It was a little over 20 years before the night of November 5, 1994, when George Foreman, the meanest puncher on the planet, was humiliated in losing his world heavyweight championship to Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. It was something that haunted Foreman for the longest time as struggled to cope with losing his championship. After the loss, he would go on to have a life and death struggle with Ron Lyle and then lose to Jimmy Young in 1977 before he retired from the sport. After a 10 year retirement, and 6 1/2 years into his second career, he had a chance to regain the heavyweight championship he lost 20 years before when he faced the champion Michael Moorer in Las Vegas.
It was also on this night that Foreman had the chance to make it happen as he would become the oldest to win and regain the heavyweight championship of the world should he pull off the win.
Michael Moorer was an undefeated fighter who began his career fighting out of the Kronk Gym by the great Emanuel Steward in Detroit, Michigan. After he turned pro as a light heavyweight, he quickly moved up the light heavyweight rankings and found himself fighting Ramzi Hassan for a light heavyweight belt on December 5, 1988 and won it with a 5th round TKO win on free TV (NBC). Moorer’s reign of terror at light heavyweight including winning all 21 of his fights by knockout before he made the move up to the heavyweight division. Despite fighting significantly larger than him (notably Mike White, who was 6′ 10″ and 275 pounds). He saw his knockout streak end in 1992, largely because he found out bigger men could take his punch better. Then on May 15, 1992, Moorer found himself in line for a shot at a heavyweight “belt” when he faced rugged journeyman Bert Cooper in what turned out to be a slugfest that rivaled Foreman-Lyle. Both fighters being dropped twice each, with Moorer delivering the final blows in the 5th round to win a title.
After the fight, it was announced that Moorer and his trainer Emanuel Steward would part ways, with Steward citing Moorer’s stubborness and passive approach since he moved to heavyweight. After a few fights of struggling to find a new trainer, he eventually found Teddy Atlas, known for being a tough-loving trainer who was on team Mike Tyson when his career started. In his second fight with Moorer, they found themselves challenging Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight championship in April 1994. After a slow start that saw Moorer floored in the second round, it was Atlas who confronted Moorer hard about Moorer’s approach, fearing he wasn’t doing enough to take the title from the highly respected Holyfield. As the fight went on, Atlas continued to push Moorer to be aggressive and Moorer started to take his advice and step up and he would go on to win the heavyweight championship by a majority decision, becoming the first ever southpaw to win the heavyweight title on this night. It was viewed as if it was Atlas that was one to will Moorer to the win, and it was also married by the health issues of Holyfield to where, Moorer’s win turned shallow. Coming off the win, he felt he had something to prove.
Foreman, after his 10-year hiatus from boxing, returned in 1987 to where his comeback was viewed as a joke and mockery. Facing less than desire opposition, most boxing fans and experts viewed Foreman’s comeback as a scam, joke, laughing stock, whatever you want to name it. After building his record to 24-0 in his return to the ring, Foreman would challenge Holyfield on April 19, 1991. In a fight where many expected Holyfield to overwhelm him, Foreman would acquit himself quite well in going the full 12 round distance, despite losing a unanimous decision. Foreman’s comeback was now viewed as legit and serious as a result. After a tougher than expected win over Alex Stewart in 1992 that saw his face grotesquely swollen and bloodied, and a loss to Tommy Morrison in 1993 where he was very, very slow and lethargic, people were once again calling for George Foreman to retire. He wouldn’t listen.
After calling the Moorer-Holyfield fight for TVKO/HBO, it was the 45-year-old Foreman who placed a call to promoter Bob Arum to get him the title fight against Moorer, as it was confirmed by Arum himself. When the fight was announced, it sold out the 19,000-seat MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a fight where the perception was that Moorer was going to overwhelm Foreman, the odds were slightly below 2 to 1, mainly due to the people holding out hope that Foreman would make history against a champion who was 20 years younger than him going in.
The fight began with both fighters trying to establish their respective jabs, with Moorer getting the better of the two early on. The 1-2s out of the southpaw stance was making their mark early, as Foreman’s eyes were starting to swell. Moorer was landing at will and putting on pretty much a brilliant performance throughout the fight, as he built a big lead on the judges’ scorecards. He was fighting the best fight of his career throught the early and middle rounds.
Despite the success by Moorer, Foreman was having success with his own left jab as Moorer was standing in front of him to allow Foreman to land his jab and straight right hand throughout, and it was rather eye opening why Moorer would stand in front of a bigger man known for his power punch the way he did in this fight as he would move constantly to his left and into Foreman’s big right hand. In rounds 5 and 6, as Moorer appeared to have slowed his punch activity, Foreman started landing 1-2s at will with Moorer standing directly in front to him.
In the beginning of the 8th round, the exact round that he lost his championship to Ali 20 years earlier, it looked like George Foreman was going to pull it off as he landed a right hand throught the guard of Moorer and had him briefly wobbled to the ropes. As Foreman started to open up, Moorer stepped aside and countered effectively to keep Foreman off of him. He would go on to have a big 8th and 9th rounds after being hurt and it looked like he would be on his way to victory.
In the beginning of the 10th round, knowing his last chance at making history was nearing its end and was losing on the scorecards, Foreman came out swinging to seize the opportunity he waited 20 years for. Having Moorer standing directly in front of him and there to be hit, Foreman began to land his 1-2 at will and even crashed two flush left hooks on Moorer’s face that collapsed Moorer into Foreman’s body. With 1:15 left in round 10, the moment Foreman waited for finally came, and he made the most of it. A 1-2 high on head that froze Moorer, than another 1-2 on Moorer’s chin, and down went Moorer flat on his back with a swollen and bloodied lip as well as his eyes glazed out from the right cross that put him down in the middle of the ring. Moorer attempted to get up as referee Joe Cortez was counting, but couldn’t beat the count. The count reached 10, and it was over. History was made.
At the 2:03 mark in round 10, history was made. George Foreman, who lost his title 20 years earlier to Muhammad Ali, regains the heavyweight championship of the world as his career now went completely full circle. He became the oldest to win the title as well as regain it. When the count hit 10, the crowd of 19,000 at the MGM Grand Garden exploded as Foreman turned toward to the neutral corner and drop to his knees in prayer as he accomplished the goal he set when the comeback began. It was much more than a big win for him because it translated to much greater success outside of it.
After the win, the larger than life figure George Foreman beame the subject of many endorsement deals, most notable the Geoege Foreman Grill, which got him a huge profit check as they sold nearly $200 million worth of grills after it was introduced in 1997, and at least 100 million George Foreman Grills were sold worldwide by the end of 2009. He became a spokesperson for Meineke, Doritos, among others. He is also an author of many books, and is a philanthropist with his Goeorge Foreman Youth and Community Center in Houston, Texas.
The world was laughing in 1987. No one took him or his comeback seriously when was started his career. However, he always had the belief that he could do it and prove everyone wrong. He showed the world you can do whatever you want in your 40s and 50s. In the end, George Foreman had the last laugh exactly 30 years ago today when his hand was raised and was announced the heavyweight champion of the world.
As the great HBO play-by-play commentator Jim Lampley perfectly said at the count of 10: “IT HAPPENED!!”
George Foreman made it happen.
Photo Credit; YouTube, Seconds Out
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