We can never know for sure, and we perhaps have no business even asking, but it’s entirely possible that if heavyweight legend George Foreman had not done what he did on this day a full 30 years ago – and that’s smash the odds and do likewise to defending heavyweight champ Michael Moorer – “Big George” would never, ever have found himself fully at peace after what happened to him in Africa some 20 years before.
We’ve all been joyously celebrating the 50th anniversary of what happened on October 30 in Zaire, when the incomparable Muhammad Ali shocked the planet in chopping down a 25 year old Foreman to regain what was unjustly taken from him back in 1967: namely the heavyweight championship of the world. Ali’s majesty still resonates, and rightfully so.
But now it’s George’s turn.
Wearing the same trunks his much slimmer body carried in Africa, and with, crazily enough, Ali’s former – and only – trainer, Angelo Dundee working his side this time, a 45 year old Foreman challenged unbeaten, two-weight, southpaw champ Michael Moorer.
Moorer, who had forged much of his talent inside the hallowed halls of the Kronk Gym, had bested Evander Holyfield to become heavyweight king. Foreman had won our hearts (again) by pushing Holyfield all the way in a previous attempt to win back the title; the one-time sullen ghetto bad guy losing a 12 round decision. Moorer had gone one better in taking the close decision win, with him beating Holyfield in 1994.
Now, in a fight that was dubbed ‘One For The Ages,’ Foreman took us all back in time.
Heavily outboxed, out-punched, and out-speeded by 26 year old Moorer (“George has sweatshirts older than Moorer,” quipped HBO’s Larry Merchant), Foreman was nonetheless setting the former, and perhaps still, hothead up for the fall. Foreman was being outpointed, for sure, but Moorer was being made to work hard. And the defending champ was being advanced upon, little by little, step by step, by Foreman and his still lethal hands.
Moorer had spoken before the fight of his desire to become the first man to lay Foreman out – to knock the beloved folk hero out. Ali had done the job mostly by exhaustion tactics, but Moorer wanted to knock Foreman into true oblivion. And this desire cost him. This and Foreman’s clever, ever inching tactics.
Teddy Atlas was screaming at Moorer to stay away from Foreman’s right hand, but Moorer wasn’t listening. Or he was but he had his own plan in mind (remember, the headstrong Moorer, in his up and down war with Bert Cooper, later said, you could say boasted, that the tactics that saw him win, after being decked, were his own, not Emanuel Steward’s).
In any case, Moorer made the perilous mistake of getting just a little too far into Foreman’s territory; into his punching range. And Foreman landed a stiff right hand to the head, and then another, this bomb from the 1970s that George had kept a hold of landing just a little bit lower on Moorer’s head. On his chin. And, just like that, Moorer was down on the mat, appearing to look up as he attempted to figure out what the hell had happened.
“It happened,” bellow HBO’s Jim Lampley. Foreman knelt in a corner, giving thanks to his Lord.
Here today, 30 years on, we fight fans remain gratefully moved for what Foreman gave us in Las Vegas. Ali had come full circle in chopping down Foreman in 1974, and then, 20 years later, Foreman came full circle himself in chopping down Moorer.
The best of memories.
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