After the nice payday on the Chavez fight, my next trip to Vegas was for the George Foreman vs. Axel Schulz bout on April 22. I flew out from Philadelphia the Friday night before, and checked into the Aladdin Hotel on the strip. When I went to Caesar’s Palace sportsbook, the odds were 6-1 in favor of Foreman, so I laid $42,000 on George, which would net me a $7,000 profit. Foolishly, I bet George to win with a 6th round knockout, which paid huge money, but was also too risky a wager.
I had purchased a $400 ticket to the MGM Grand Garden Arena while at home, and made my way to my seat about an hour before the main event, with binoculars in hand. The betting ticket for the fight worth $49,000 if George won, was safely nestled inside the safe of my hotel room, not in my wallet. Not knowing a damn thing about Axel Schulz, my logic was that if George showed up, he got the decision. Just like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali had been the recipient of ‘gift’ calls in the past as beloved champs, the same would hold true for ‘Big’ George.
Schulz was certainly doing better than I expected, and used the same hit and run strategy that Tommy Morrison had two years earlier. In my eyes, George was the aggressor throughout, and landed enough good jabs and solid body punches to hold the lead as the bout entered the second half. There were a lot of Germans in the crowd that night, and a bunch of them were sitting next to me. As Schulz continued to perform well down the stretch of the fight, the Germans started chanting “Axel! Axel! Axel!” The Americans, me included, retaliated with yells of “USA! USA! USA!, which shut the German fans up.
As the twelfth round came to a close, the last thing I cared about was the $1,000 6th round knockout bet. My stomach was sick from nerves, as I tried to rationalize a Foreman loss, but couldn’t. He simply had to win!
The HBO live feed of the bout had been pumped into the MGM on the big screens, and as I glanced to check Harold Lederman’s call, I noticed 117-111. I said to myself, “That’s about right.”, until I realized that he had given the decision to Schulz. If was at home watching this fight on HBO, I might had a heart attack, listening to Lederman rant now great Schulz was doing all night.
As the lights dimmed in the arena, was heart was in my mouth as ring announcer Michael Buffer read the decision. As slowly he read the scores of 115-113, 114-114, and finally 115-113, I held my head in hands. When Michael said the words “And Still!”, my heart leapt in joy, and I jumped out of my seat, and ran from the Arena so quickly, I couldn’t remember. To celebrate, I had a $9 Haagen Dazs ice cream cone in the food court, realizing I had dodged a bullet. A win was a win, however, and it was time to find the next fight to win money on.
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