George Foreman was 28 fights into his comeback from a 10-year absence from the ring, had won 27 times, stopped 25 of his opponents, and failed during his first attempt at winning a heavyweight title.But Foreman wasn't going to blow his second chance at world championship glory, when he faced southpaw Michael Moorer.
This time, the 45-year-old grandfather and father of nine was ready.
Foreman, 60, talks about his historic accomplishment as well as life after boxing during this, the fourth and final installment of a four-part series detailing how he became boxing's oldest man to win a division's crown.
FanHouse: So now, you're focused on the big one -- Michael Moorer -- for the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles?
George Foreman: Well, I remember one of the hardest things, was focusing. Even when I fought Michael Moorer, I was getting ready to come downstairs one night -- the night before the boxing match -- and talk to reporters and friends.
But [promoter] Bob Arum caught me at the elevator and said, 'Oh no, not this time.' I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'You're not going to do that. That's what happened the last time [against Evander Holyfield.]'
And so, I knew then, what I was going to have to do is to really focus on this one. So I was going to have to study film. I hadn't done that during my entire comeback.
FH: So was the film studying helpful?
Foreman: Well, this time, I got back into the gym and I got into the camera room. I saw that Michael Moorer was a good puncher. I saw him knocking down big guys, but only if they leaned into him.
He threw a straight left hand that would drop you, but he didn't have full extension with his left arm. And I saw that. It didn't seem like he could extend his left hand. I saw Moorer knock this one giant guy down, and then the guy went the rest of the 10 or 12 rounds.
And Moorer couldn't knock him down again -- not because he wasn't powerful, but the guy didn't bend forward anymore. So I said, 'Hmmm.' I studied that over, and over, so I changed everything.
FH: How do you mean?
Foreman: I wouldn't be bending down, crossing my arms in front of my body and covering my face and body like Archie Moore, which I learned from watching his films. I was going to stand straight up, because I didn't think he could reach me with that straight left hand.
And then, I was going to jab and jab and not look at him as a southpaw, but just look at him as a fighter. Then, I figured that I had the better left jab. And I was going to take the sting off of my left jab, which I hadn't done since I don't know when.
Everybody had told me to 'Jab, George.' They didn't know that with Michael Moorer, if you're going to get a good shot in, you've got to take all of the power off of the jab.
I kept missing Evander Holyfield because I would hit him with a big jab and then throw the right hand and I would almost fall over with that wild thing. That's part of the reason I lost that fight.
FH: So how did you rectify that against Michael Moorer?
Foreman: I was going to jab a couple of stiff ones, and then you slap with the jab and set up the right hand.
FH: It sounds like your strategy involved boxing a little bit, but you also took some punishment, didn't you?
Foreman: He was going to beat me to the punch a few times, yeah. But so long as I stayed standing straight up, he would not be able to execute his hardest shots. See, I had been practicing a little bit on that.
I boxed him a little bit and was able to surprise him. I surprised him a couple of times, because he came forward, and I jabbed him, and moved back, and jabbed him again. At one point, he kind of smiled as if to say, 'Where'd that come from?'
FH: So how did that set you up for the 10th round?
Foreman: Well, as the fight was going on, I decided, 'Now it's time.' I decided to use my right hand as a jab, and kind of touch Michael a little bit, and then put as much power into the left hook as I could.
So I threw [the hook] once, and I almost hit him. And then, the second one, I did touch him a little bit, and he felt the power. And now, he's got to think, 'Forget about his right hand, he's throwing all of his power with his left.'
I knew that throwing that left would make him start being careful for my left hand in a hook fashion, and that I would be able to throw that right hand. So then I got him to thinking that way, so I threw a left, and then I slapped the left jab out.
I did that just to touch him -- and then I threw that straight right hand, and delivered it, and I knew it was going to work. I hit him the first time, just like I thought, but it was too high.
Then I threw it again, and it landed right on the button, and -- Boom! -- that was it. I knew that it was over. He dropped right on his back. The right hand is going to get those guys who are southpaws.
FH: Did Michael Moorer get too brave?
Foreman: He did. He did. But that was the thing, to convince people -- and I'll go tell everybody. You got to watch the film of the first Joe Frazier fight, and you see me step into the ring with Joe Frazier, and you see Michael Moorer step into the ring with George Foreman.
The average kid will tell you what's going to happen -- the big guy's going to whup that little guy. But they kept believing things that other people were saying, and that just worked out to my benefit.
FH: So what can you tell us about winning three more times over Axel Schulz, Crawford Grimsley and Lou Savarese, and then being stripped of the WBA and IBF titles you won from Schulz?
Foreman: I sent a guy named Butch Lewis down to talk with [the WBA,] and to tell them that I'm not going to fight anybody for a while, and to give me some time to get some things together. And they told Butch 'No.'
They said that either George signs to fight [Tony Tucker,] or that's it. So I just decided, 'Nah, I'm not going to do that.' It's not like I wanted to be the heavyweight champion of the world for 10 more years. I said, 'They can have that belt.'
And with the IBF, they told me, 'Look George, you can fight whoever you want.' And then, I read it in the paper the next day that I had so many days to fight [a rematch against Schulz.]
So I called them up and thanked them for allowing me to fight for the title, but said that I wasn't interested in defending it anymore.
FH: Why did you finally walk away after the decision loss to Shannon Briggs in November 1997?
Foreman: I was in that Shannon Briggs fight, and one of my guys came in and said, 'Look, George! Here's your first $1 million per month royalty.' And here I am just getting ready to go out and go into a boxing match.
Later on, it was a $2 million dollar royalty per month. Then I needed to go here and to go there, and I just didn't have time. I hated to not box, but I needed to go and take care of business.
I never intended to retire, it was just that boxing had benefitted me so much. I was deep into these joint ventures, selling products, looking for publicity for those products. The major venture was the 'George Foreman Grill.'
I'd been so successful that I didn't have time to really get into training or have two weeks to promote a boxing match. I just never found time anymore.
FH: When did you land the HBO deal?
Foreman: That was just when I was signing to fight Evander Holyfield. One of their executives -- and I don't know one from another -- he said, 'George, when you get through with this fight, we want you to come and work for HBO. We want you on board as a commentator.'
I said, 'Sure.' I was there for 13 years with them.
FH: So what does George Foreman do with his spare time nowadays?
Foreman: I do lots of interviews. I've been traveling, promoting a book, doing book signings. I have George Foreman cleaning products -- which I'm starting to promote -- which means more travel.
This week, I travel to Atlanta to speak. I do a lot of motivational speaking these days. I have my son, Monk, who has decided to be a heavyweight boxer. Every day that I'm not traveling, I'm in the gym with him.
When I left boxing, Monk graduated from college and started working for me and making certain that I was doing the things that I was supposed to do -- showing up for television shows, interviews and speaches. So he knows the business inside and out.
That's going to help him, having watched my career. I just try to do the same thing for him that he did for me -- helping him to learn the sport and to stay out of the publicity thing too much. He's 3-0 with three knockouts and he's fighting again on Nov. 14 of this month in Louisiana.
And, of course, I have the youth center.
FH: How is your youth center doing?
Foreman: All of the property that I had been paying partially on, and paying loans on are now all paid off. I even purchased two and three more acres across the street from the original youth center. I renovated the original buiding.
The youth center is five buildings now when it used to be just a warehouse about the size of a large garage and had a second level. The weight room that was fenced off with chainlink from the boxing ring now has nothing but state-of-the-art tread mills and weight-lifting equipment.
I have a room just for the girls to come in and work out, you know, to do their aerobics. Then I have another building across the street that I call 'The [Muhammad] Ali building,' where they have a summer camp where the kids can work on computers, they can draw and jump on the buses and go to the zoo.
There's a building that has 4,000 square feet in it and a rubberized floor so the kids won't hurt their knees playing basketball. It's a bigger and better fitness center than ever.
FH: So do you have another comeback in you?
Foreman: If my wife heard you ask that, I would get shot. I was 48 when I fought my last fight. And I was considering a comeback at the age of 55. I had already made all of the preparations and gotten myself in great shape.
I was serious about it. I had even talked it over with Ross Greenburg over at HBO, and had some negotiations going and the whole deal.
And then my wife got wind of it, that I was training. And, one morning she said, 'You're not going back into boxing.' We were in the bedroom the first time she confronted me on it. I was explaining to her and showed her a film of what I thought I could do to this one guy.
It was two contenders, and I think that it was like, David Tua. And I thought, 'You know, these guys aren't making any money. If I guaranteed them $5 million, I could get them into the ring. And then, you beat the No. 1 contender and you've got a title shot.
I told my wife that I was going to knock him out. I was like, 'Look at this guy. I can still do it.' I looked at my wife and said, 'You're going to tell me that I can't still do it?'
And she said, 'George, isn't that the way you want to leave the sport -- feeling like you can still do it?' And I said, 'Yep!' And I've never even thought about boxing since.
