for boxing. The room they were training in was very small -- barely big enough for a little boxing ring. And the kids' parents wanted me to get interested and involved.
That's the most embarrassed that I had ever been in my life. There I was, I had been champion of the world, I had been a wealthy man. Yet, there I was, scrounging around and asking people for money for the youth center like that.
- George Foreman
But I was dressed up in my suit, because I was preaching. I wasn't ready to put myself into that business. But then, I saw two of the kids from his place who had gone to jail and that was the beginning of my inspiration to do the youth center.

Many of the kids' mothers had been bringing them in. You could see that they were doing it to keep them out of trouble. Someone recognized me and said, 'That's George Foreman,' somebody told them. And one of the women said, , 'Boy, he could really help my son.'

I gave her a look like, 'If you need help, send him to church. Boxing's not going to help him.' But two months later, I asked about the kids, and I found out that they had tried to rob a store.

FH: Do you recall any of the details of the robbery involving the boys?

Foreman: Well, about two months later, I asked about those two kids. And the story was that they were robbing a store not too far from Humble, Texas where I was living. The storekeep shot one of the boys, and the boy -- whose mother was there at the youth center and who had asked me for help -- he shot the storekeep.

None of them were killed, but all of these lives were devastated, and that's what made me decide to take all of the available money from what I had saved to build a youth center.

FH: So you built your youth center soon after?

Foreman: Yes. I had purchased some property here, in about 1984, and I fixed up this gym with some of my old equipment. I was buying equipment and trying to get it running. The youth center was in Northeast, Houston, Texas -- pretty much in the county.

I wanted to put a place up where the kids from out of the inner city would feel like they're going out of town. I knew that it would make them feel like they're doing something when they left for the county and had to take a ride out of the city.

The kids would feel like, 'Hey, we're going out to Foreman's place.' The youth center was on one acre of property, in a warehouse. Some guys had started construction on a warehouse, and they had stopped.

FH: What work did you put into it?

Foreman: So I bought the place. There was about 3,000 square feet or more, because it had an upstairs also, where I could work from it and put lockers up there and a weight room if I so desired.

I put a chain-link fence inside of it to separate the weight-lifting area from the boxing area, which was the only way you would know the difference between them. I built a gym inside, and a little office in the front.

Even my mom, Nancy, would come and help me with greeting and advertising and whatever. My dad, J.D., would substitute and help me a little bit too. They were my backups as far as opening it up and greeting and taking out applications. They were my employees. But they've passed on now.

FH: So am I to understand that that is what led to your deciding to make a comeback?

Foreman: Yes, eventually, because I had literally run out of money to fund it. But first, I started speaking. I had been traveling around, speaking for this youth center that I had started. After a while, there was a church that I had invited me for three days to speak.

And afterward, they took a collection and they were going to make a donation to the youth center.

As I was there, for three days, I got to know the people and was friendly with them. On the third day, the pastor took up an offering and said, 'Now, look, we're going to reward Mr. Foreman for the kids he's working with and the work that he's done.'

The people came up, one-by-one, and they made a donation. They were fairly poor people, if you know what I mean. And as I'm sitting up on the pulpit, and they're looking at me, he counted the money up, right there, and he said 'Look' -- and he counted the money again.

'This is not enough,' he told them again. 'Let's really show our appreciation to Mr. Foreman. Those kids he's helping, they're really our kids.'

That's the most embarrassed that I had ever been in my life. There I was, I had been champion of the world, I had been a wealthy man. Yet, there I was, scrounging around and asking people for money for the youth center like that.

Sitting in that chair there, up on that stage, when that pastor said, 'Come on, let's help George,' I sat there embarrassed. Right at that moment, I said, 'I'll never ask anyone for anything ever again. I'm going to start boxing and become heavyweight champion of the world again.'

I said, 'That's how I'm going to get money for that youth center.' That had to be the last part of 1986, or maybe the first part of 1987. At any rate, I had my first fight of my comeback in March of 1987.