In March of 1987, I was in the kitchen of our home when I heard the late Philadelphia sportscaster Gary Papa announce that George Foreman had fought in Sacramento, California that night. After running to the recreation room to catch the report, I couldn’t believe it was true. After 10 long years away from the ring, George Foreman had fought a guy named Steve Zouski, and stopped him in four rounds.
It turned out that George had pretty much run out of money, and had no choice but to return to boxing. Comebacks were something I always loved, and I was in George’s corner from the moment I heard about it. Since we didn’t have cable tv at the time, I had to rely on newspapers and sports reports to find out how he was doing. Eventually I started going over my sister Lisa’s apartment to watch his fights, or have her tape them for me.
Most of his opponents for the first two years of his comeback were suspect and had lousy records. Most of the press thought George was a joke, and should go back to Texas and stay there.
The first name on his record was Bert Cooper on June 1, 1989. However Cooper quit on his stool after two rounds, and failed a drug text for cocaine after the loss. Nonetheless, ‘Big George’ kept going, and signed for his first pay-per-view event with Gerry Cooney on January 15, 1990 at Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. For this one I went to my brother’s apartment, gave him the $15 for the show, and popped a VHS tape into his VCR.
George easily knocked out Gerry Cooney in two quick rounds, but Cooney had only fought twice in five years, and in his last fight against Michael Spinks in June of 1987, got clobbered. As much as I had grown to love George, I knew he had not beaten anyone good enough to deserve a title shot. I also hoped he didn’t sign to fight Mike Tyson, because I think he wouldn’t gotten killed.
A month later, Tyson got knocked out by Buster Douglas, and George returned to his habit of knocking the worst possible opponent he could find. He had to prove himself sooner or later I thought, and no matter what happened, I would definitely be in his corner.
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