George Foreman 'More Patient' During Historic Comeback

With Thursday being the 15th anniversary of his 10th-round knockout of Michael Moorer -- which made him, at age 45, the oldest man to become heavyweight champion -- George Foreman reminisced about his comeback from a 10-year hiatus from boxing.

An evangelist for his non-denominational, Church of Jesus Christ, Foreman, 60, recalls the reaction of his wife, Mary, to the news that he was un-retiring, how trainers such as former light heavyweight champion, Archie Moore and Angelo Dundee, re-structured and modified his style, and how a victory over Steve Zouski began a run of 24 straight wins, including 23 knockouts during this, the second installment of a four-part Q&A series.


FanHouse: What was your wife, Mary's, reaction to your decision to return to the ring at age 38?

George Foreman: She didn't want it. She told me that I was going to get hurt or killed. She just insisted that I try something else. I told her that I had to do it. I just didn't have any way to fund the youth center and keep it going without boxing.

I told her that I was going to do it, and that was all three was to it. I talked to my kids, and I had their blessings. For them, they were like, 'Yeah, more money, more money.'

FH: So then, how did you decide to put together your team of trainers?

Foreman: Charlie Shipes, an original boxing trainer of mine, he had had some problems and had been in the slammer a little bit. But as soon as he was released, we got instantly together.

I brought him into Houston, boxed for him, and he was paroled on my behalf and was my trainer. As time went on, anyone would pop up, I would just say, 'Come on, let's go.' I even went to Oakland Calif., for probably the third boxing match, and I got in touch with Archie Moore.

I said, 'Archie, I need you to help me if you feel like it. Do you think I can still do it?' Everybody was talking about my age, but Archie said, 'Oh yeah, I think you can still do it.'

I explained to him that I didn't have a whole lot of money to pay the guys, but he said, 'Aw, don't worry about that George, one day, you'll make something.' He came to visit with me and to work with me and basically did it for free.

Of course, we added Angelo Dundee later on.

FH: Was there significant ring rust that first day back in the gym?

Foreman: I had gone 10 years, approximately, without even making a fist. That was the hardest thing. 'How could I make a fist and jab someone at the same time?' That was a more difficult physical activity than I was anticipating that it would be.

I wasn't angry with anyone. That anger and all of that stuff had fueled me to be an Olympic gold medalist and a champion of the world, once before. Making a fist, jabbing, putting on gloves -- How could I do it all again?

Making a fist, shadowboxing -- throwing a fist at an imaginary opponent. It wasn't Muhammad Ali in front of me anymore. The punching bag is not Joe Frazier anymore. Here I was, getting back into the ring, with a big smile on my face. That was as hard as the physical part.

This was altogether different -- shadowboxing for the first time, actually punching at a shadow. No person's face. Never any anger. Without any real intentions of harming anybody.

I had to relearn an entire philosophy. Of course, add to that that I would try to run a mile, and couldn't even run 400 yards. That was rough.

FH: So was your motivation the children of the youth center, your children?

Foreman: Well, so many kids would come into the gym with anger, and I would teach them how to box. There was just so much anger, anger, anger. I would say, 'You know what? I'm not going to teach you how to hurt people. You don't need to be angry to become a good boxer.'

I would show them how to do it without any punches in anger, and then that converted me. That's how I found out how to do it myself. It was just about doing it to fuel that youth center and to keep that thing going, and, at the same time, I had to make a positive impression on the kids if ever I had gone on television.

I didn't want them to see this angry man that I used to be.

FH: How did you go about selecting your opponents?

Foreman: I knew that there wouldn't be a championship fight or a top contender fight for me right away. I wasn't going to throw myself to the lions. I was going to have to start from the bottom, just like I did when I was an 18-year-old, or a 20-year-old man.

I was going to look into the mirror and see a guy with potential, not look in the mirror and see that old George who was ready to get right back in there and do it again. Any promoter who wanted me, I would ask guys to send me three films of fighters to choose from.

At that time, I didn't even have a television in my house. It was a peaceful place. My family and kids were raised without a television. So I had to buy a video recorder. I would start watching the videos of the guys, and I would choose one.

FH: Being that you were at 267 pounds, the most you'd ever weighed in the ring, how did you think you looked, physically for your first fight back against Steve Zouski on March 9, 1987?

Foreman: You remember, 10 years, I was out of boxing. I started at 315 pounds and kind of hovered around that and couldn't get under that 300 for nothing. Then, for a while, I kept training, got down to Sacremento, and one day, I got on the scales and I actually saw 260 pounds.

But that didn't last, because when I ate dinner, it went back up to 268 or something like that. But I was a happy guy, having been trying to get that weight off for years. For 10 years, no one had ever seen my upper body -- not even a short-sleeved shirt during that time.

I had been a buttoned up preacher -- buttoned the shirts up all the way up to my neck. Everyone in the dressing room before the fight was wondering how the fight was going to go, and how nervous I was going to be. My whole thing was, 'You're going to take off your shirt in public, for real?'

That was the only thing I was worried about. But at the same time, I was a happy guy. I had been trying to get that weight off for years.

FH: So as you walked into the Arco Arena in Sacramento for Zouski, how did the audience react?

Foreman: Standing ovation. I couldn't believe it. This was something new to me.

FH: Did Steve Zouski react as if he was in awe of you before you scored the fourth-round knockout?

Foreman: No. He gave me a decent boxing match. I remember jabbing him and hitting him with a right hand a few times and I thought, 'Oh, he'll quit.' But no sir, he came back and tried to get me. I was surprised.

I would hit guys pretty hard in the past, and they were trying to get out of there. But here was a guy like, 'Aw, that didn't hurt me.' And finally, the referee stopped the fight. It was like I was just another guy.

FH: Why did you fight so frequently -- five times in 1987, and eight times in 1988?

Foreman: I just knew from the past, that I had had a lot of rust. So the only way that I was going to get it back was to get back into the ring and get another fight in quickly. I was going to have to campaign and get one boxing match after another and as many as I can in one year to feel like I was getting two years back in the ring.

You've got to get into the ring, because I knew that, in spite of all of the training in the ring, you're not going to get your timing, or that ability to go out there and to finish a fight off. You've got to have ring experience, and I knew that. So I had to fight a lot.

My intentions were to get in as many boxing matches per year as I had done in my original career back in 1969. I was trying to duplicate it, because that's how you get your timing back.

FH: You stopped 23 of your first 24 opponents, so was your overall style and demeanor different in the ring than in the past?

Foreman: I enjoyed being a little more patient this time. The first time around, I would always want to get those matches over. I used to be scared, nervous, frightened and angry. This second time around, I had nothing else to do but to take my time.

There was a time that I would parry and jump out of the way of shots, but I couldn't get that sort of timing again. So I was just going to set my defense properly and keep coming.

I would just cross my arms in front of my face and my body, and I would keep coming -- like a bowling ball.

I realized that if you just kept coming, fight in those seconds that everybody's breathing, bobbing and weaving and feinting and all of that, and that if I could fill up those seconds with action, that I could burn most guys out.

I still had the same left jab, and the power in the left jab and right hand. But I was going to take my time. If I didn't get the guy in the first round, second round, it didn't matter. All of those years, it was just like life -- I should have just been patient with boxing, just as in life.