After winning the heavyweight championship on November 5, 1994, George Foreman took a few months off before deciding on his next opponent. His choice was a guy from Germany named Axel Schulz. Since I had already come up with a plan to get out debt I had accumulated by loaning some girl I foolishly wasted time on by going to Vegas and betting on boxing, I decided I would go to see George’s next fight in person.
On April 22, 1995, I took my $400 seat at the MGM Grand Garden Arena with binoculars in hand. I had already made $12,000 by putting big money on favorites twice, so I really went for broke this time. I dropped $42,000 (more than I made in an entire year) on George at 6-1 odds, which would net me a $7,000 profit on a straight win. So I had every reason to be nervous when the opening bell rang.
It’s hard to see what is actually happening in a fight in person, where you don’t have the close up view tv cameras give. You also don’t get to hear commentary from the HBO announcing crew of Jim Lampley, Gil Clancy and Larry Merchant either. At the arena, they had the live HBO feed on the big screens above the ring, but no sound.
Schulz was better than I expected right off the bat. He was muscular, moved well, and was able to avoid a lot of George’s punches. The most effective thing George did do was land his left jab consistently, along with an occasional big punch to Axel’s body. As each round progressed, my mind could think of nothing but cheering ‘Big George’ on, and hoping that he landed one big shot to knock Schulz out.
There were some rounds that Schulz looked great, which had me worried. I was also sitting next to bunch of Germans who were rooting hard for Schulz, the last thing I needed to hear. As the closing rounds began, I was sick in my stomach because I knew the bout was much closer than I expected it to be.
After 12 nerve racking rounds, I closed my eyes as the final scores were read by ring announcer Michael Buffer. When Michael announced, “AND STILL!” , those were the only words I needed to hear, knowing I had escaped with a narrow victory. A win was a win and I ran from that arena as quickly as I could and right to the food court to enjoy a $9 Haagen-Dazs ice cream cone.
While I was glad that George had retained his title, I was more thrilled that the win but another 7 grand in my pocket. The flight home was a good one, knowing I was coming back to Vegas in a month to bet on the Evander Holyfield-Ray Mercer bout set for May 20.
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