After the close call with Axel Schulz, George was originally scheduled to fight a rematch with Michael Moorer in February of 1996 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The proposed fight never came off, and George was absent from the ring for a year and a half. He traveled to Tokyo, Japan on November 2, 1996 to take on Crawford Grimsley. Although he still considered himself the heavyweight champion, George held no titles. He had been stripped of both the IBF and WBA belts, but was technically still the lineal champion.
I ordered the pay-per-view card for the Grimsley bout, and the fight itself sucked. Grimsley literally ran from Foreman the whole night, and lost a unanimous decision. George looked fleshy and undertrained, and after this sad night, I wished he would quit. What compounded things was the fact that Grimsley got knocked out by Jimmy Thunder in 13 seconds just 4 months later, proving what a weak opponent he really was.
‘Big’ George came back to the states to take on Lou Savarese in Atlantic City on April 26, 1997. The HBO bout saw Foreman fall behind on the scorecards, but rally to win a split decision. I needed him to win because at that point in my life I was struggling with a bunch of stuff, and emotionally I couldn’t handle George losing. He came through for me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I identified that much with my favorite fighters.
In what turned out to be his last trip into the ring, Foreman returned to Atlantic City to fight Shannon Briggs on November 22, 1997. George at aged 48, looked as good as he had in years, hurt Briggs several times, and to me won a clear cut decision. The crooked judges saw otherwise, and gave the nod to Briggs.
After the fight, George seemed content with the loss, said he missed his church, and was packing it in. I was sad and happy at the same time, knowing my hero was gone, but was ready to say goodbye.
There was a proposed bout between Foreman and Larry Holmes scheduled for January of 1999 at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Fortunately to me, the financing for the whole thing fell through, and it was cancelled. I personally thing it would have been a crappy fight, with a fat Holmes throwing jabs and holding, and stinking out the place.
I wrote these series of six blogs in a salute to my all time favorite boxer, George Foreman. I know he is at peace with the Lord, but I will always miss him, both as a fighter, and the person he was in real life.
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