After losing to Evander Holyfield in April of 1991, George Foreman returned to action in December to face Jimmy Ellis. Ellis’s claim to fame was having played strike NFL football for the Los Angeles Raiders in 1987, not boxing. The overwhelmed opponent was easily disposed of in three rounds on December 7, 1991 in Reno, Nevada.
HBO had been very liberal in letting George fight such an easy foe, but forced him to fight ranked Alex Stewart on April 11, 1992 in Las Vegas. I went to see Anne Murray in concert that night, then went over my sister Lisa’s apartment to pick up the VHS tape I gave her and took it home to watch it. I was shocked when I saw two things. First how fat and undertrained Foreman was, and second how he barely won a close decision over Stewart, who beat George’s face to a pulp in the process. After this sad performance, it would have been fine by me if he packed it in, because it didn’t seem like he had the hunger anymore.
George did continue his career, and in his next bout on January 16, 1993, fought a human punching bag named Pierre Coetzer. All Coetzer did for eight rounds before being stopped was stand right in front of George, and let Foreman punch him. On a positive note, George was in much better condition, and after Tommy Morrison stopped Carl ‘The Truth’ Williams on the same card, a June showdown was set between the two.
The pay-per-view fight at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on June 7, 1993 was probably my least favorite pay-per-view purchase I ever made. Seeing George lose to Tommy Morrison was depressing and when he announced his retirement in the ring after the defeat, I thought for sure his career was over. What had started off so promising six years earlier had ended in failure, and the drive home that night was not a happy one.
God had other things in mind for George, and the events that came to pass over the next 17 months were nothing short of miraculous.
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