Original subtitles

MAN: When you run out of money and you don't have a job

and bills are coming in...

and you're not just thinking about yourself.

You're thinking about next year, five years,

the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

I don't think he wanted to go back to boxing.

In George Foreman's first heavyweight career, it was all attack.

COMMENTATOR: Thunderous right hand. Boom!

On the forehead! Bang!

MAN 2: And shocking violence.

He was not a guy you wanted to get hit by.

I mean, he did demolition jobs on most of the opponents.

He hit me so hard.

He busted me open. The eye bone came through my eye from the inside out.

(CROWD SHOUTS)

LARRY MERCHANT: George was a tornado

that blew through the heavyweight division...

And then it was gone.

REPORTER: The clock will not go back.

That is not a fact, what you're saying.

I can become heavyweight champion of the world if I want to in any age.

Now he's conning himself. He cannot separate the fantasy and the reality.

Boxing smart money says George Foreman's comeback is a fraud.

COMMENT AT OR: Left, right, left by Holyfield.

What do they want? To kill this man? It's over.

You gotta realize I'm closer to 50 than I am to 20.

Some sceptics think that this is just ridiculous.

Foreman is just too old.

People just don't come back after ten years

and perform at the highest levels of their craft.

He has gone from being spectacular to becoming a spectacle.

COMMENT ATOR: And now let's see, is George Foreman for real

or is this the farce that many critics have said it will be?

One time, we were getting ready to go to the Houston Rockets game

to see Ralph Sampson in his rookie year

and, um, there were some jeans on the bed

that I was supposed to put on to go to the game.

I didn't wanna put them on. They were kind of worn. Had a little hole in them.

And I said, "You know what? I don't wanna look poor."

My father said, "Excuse me? Poor?" He said... We didn't go to the game.

He said, "Let me show you poor," and he drove me to Fifth Ward.

(noes BARK)

RALPH COOPER: The Fifth Ward was known as the Bloody Fifth Ward.

It was known for people getting hurt, killed.

I thought the neighborhood which I grew up in, Sunnyside, was a rough place,

but it was nothing in my opinion like the Fifth Ward.

FOREMAN". Growing up in Houston, Fifth Ward,

I'd learned to be sort of an adventurer.

A bad boy, so to speak.

I'd run the streets, got into a lot of trouble.

Ended up dropping out of high school.

And so I didn't have much of a life at all.

COOPER: He was not a nice guy.

He was one of several individuals across Houston

that had reputations that were bad.

One of his coaches, he felt George could have been an NFL football player.

He was trying to get him to do the right thing,

stop doing the street thing, the robbing thing.

(SIREN WAILS)

FOREMAN: I was mugging a guy one night

and the police started to mount up on me and catch me.

I had to run from the police, crawl under the house to hide

and I thought the dogs would get me.

I hide myself. I covered myself with mud.

(DOG BARKS)

I crawled from under that house that night saying,

"I-I'm not gonna be like this."

And it just so happened Jimmy Brown did a commercial for the Job Corps.

Said, "If you want that extra chance at life, join the Job Corps."

I got one more chance at it.

VOKZEOVER: One phase of the anti-poverty program gets underway

as the first of 25,000 Job Corps trainees arrive at camp.

This center adjoins...

FOREMAN: I took the opportunity.

Said, "The sad thing, you'll have to leave home."

I-I didn't know about that.

But I convinced my mom and told her what it was all about.

She says she would sign.

She welcomed my leaving my current environment.

Joining the Job Corps changed every aspect of my life.

I got interested in all things. Some education, learning to read and write.

I had, for the first time in my life, three meals in one day.

Got into a lot of trouble in the Job Corps.

And I didn't want to, but I just had this old habit of fighting.

And one of the kids said, "George, you think you're so tough."

"Why don't you become a boxer?"

(GRUNTS)

I wanted to prove that I was tough

and I thought one day I'd get these golden gloves

and then go home to Houston, Texas,

and be the most outstanding street fighter that ever lived.

That's all I thought about.

A lot of people think, 17 years old, that's kind of late to start boxing,

but Doc Broadus believed in me.

All he said, "if you stop fighting in the streets and acting a clown,

you can become an Olympic gold medalist."

LAMPLEY: My first memory of George Foreman is, I think

the first memory of most Americans who were alive in 1968

and that's walking around the ring with the little American flags

after his gold medal bout in Mexico City.

FOREMAN: Well, the highlight of my athletic life

was to win that Olympic gold medal,

to stand on that platform, listening to your national anthem in the background.

Nothing has come close to that moment.

For the first time, I was a teenager, I had a dream come true.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

I'd like to show you guys my gold medal.

- Real gold for the champ. - (APPLAUSE)

FOREMAN: I was rescued from the gutter by way of the United States government.

Lyndon Johnson started an anti-poverty program that really rescued me,

gave me a chance to get an education.

So I became more than patriotic.

I-I started to love the country, really.

COOPER: You could see how proud he was when he went to the White House

and took pictures with Lyndon Baines Johnson, President Johnson.

I thought that was a great thing.

A guy coming from Fifth Ward with that kind of reputation

and now he's in the White House?

Shaking hands with the President? President.

REPORTER: When are you going pro?

I got a lot of work to do first before I turn pro.

I intend about three months maybe,

but when I do start I'm going all the way up.

What do you mean by all the way up?

All the way up to the heavyweight championship of the world, for real.

- How long do you think it'll take? - (CHEERING, APPLAUSE)

FOREMAN: There's an emotional journey you take

while trying to be heavyweight champ of the world.

Probably a grand time in my life was the first time I met Muhammad Ali.

It was in a boxing gym in Miami.

Give me some gloves. I gotta whoop my little brother now.

FOREMAN: He said, "George, once you become champion of the world,

this is what you're gonna get."

I thought, "What an exciting moment." He said, "Stay right here. I'll be back."

And he ran down the stairs and stayed for a few moments.

He came back and all the time I was thinking,

"He's gonna bring back a briefcase filled with money."

He came back, there was a briefcase

and I thought, "it's gotta be filled with thousands of dollars."

And he opened up the briefcase and it was a telephone.

(CHUCKLES)

Right then I started to believe

and think he believes I'm gonna be champion of the world too.

REPORTER: Dick, how tough has the opposition been for George?

Well, George has had very tough opposition

because each fight has been with an individual

that had far greater experience

and more pro fights than George has.

So each fight is...

Well, travelling through the country, boxing everyone,

Sadler would scout everyone and tell me, "This guy's got no chin."

"This guy's got no jab. This guy's got this... He's absent of this,"

and I'd believe him and knock those guys out.

COMMENT AT 0R: Foreman's dynamite power in both hands

is making him the scourge of the heavyweight division.

George Foreman is now the number one contender

for the heavyweight championship,

and the question is who's going to stop this Foreman steamroller?

FOREMAN". But then, with Joe Frazier,

I'd followed his career

from the time he had won the title from Buster Mathis.

This guy, we've seen him devastate everyone in the heavyweight division.

I was there when he put his head on the chest of Muhammad Ali and just turned.

He conquered him.

COMMENTATOR: Time is important here.

(CROWD CHEERS)

Joe Frazier was a terrific heavyweight champion

and most people didn't give Foreman a chance

based on the quality of the opponents

he'd fought prior to that.

I thought he had a chance, but now, you're talking about Joe Frazier now.

FOREMAN: I want the people in all the parts of the world to see this fight.

I don't think you'd be interested in coming to see two friends shake hands.

Joe Frazier and me will declare war on that day

and that's... that's definitely.

You gotta look those guys in the eyes,

stare them right in the eye, let them know that, "Hey, I'm not backing up."

Generally, when a guy is getting a little nervous he'll drop his head

and I was hoping Joe Frazier wouldn't because he'd see my knees shaking.

Joe Frazier was a dangerous man.

And for the first time I was actually afraid.

The first man I was afraid of.

COMMENT AT OR: We may have an interesting evening.

Frazier quite understandably the favorite.

Foreman comes out, punching with the right.

Frazier in his usual style.

Smokin' is the way he puts it. His job, to get inside.

His best weapon, the left hook. Foreman is vulnerable to the hook.

FOREMAN: He misses me with a left hook and it was like a fire, a gun. Pow!

And I felt the power.

COMMENT AT OR: Oh, Foreman connected, as you saw.

He's getting into Frazier's head.

I think he hurt Joe Frazier. I think Joe is hurt.

Angie Dundee, Ali's trainer right next to me, is saying it. You may hear him.

Down goes Frazier!

The heavyweight champion is taking the mandatory eight-count

and Foreman is as poised as can be in a neutral corner.

FOREMAN". When I got the first knockdown, I said, "Unreal! Unreal!"

COMMENTATOR: You see the countdown for the first round.

Foreman has not panicked.

Foreman is going about his job.

Foreman is all over Joe Frazier.

Frazier is down again! He doesn't know where he is.

Now the round is about to end.

Frazier's knees buckled. He is... he is down!

He is down!

Three times in the first round by George Foreman.

He is all over Frazier again.

A quick left hook, another!

Frazier is down for the fifth time in this fight!

It's target practice for George Foreman.

It is target practice.

Frazier is ready to go again! Joe is standing.

There he goes. The fight is stopped and it's over in the second round.

George Foreman is the heavyweight champion of the world!

They're carrying George Foreman.

They're carrying George Foreman on their shoulders right out of the ring!

FOREMAN: And to be heavyweight champion of the world,

as soon as it happens to you, it's like, uh, John L Sullivan,

uh, Braddock, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muham...

It's like they all just pour right into you and you feel...

That moment? You feel, I am the heavyweight champion of the world.

Nothing like it.

(CROWD CHEERS)

It's a great day for me, having the police escort me for a change.

Normally when I hear those sirens, I was running.

You see that sign says, "Sadler for mayor"? I'm for that too!

(CROWD CHEERS)

FOREMAN: You become someone else.

It's not like you graduated into this.

All... There's a whole other personality and you are it.

The champ. The champ. The champ. The champ.

And I'd like to thank everybody. Thank you for your support.

(CROWD CHEERS)

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

This is the real power, though.

(LAUGHTER)

FOREMAN: You've become heavyweight champion of the world.

The dream has come true

and there's no one alive who can tell you what it's all about.

You gotta make all the mistakes.

I'm the champion of the whole world.

I was just sitting down writing a note to myself.

I'm the champion of the whole world.

FOREMAN: Fame was not my problem,

but the confidence of being champion of the world,

that was something I'd never experienced in my life.

Uh, meeting Sonny Liston, oh, what a thrill that was.

I got a taste of what a heavyweight championship would mean to me.

It would be about buying things and people admiring you.

I loved that.

And, of course, people being afraid of you.

Everything he did, I'd try to imitate.

He was mean. I said, "I'm gonna show them how to be mean."

If he would come to me, I'd kill him.

If he run, I'm gonna catch him and kill him.

We're looking forward to a great fight.

I know that I'll be trying to knock this man's head off.

When I first met him, he was young and he was nice

and within a year or so,

he became one of the most surly people

that I ever met.

I later learned that he was mimicking

his great idol, Sonny Liston,

who also was a surly, nasty guy.

The little boy that I really enjoyed from the Olympics

disappeared into this man who wanted to knock everyone out.

(SINGING IN AFRICAN LANGUAGE)

TRAMPLER: When Foreman signed to fight in Zaire

against Muhammad Ali,

I felt bad for Ali. I-l honestly...

Great as he was, I said, "This guy's gonna get hurt."

ALI: How many fellas in here now picks George? Be truthful. Be men.

Tell the truth. John, raise your hand.

(CROWD LAUGHS)

TRAMPLER: I remember watching that fight

in the ABC offices with Howard Cosell

and Cosell, the hour before the fight happened,

was telling everybody what a disgrace it was

because Muhammad Ali,

who had meant so much, was going to be hurt seriously.

I remember that as if it happened yesterday.

REPORTER: The time may have come to say goodbye to Muhammad Ali

because very honestly I don't think he can beat George Foreman.

JIM BROWN: I met George when I was assigned to the fight in Zaire

and the network wanted me to get with George and spar.

And George came in and I never saw anybody pound a heavy bag

as hard as he pounded that bag.

So right away I told the producers

there's no chance that I'm gonna let this guy

hit me in my ribs and break my ribs.

I told Ali... "This man hits like a mule."

"You know, he's got a great body. He's big and he's strong."

"I don't know how you're gonna do it, you know?"

(CROWD CHANTS)

FOREMAN: In Africa, I saw him maybe once passing by.

The next time was in the ring.

And I remember his meeting me in the middle of the ring and he said,

"George, when I fought Sonny Liston, you were just in high school. "

"You don't belong here."

And I almost laughed and I was mean at that time

because I never spent one day in high school.

(CHUCKLES)

COMMENTATOR: Ali quickly across the round.

TRAMPLER: During the first few rounds

I'm watching Foreman whack them to the body.

Just really punishing blows.

And I said, "Poor Ali. This..."

This... He didn't deserve this.

COMMENTATOR: George Foreman backing Ali into the ropes.

That's a vicious left. Oh!

First round I tried to knock him out because the reporters said

he shouldn't last two rounds with George.

So I said, "In two rounds I'm gonna cream him."

COMMENTATOR: Ali is taking some punishment.

Three rounds, rather than get a little conservative,

I tried to knock him out in the third found and the fourth and the fifth.

About the sixth round I realize there's something going on.

I'm not gonna be able to knock this guy out.

COMMENTATOR: This is the furthest that George Foreman has gone

in a fight since 1972.

He was looking for the homerun.

The homerun never came, so you, boom, the big shots.

And when you throw a big shot, it takes a lot out of you if you don't hit a guy.

ARUM: I initially believed that what I had feared was taking place

because Ali, instead of boxing Foreman,

went to the ropes and did the rope-a-dope,

but Ali's plan, as we know now,

was to tire George out.

COMMENTATOR: Ali sits back in the ropes and tells Foreman to come in.

Nobody could imagine that kind of strategy,

much less execute it,

except for one man in the world, Muhammad Ali.

FOREMAN: About the seventh round I thought I'd hit him with a good shot

and he said, "Is that all you got, George?"

And I remember thinking not only is he talking crazy,

but his voice is stronger now than in the earlier round.

COMMENTATOR: A sneaky right hand.

Another sneaky right hand. This time he works over the shoulder of Foreman.

(CROWD CHEERS, SHOUTS)

COMMENTATOR: Three, four, five.

Foreman just stopped... Eight.

That's it. The fight is stopped!

Muhammad Ali, a dramatic eighth-round knockout.

COMMENTATOR: Look at that face.

A man who can scarcely believe what has happened to him.

FOREMAN: I had lost my most precious heavyweight championship of the world.

That I remember like it was yesterday.

Hello there. How you doing?

One day I'd come through all of the guys in the skycaps in Meacham Airport

and they were afraid to look you in the eye.

They were like, "That's the champ."

And the next day you're going out to the same airport

and these guys are patting you on the shoulder,

"Oh, you'll get a second chance. You'll get another chance."

From pride to pity. Devastation like I've never felt.

Well, now, uh, I'm very anxious and I would...

I'm trem... I'm hoping with all my might

that I'll get a chance to fight the man again

because for a fact, I didn't do 100% of what I could do.

It's a hard thing to live with,

losing something like the championship of the world.

I'd have fight that fight most nights...

and I'd be winning, winning, winning,

then I'd get knocked down

and by the time I jump up, I wake up out of the dream again.

I could not win that fight, not even in my dreams.

This time, this man, you know,

got me to the point where I just distaste his prevalence in boxing.

I really wanna beat him, more than anything in the world.

Oh, that became the thing. That became an obsession.

FOREMAN: This is the first time I wanted to beat somebody.

I've never felt like this before.

REPORTER: Do you think Ali's backing down from another meeting with you?

There's no telling what he's doing.

I would love a rematch.

What really developed more was no more just anger,

I even had hate for Muhammad Ali.

(CROWD CHANTS)

And I don't know if you've heard, if you've heard of this story.

They were filming the movie The Greatest here.

Sure enough, George shows up down there.

Ali asked him what was he doing down there.

He said, "I've been trying to find you. I want a rematch."

You beat me before I get some sense.

You ain't got no sense...

COOPER: And George gets... climbs up into the ring

and they get their (INDISTINCT) on and stuff

and some things was said that I can't repeat on this program.

And George made some threats about blanking Ali's behind.

Chairs started flying.

(CROWD SHOUTS)

The police that were down there finally got him out of the building.

FOREMAN: I was fueled by a lot of anger.

And I walked around with that for years.

DON KING: Don King and video techniques,

bringing you new, innovative and imaginative ideas in boxing.

COOPER: As a confidence boost, one of the biggest mistakes he made

was when he decided to do the five-guy thing.

He fought these five guys, supposed to do three rounds with each guy.

And some of them...

You and I could have knocked them out if we'd had fought them.

How do you condition yourself for going up against five guys?

How can you possibly train for a fight like this?

I do the normal things, running up the hills.

Uh, then I've got a program now

where I pick up my actual 500- and 600-pound steers,

put them on my back and walk up hills with them.

That's been the newest thing that I've added to my repertoire.

And I'm gonna let five fresh guys come in, three rounds each.

If either one of them beat me, I'll retire. I'm through with boxing.

(BELL muss)

COMMENTATOR: The bell for round one. Quickly to ring center.

I think George was looking for a way to move forward,

get rid of the loss in Zaire and go forward from there.

Maybe losing was too much for him to absorb.

COSELL: Even those closest to George Foreman

have been concerned that he's not been the same man ever since Ali beat him.

BROWN: The humiliation.

The fact that you can no longer have this bravado.

Just being humbled in the worst way.

Uh, it's reaching down and becoming real with yourself.

COSELL: What is happening there?

Foreman is not himself.

He's going after the kid again.

Needlessly, for no reason! He's beaten.

This is an absurd scene.

Now there's gonna be a fight between the trainers.

Totally out of control.

MERCHANT: Do I think that, that George was operating from some kind of script

to set up a rematch?

Sure, that's possible.

But you can't do all of those things

and it's all fiction.

It has to come from some real place deep within you to execute that.

(CROWD BOOS)

COSELL: Look at him walking around,

looking at the fans who are booing him.

This has to be a downright ugly scene.

BROWN: That fight in Zaire

put him through a lot of soul-searching days

where he had to deal with making decisions on who he was.

COOPER: He signs for a fight with Ron Lyle.

I don't know if you've ever seen this fight.

The fight starts. Bam!

Knockdowns everywhere.

COMMENTATOR: He's in big trouble!

COOPER: What happened was he came out trying to box

and he got hit upside the chin

and the boxing skills,

the late Gil Clancy, who was a teacher, had taught him,

they went out to the wind.

COMMENT AT 0R: ...lands a big left hook...

COOPER: And the fight became a street fight.

They knuckled down the other way.

COMMENTATOR: What a round of boxing this is! Big left hook!

A third, fourth...

(INDISTINCT COMMENTARY)

Can he get this drawn?

George is staggering now. George is hit with a vicious left hook.

Inside of ten seconds to go.

And George is ready to go, believe it or not.

There it is!

He drops the champion!

FOREMAN: I remember him hitting me so hard and I'm on the floor thinking,

"What excuses have you got now?"

Cos I remember thinking the ropes were loose in Africa,

someone put something in my water. I had all kind of excuses.

This time, couldn't think of an excuse.

I had to get up.

COMMENTATOR: George gets up. This is one of the great rounds of all time.

FOREMAN: And I remember thinking, "Before I lose,

I'll die."

"So he's gonna have to kill me tonight."

I'd never felt that before.

I'll die first.

(CROWD CHEERS)

(BELL muss)

COOPER: Now, he's maybe a step or two away from a championship fight...

and he decides to take a fight with Jimmy Young.

FOREMAN: I'm back number one contender of the world

and commissions were saying, "Look, if George Foreman fights Jimmy Young,

the winner of that fight, if George wins,

we're gonna demand Ali fight Foreman

or he's gonna be stripped of his title."

This arena may have had a ceiling fan or two in it.

No air conditioner. And it was hot.

(BELL muss)

I was drenched when the fight was over myself.

COMMENTATOR: To begin round one, scheduled for 12.

TRAMPLER: I was in Puerto Rico when he fought Jimmy Young.

COMMENTATOR: Foreman is staggered.

TRAMPLER: He got dropped in the fight.

It was a bad style for him.

A smart boxer, a guy who could move.

(BELL muss)

(CROWD CHEERS, SHOUTS)

FOREMAN: Going to a decision, Jimmy Young had won that boxing match.

All I can remember that night is I was tired.

That was the most heat I'd ever felt in my life.

I went back to my dressing room and then I went on the trip of my life,

fighting for my life in the dressing room.

I was gonna die.

Right in my thoughts I heard, "Why you afraid to die?"

I was scared.

I was gonna die in a stupid, nasty dressing room

that didn't even have air conditioning.

I had all these homes and I tried to make a deal.

I said, "I'm still George Foreman."

"I can box and I can give money to charity and cancer."

And I heard a voice within me say, "I don't want your money. I want you."

I remember a tear came. I was like, "Oh, death?"

My leg gave out on me and I said, "Hey, y'all, I'm fixing it."

Before I could say another word, I was dead.

Over my head, under my feet, around me was nothing.

Just a horrible old smell of death and I was in this dump yard of nothing.

TRAMPLER: I had guys on the undercard that day

and I went into the dressing room and I heard the shouting and the commotion

and it was a sight you'll never forget.

It just...

I mean, I actually ran out of the room because I was so concerned about George.

I started screaming, "Jesus Christ is coming alive in me."

Boy, they put the tomahawk and full-nelson on me trying to hold me

because I'd taken off my clothes.

I said, "I gotta go tell the world!"

I guess they were saying, "Put some clothes on, George."

I followed eight men to get into a shower and started screaming,

"Hallelujah, I'm clean! Hallelujah, I'm born again!"

They finally strapped me down, held me down on the table

and I started reciting the Bible.

I kissed everyone in the room, told them I loved them. I just couldn't stop.

COOPER: I was outside the locker room.

I didn't know what was going on in that room,

but he went through something for about an hour at least,

in the dressing room with all the screaming and hollering going on.

I said, "Wait! Don't let Jesus go!"

Cos I know he was going.

Finally, I said, "Now go to my father which is in heaven." Boom!

And I was left in this dressing room just as embarrassed.

I said, "You witnessed a miracle and you're not gonna believe it."

That happened to me and for ten years I didn't even make a fist.

I didn't shadowbox, I didn't box.

I left it and became an evangelist

with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

FOREMAN SINGS: ♪ We are climbing

♪ Jacob's ladder

♪ We are climbing

♪ Yes, Jacob's ladder a'

FOREMAN: Everyone thought I was crazy. Everyone.

And I just couldn't box any more.

I'd go to the gym originally

and that punching bag was Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Ken Norton.

I went in there it was just rag, piece of leather,

and it wasn't anybody any more and I couldn't do that.

I just stopped boxing.

Even my mom thought I was crazy.

She said, "Our families were saying

we need to put George in a rest home, you know."

COOPER: He cut his hairstyle.

He changed his wearing of clothes.

And then this happened. He started giving away stuff.

He was giving away cars, big-screen TVs, furniture, everything.

And for ten years he didn't watch television.

FOREMAN JR: He used to tell us about the cars he had

and tell us about the homes he had in Beverly Hills

and River Oaks in Houston,

but I'd never seen them and I thought he was telling us about a fairy tale.

COOPER: He went from 220 or whatever, 230 at that time,

all the way up to 300 pounds.

And people laughed at him

and criticized him, called him all kind of names.

BROWN: Well, I went to his home

and there were some tremendous changes in his life.

That's the night that I got knocked out in Africa.

And that's to remind me that God had mercy on me.

BROWN: One of the beautiful things that he did is he acknowledged

the ability of Muhammad Ali and acknowledged that loss

and put a shrine up in his home

and gave Ali all the credit in the world.

This is the proof that I was in the fight with him.

He punched me right on the eye. (LAUGHS)

BROWN: I hadn't had an athlete that could accept defeat

and recognize the greatness of another man the way he did.

In the world, I-l actually hated him.

And today, he's like one of my children, to be honest with you.

I talk with him all the time. I love him now.

I'd found me. Really found myself.

And I was ordained an evangelist at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And from that point on, I was the preacher.

To be honest with you, I didn't think that was truly God.

All the people I'd seen gravitate to that were poor people,

broken-hearted people.

You see someone's husband leave them, then they have a Bible or some guy

come out of jail after so many years, he has a Bible.

I said, "That's not me." Or broke people.

I didn't believe in religion.

My mom said, "Oh, Lord," but I thought that was cos she was broke all the time.

In my life, I had not been sold on anything, boxing or anything,

but once I found my religion,

I was sold and I started to talk and it was about keeping me quiet then.

(CHUCKLES)

Jesus! Jesus!

I put down boxing and everything that had to do with boxing,

so that people could learn about Jesus Christ.

TRAMPLER: One day I was with some friends and they said,

"There's George Foreman preaching on the corner."

And I-l didn't go up and say anything.

I actually was a little uncomfortable that he was in that position.

God is a wake-up artist.

When God say you got to move, you got to move!

BROWN: I'm not really like a guy that wants to be baptized.

Anything like that.

But I had so much respect for him, I decided I would let him baptize me.

And I'm so happy that I did that...

because he proved to be everything that a man should be after that.

LAMPLEY: There's a moment somewhere in there when George has kind of epiphany

and says to himself, "I'm not really a mean-spirited SOB."

"That's not me."

Now I can't understand how another man would ball up his fist

and put on gloves and try and knock another man unconscious.

I just can't see it. I don't understand how I did it.

I couldn't do that again.

(CHOIR SINGS AMAZING GRACE)

FOREMAN: There's a Bible scripture and it goes like this.

"Let your light so shine before men

that they may see your good works

and glorify your father, which is in heaven."

What I try to do now is... Talk is cheap.

It's all living.

And maybe by my life, they can see the light.

(CHOIR SINGS AMAZING GRACE)

This is where it all started and finished with me and boxing.

This is the last ring I worked out in.

It was constructive for me, so to speak.

And then hopefully it'll be the home of another George Foreman.

There were some kids that their parents wanted me to help them with boxing

and get them in the ring and get them off the streets, the mothers did.

That prompt me to take my life savings,

start the George Foreman Youth and Community Center,

along with my brother, Roy.

I started a hangout, never a sermon, just a hangout with them.

And it doesn't matter what people think,

so long as I don't drop that baton Lyndon Johnson gave me,

1965, when he pulled me out of the gutter,

and it didn't matter what people thought.

He said, "I'm going to help George Foreman and guys like him."

FOREMAN JR: When he opened the George Foreman Youth Centre,

he was happy going to do that every day.

I mean, really, I would get in, jump in the car with him

and he was motivated to go to the Youth Center and work with kids.

Doing a good evangelistic work was one thing,

but I wanted to make sure I wouldn't lose the reach on the young kids,

and I had to find a happy medium where I could meet up with these kids

and not push any religion on them.

Just try to get...

Get yourself together, your mind and your body.

Then you'll find if kids start thinking about themselves in that area,

they start taking care of their soul.

The Youth Center started to take every dime I could get,

and I started speaking around the country

to support the Youth Center.

Once, one of the preachers who had me and hosted me said,

"We're gonna raise money for George Foreman and his kids,"

and I stayed there for three days.

And as he was raising money, the people looking at me behind the pulpit.

He said, "This isn't enough money! Surely we can help George more."

I never felt so ashamed in my life.

FOREMAN JR: He was used to being rich and taking care of things

and he didn't have that any more.

That's what made him really start thinking

about how he could keep that open and make a future,

not only for the kids at the Youth Center, but his family.

FOREMAN: And I remember saying right there,

"I'll never ask anyone for money again."

"I'm gonna be heavyweight champion. That's how I'll get my money."

I went to my wife and told her, "Look..."

"I just... I've run out of money. I'm gonna have to go back into boxing."

She pleaded, "Don't do it. They're gonna kill you, George."

"You're not that guy anymore."

And I even brought my kids around and told them.

Of course when your father says, "I'm gonna come back to boxing

and be the heavyweight champion of the world,"

you say, "OK, Dad."

But I'd never seen him skip rope, never seen him put on any boxing trunks,

never seen him hit the bag, never seen him do anything like that.

FOREMAN: First thing I did was get on the scale.

315 pounds.

I said, "Oh, no," so I thought, "I need better scales." (LAUGHS)

FOREMAN JR". The early days of training

before he started putting a lot of miles jogging,

he would walk and I would see him walk around the backyard,

walk around the track, and use pennies to count his laps.

FOREMAN: Then I made an announcement to my friends I was coming back.

The newspaper got a hold to it

and they start talking about me as bad as they could.

What are you making of George Foreman?

It's a living advertisement for why boxing should be abolished.

People just don't come back after ten years

and perform at the highest levels of their craft.

He has gone from being spectacular to becoming a spectacle.

COOPER: They thought it was a joke. They thought he was just a big joke.

And that he would flop and fall flat on his face.

Tomorrow night veteran boxer George Foreman will put on the gloves

and climb back into the ring after almost a decade in retirement.

Some sceptics think that this is just ridiculous.

Foreman is just too old.

FOREMAN JR: When he was in Sacramento, California

and he fought a gentleman named Steve Zouski, I believe,

and he was in the ring and he had his shirt off.

I don't remember seeing my father with his shirt off before,

so he took that shirt off and that was a big deal.

And he was throwing punches.

I had never seen my actual father throwing punches.

COMMENTATOR: The basic questions about Foreman's comeback.

His age, at around 40.

FOREMAN: I had to start from the bottom.

COMMENT AT OR: And also the quality of his opponents.

FOREMAN: The minor leagues all over again.

I was back in the back of the bus. (CHUCKLES)

COMMENTATOR: The inactivity. He was out for ten years.

COOPER: He started off fighting you and I.

Guys like you and I nobody never heard of.

COMMENT AT OR: He started the comeback at 325 pounds.

FOREMAN: I knew I wouldn't be able to take up

where I'd left off ten years ago.

I was not as fast any more because of the extra weight.

I would have to change my style.

COMMENTATOR: And George Foreman is now 11 for 11 in his comeback bid.

REPORTER: Boxing smart money says George Foreman's comeback is a fraud,

that flattening one palooka after another is little more than flim-flam.

FERDIE PACHECO: He fought 19 people

that were what we call in the parlance of boxing, dead men.

"Stiffs" is another word. "Tomato cans" is another word.

What they mean is they were not opponents that would fight back.

They were opponents that were there to get knocked out.

FOREMAN: I kept boxing. City to city.

Every reporter would take a shot at me. "George is this..."

And they'd come out and give me long pieces too.

"He'll never do it."

And they just take up the paper criticizing me.

In the same time, they were making me all famous again.

ARUM: I had heard that he had had a couple of fights...

and out of the blue I got a call from him

and he wanted me to promote him,

but I remembered the old George Foreman.

And I told him that I had no interest

in subjecting myself to that kind of person.

He says, "Look, I'm getting on a plane and I'm coming to see you anyway."

And he sits down and starts talking to me.

I sort of scratched my head and I said,

"This is the best con man that I had ever, ever met,"

because he was respectful, he was nice, he was intelligent.

And I said, you know, "He's, he's putting me on,"

which is the most amazing thing

because the new George Foreman

turned out to be the real George Foreman.

Without further ado, the Chairman of the Board of Top Rank, Bob Arum.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming.

This press conference is to announce the fight that everybody is talking about,

the preacher, George Foreman, against the puncher, Gerry Cooney.

That fight, I was nervous.

Gerry Cooney was a big guy

and had a heavy punch.

EVANDER HOLYHELD: Now he finally got somebody whose arms is longer than his.

He's not the peak guy no more.

What happens when a man fight somebody his size?

- (BELL DINGS) - COMMENTATOR: Here we go!

COONEY: I thought I was gonna win.

(LAUGHS)

But, you know, some days you get the eggs and some days you get the shells.

COMMENTATOR: Oh! And look at the left come up and slice right.

And Gerry Cooney's in big trouble. He's ready to go!

And there he goes!

ANNOUNCER: Two! Three! Four!

COMMENTATOR: And he is badly hurt!

TRAMPLER: That was like George's coming-out party.

I'm back, I'm a legitimate contender, and, Holyfield, you're in trouble.

And I'm like, "Wow. You know what?"

"He is slow, but it do connect."

COMMENTATOR: Oh! And that's it!

And I don't think... This fight's over.

HOLYFIELD: Boom!

That was it! Folded good!

COMMENTATOR: George Foreman...

makes believers of some, definitely of Gerry Cooney.

LAMPLEY: It wasn't just a knockout. It was an easy knockout.

And that raised eyebrows and that got the public starting to think,

"Oh, you know, he's still George Foreman."

"He still has that unbelievable punching power,

even though he's got a belly

and he looks like he's shambling around in his pajamas."

"He's, he's still got something."

HOLYHELD: At that time I was the heavyweight champion of the world

and I was like, "You had your time, but it's my time now."

COMMENTATOR: And we have a new heavyweight champion of the world,

Evander Holyfield.

In my estimation, Evander Holyfield

could be one of the three greatest heavyweights that ever lived.

Here's a guy who's light heavyweight champion,

cruiserweight champion, heavyweight champion of the world.

COMMENTATOR: Down goes McDonagh through the ropes!

WEPNER: I mean, this guy makes no mistakes in the ring.

FOREMAN: He was champion of the world. He needed lots of money.

And the only one who had done publicity enough was George Foreman.

I'm just a big old baby boomer

and I'm gonna lower a boom on that baby, Evander Holyfield.

MAN: George Foreman.

Mr. Foreman, if you think you're gonna beat me,

you off of your rocker.

MAN: Evander Holyfield. April 19th live from Trump Plaza, TVKO.

ARUM: From then on it was like a real wild ride

because the, the press was on his case,

A, because he was relatively old for a fighter,

you know, hadn't fought in 10 years,

and, B, he was a little heavy.

Heavyweight contender George Foreman

who was born with a fork in his hand and a smile on his face...

One of the fighters takes that description "heavyweight"

very seriously.

REPORTER: The clock will not go back.

That is not a fact, what you're saying.

The fact is I can become heavyweight champion if I want to at any age.

We talked about the age thing

and that's when he came up with the idea

that age is just a number and it really doesn't mean anything.

When I knock him out, there'll be no if, ands and buts about it.

The age of 40 is not a death sentence after all.

My mama always taught me to respect my elder.

- (CROWD LAUGHS) - But...

ARUM: But he was very sensitive with people making fun of his weight

and I said, "George, we're gonna play this for all it's worth."

So at the press conference I had the waiters at the hotel

with platters of hamburgers come in

and that picture went all over.

The fight would have never been what it came out to be

if it wasn't for George.

The preaching really helped me because I'd learned to sell.

FOREMAN: When I get in the ring with Holyfield,

you're gonna see a guy closer to 50 than he is to... to 20

jump in the ring,

too big for the title belt to fit around his waist.

(CROWD LAUGHS)

FOREMAN: I'd get on the television, for a second

and I'd look at the camera and say, "Yeah, they say I'm 40."

"Yes, they say I'm 50, but I'm gonna show you, it's not a death sentence."

"I can be the heavyweight champion of the world." Boom!

Finally, they start giving me ten second, 20 second, then 30 seconds.

HOLYHELD: People loved him!

He made all his fame work.

And, you know, at that time it was the biggest payday they ever had,

in boxing, because of George.

There was 15 million cable homes

that could buy the fight on Pay-Per-View

and we sold a 1,500,000 homes.

10%, a little over 10%, which nobody's ever done before or since.

I'm gonna be the next heavyweight champion of the world. It's my destiny.

Nobody can stop me.

I'm not the best fighter in the world,

but I've got something that every fighter needs, the third punch.

If I throw and miss you with my left, boom,

and miss you with my right, boom, then I'll belly-bump you.

(CROWD LAUGHS, APPLAUDS)

FOREMAN JR: I remember him holding up a big tray of hamburgers

and say that he was gonna eat Baskin Robbins

and he was gonna belly-bump him.

And I was thinking, "Whoa, I think you better take this guy serious."

COMMENTATOR: And now, to enter the ring first,

the unlikely central figure in this six-month comic opera,

which is about to become a savage drama.

George Foreman.

And of course you have to differentiate and say,

"This is serious, the fight, George."

I had to keep telling myself that

because I'd done so much promotional work for this boxing match.

And of course I'd put myself on the scale of all these kids

watching me and friends.

I couldn't be this angry old guy.

I had to learn how to win without any trace of anger.

ANNOUNCER: It's the battle of the ages.

Twelve rounds of boxing for the heavyweight championship of the world.

FOREMAN: The night of that Holyfield fight was a scary moment for me

because they all looked over... It was Muhammad Ali.

Here's the guy who had dethroned me all those years.

(CROWD CHEERS, SHOUTS)

He walked over and whispered,

"Oh, you're gonna be champ, you're gonna be champ."

And still there was enough skepticism

that there weren't many people on the ground

who really expected that George could be competitive against Evander Holyfield.

April 9, 1991, Atlantic City. That was when the...

That was when the, the comeback took on an entirely different character.

COMMENTATOR: And now let's see.

ls George Foreman for real

or is this the farce that many critics have said it will be?

Budding left hand from Foreman and Holyfield backs onto the ropes.

Crowd gets excited.

Power to the body from Foreman.

Holyfield not as resolute all of a sudden.

Closing stages of round two

and Evander is suddenly much more careful.

Now you're watching that and suddenly you realize this is a serious fight.

This is a very serious fight.

And Foreman has a chance against the heavyweight champion of the world.

COMMENTATOR: Right hand on the surface of Holyfield's head

and he's momentarily stunned.

Now he steps back up inside.

But if there were any remaining doubts

about the legitimacy of George's chances,

he may have erased them in the last 30 seconds.

(BELL muss)

(CROWD CHEERS)

I never in my whole career fought nobody that was stronger than George.

George caught me one time in that fight

and I thought he knocked all my teeth out.

And I go back to the corner.

I said, "Did he knock all my teeth out?" Like this.

They said, "Everything is OK."

There wasn't a fighter that I can't push back.

I couldn't push George at all.

And so all right, you know, I realize that, "OK, then,

but I got these other skills that he don't have."

COMMENTATOR: But in the closing minute of the round,

George landed those gloves

and now Evander seems anxious to set things right.

Left, right, left by Holyfield!

And a left and a right and Foreman's in serious trouble.

Another left hook and a right!

FOREMAN JR: Now, seeing my father get hit with 21 straight punches?

COMMENTATOR: Will George go down?

FOREMAN JR: You don't wanna see that.

But all he taught us was, "Keep fighting, keep fighting."

COMMENTATOR: A lobbing right hand and Holyfield grabs and holds on.

George still with some shock.

FOREMAN JR: The last thing I remember was Holyfield holding my father,

while my father was still trying to give that last punch.

HOLYHELD: When it came to that, the last round that everybody said,

"Why did you hold the old man?"

I said, "But I won 11 rounds. I wasn't gonna let him."

"Is it mean for me to hold him?" I was gonna hold him that last round.

I wasn't gonna let... You gonna have one good round and you gonna win?

No. No, listen. Not with me.

(CROWD CHEERS)

COMMENT AT OR: And the crowd is up on its feet.

And then the crowd standing

and giving him an ovation and really cheering.

ANNOUNCER: The winner by unanimous decision

and still undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,

the real deal, Evander Holyfield.

FOREMAN JR: And that's when I knew, you know what?

He might have lost the fight, but he won that night.

You know we've got a big show this week. We've got a special guest.

A very special guest.

The former and maybe future heavyweight champion of the world.

Let's bring him out here, Mr. More Power himself, George Foreman. Yeah!

(AUDIENCE CHEERS)

FOREMAN JR". The first time I noticed

that his fame and profile was really getting noticed

was when he was on a Nike Bo Jackson commercial.

FOREMAN JR: As a kid, "Bo knows" was everything.

And then there was a George Foreman and Bo Jackson commercial

and it said "George knows".

Hit it!

I thought, "Wow! He's famous."

I am not going to pay a lot for this muffler!

By George, I think he's got it!

FOREMAN: Endorsements came in.

So many things came in

and it soaked up my life. I enjoyed that part of it. I really did.

LAMPLEY: You can go a long way in America if the smile looks genuine.

And George's smile is for real.

FOREMAN: I did a commercial once. It was Doritos.

I never eat Doritos. I'm in the room. They had them out there with dips.

I started eating those things.

I'd eat so many bags of those things.

I love those things.

Then they started shooting the commercial. Who could deny Doritos?

George, how many pounds away are we from 225 pounds?

Uh, not that far away.

If I look a little heavy, it's that camera. The camera adds pounds.

It does it to all of us. No question about it.

And now we're looking for a brand-new expert commentator.

Well, there's no bigger public figure in the sport at that moment than George.

It was an obvious choice.

But I could tell that there were gonna be some challenges there.

Larry, you and George, I'm told, have been known to disagree.

What do you think of all this?

He had, it seemed like a kind of ingrained habit,

that if, if Larry and I said the sky was blue,

George was gonna say, "I'm not so sure."

"Uh, doesn't necessarily look blue to me."

"I'm not sure why you guys think it's blue.

I mean, that was just the way he was thinking.

MERCHANT: You think these guys are champions?

- FOREMAN: They fought like champions. - MERCHANT: You do?

You and I couldn't disagree more about that, George.

But you don't know boxing, Larry. You just see boxing.

Well, George, I know I wasn't

the heavyweight champion of the world, like you,

but I think I've watched a lot of boxing.

He and George became a kind of frick and frack, you know,

constantly arguing with each other.

- You cannot be serious. - (LAUGHS)

LAMPLEY: But we became popular.

We became popular as a threesome partially because of the disagreements,

partially because George was just so endearing, so charming.

- I'm George Junior. - I'm George Foreman Ill.

I'm George Foreman IV.

MERCHANT: The fact that he named all of his children

as George or Georgettes or Georginas

was also some kind of endearing original...

part of his narrative.

Who had ever heard of anything like that?

U' WE'RE ALL MADE OF STARS from FINDING NEVERLAND Mays I')

FOREMAN JR: During that time there was an ABC show called "George".

Hi, Daddy. Let's go the distance.

The second round will never see

because I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

Boxing was getting kind of secondary.

George, we have to have a little discussion

about your recent lack of get-up-and-go.

Ah, people always...

FOREMAN JR: That's a good thing out of the ring, but in the ring

that was taking him away from his goals.

George, you haven't been to the gym in weeks. Look at you.

You are 40.

Ah, don't start that nasty 40 business.

(CROWD CHEERS)

TRAMPLER: After losing to Holyfield, George wasn't gonna give up.

And we were able to get him with Tommy Morrison.

COMMENTATOR: And we begin round one. It's scheduled for 12.

Very few think it will last that long.

TRAMPLER: I honestly thought George was going to destroy him.

COMMENT AT OR: Foreman lands a good punch.

Morrison, wild, missed both times.

TRAMPLER: But Morrison somehow came up with the, the best game plan ever.

He boxed. He moved.

COMMENTATOR: I am telling you, Morrison throws a big bag of wheat.

And George, I don't think he prepared properly.

Uh, George ran second.

He was doing the TV show.

He had... He was focused on other things.

FOREMAN JR: Before the Tommy Morrison fight he was hitting the bag

on the set of "George," on the TV show, you know?

It's really hard to be the biggest boxer

and have a TV show at the same time!

My fight will not be against Morrison, it will be against the rocking chair.

This is where I wanna go out of boxing.

Probably no-one will ever see me in a boxing ring again.

COMMENT ATOR: This could be the last 2:08 of George Foreman's boxing career.

At the end of the fight, Tommy Morrison got his hand raised

and he won the fight.

COMMENTATOR: George Foreman's legendary comeback is finished.

FOREMAN JR: After he lost to Morrison,

really he started spending time on the ranch.

And we're riding horses,

um, really working the ranch, working hard.

Fast-forward to, uh, 1994

and when Michael Moorer wins the heavyweight champion.

(BELL muss)

ANNOUNCER: And new heavyweight champion of the world...

LAMPLEY: Michael Moorer is another heavyweight champion.

What does he wanna do? He wants to make money!

So, he does the same thing that Holyfield did.

Let's go straight to George.

That's the way to get the biggest audience.

And I'm sure that Moorer, at age 26,

unbeaten, having just beaten Evander Holyfield,

didn't really believe in his heart

that there was gonna be that big a challenge in fighting George Foreman.

TRAMPLER: When George agreed to fight Moorer,

he had no more choices.

It was either beat this guy and win it or, or you're done.

He was getting older.

Uh, he didn't have a lot of credibility left

and people were saying, "George, maybe it's just not meant to be."

"Maybe it's not gonna happen."

FOREMAN JR: Then you hear that he's gonna fight Michael Moorer.

Now, Michael Moorer, me being a boxing fan...

I remember him as a middleweight,

a light-heavyweight, and now a heavyweight.

I watched the Holyfield fight.

I watched him do, like, amazing things as a... as a contender coming up.

So, I didn't like that idea of him fighting Michael Moorer.

I didn't like that.

LAMPLEY: I worked with George at that time

and for months prior to the fight I would say to him,

"George, how are you even gonna find Moorer?"

"Holyfield couldn't find him and Holyfield's much more mobile

and much more of a mover in the ring than you are.

"And, you know, this guy's a southpaw, doesn't move in a conventional way."

"Uh, he's 26 years old. He's quicker than you are."

I just don't understand exactly what is the plan.

And George said to me, "You watch."

"Late in the fight at some point,

he'll stand in front of me and allow me to knock him out."

I knew a secret George had

in regards to what he did to work on that kind of punch,

the way to take you out with one punch.

It's an exercise that you can... do with a hatchet.

If you looked at his arms at the time, you saw how big they were.

They were chiseled like that because of that exercise

and because he was taking that axe and just kind of chopping it into the tree.

COMMENTATOR: Tonight live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada,

as Michael Moorer, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion,

defends his title against the one and only George Foreman.

It's scheduled for 12 rounds.

FOREMAN: The most important thing in this boxing match I had going

that Michael Moorer didn't have,

I wanted to be there.

I ran up the, the aisle, jumped into the ring

and it wasn't like I wanted someone else to be there.

This was gonna be my opportunity to fight for the championship of the world.

All the instructions, all the trainings had come to head now.

ANNOUNCER: Twelve rounds of boxing

for the heavyweight championship of the world.

Tonight, he steps into this ring ready to put his perfect record on the line.

Presenting the undefeated

heavyweight champion of the world,

Michael

Moorer!

(CROWD CHEERS)

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing from Houston, Texas, the challenger,

the former heavyweight

champion of the world,

Big George Foreman.

(CROWD CHEERS)

(BELL muss)

FOREMAN: The idea was to surprise Michael Moorer.

He didn't expect me to stand up.

You see, I instantly started to jab right on top of his hands,

stopping his punches.

COMMENTATOR: Expect Moorer to start off working behind the right jab

that served him so well in the battle with Holyfield.

FOREMAN: And I'd learned take your time, be patient.

Never a rope-a-dope again.

I was the dope. Not again.

He'd go to the body.

But I was protected with cheeseburgers at this time. He couldn't hurt me.

There's another right hand.

What bothered me is the commentators didn't even see that.

They were so full of their predictions of what was gonna happen,

they didn't even look at the fight.

COMMENT AT OR: George just couldn't get off.

He's gonna have to punch and try to club him and keep feeding him.

But I don't think that's gonna happen.

COMMENTATOR: George refuses to sit down between rounds, Gil, and stands up.

Does that make it harder for the cut man to do his work?

You know, I was so big if I sat down, I wouldn't be able to get up.

That's why I didn't sit. (LAUGHS)

COMMENTATOR: They threw equal punches in round number one,

but according to punch stat numbers,

Moorer landed at twice as high a rate.

Sharp right by Moorer who seems to be gaining confidence.

Good right hand by Moorer.

Moorer misses with the right, but lands the left.

TRAMPLER: Going into the fight I gave George a good shot,

but as the, as the fight went on, round after round,

you start losing hope.

You just say, "Maybe it just isn't meant to be."

COMMENTATOR: George's left eye is starting to swell already.

Solid left hand over the top by Moorer!

Backing Foreman up again.

(BELL RINGS)

The heavy blows in that round were landed by the champion.

(CROWD CHEERS)

Harold Lederman, how do you see it so far?

LEDERMAN". Jim, four rounds to nothing, 40 to 36, Michael Moorer.

Boxing judges are definitely...

ARUM: It wasn't even a close fight

and Moorer was winning every round.

I'll be... Even myself I gave up hope.

COMMENTATOR: In round four, Moorer stepped up his activity level.

He threw 65 punches in that round.

Michael Mccrer, it's locking as though his respect for Foreman decreases

from round to round.

I have a sense here, Gil,

that Moorer feels as though he has felt Foreman's power

and it's not gonna hurt him.

ARUM: And I remember my wife sitting next to me

and she said, "Don't get yourself down. It's hopeless."

(BELL RINGS)

COMMENT AT OR: Seven rounds in the books.

Harold Lederman, how do you see it so far?

LEDERMAN: Jim, six rounds to one, 69-64,

commanding five-point lead for Michael Moorer.

FOREMAN: So, he win the round.

That's not my aim to win the round. (SCOFFS)

Now I'm looking for a knockout, though, that's for sure.

COMMENT AT OR: Solid right hand by Moorer.

Foreman's left eye beginning to close.

Much quicker getting his punches away than George. That's no big surprise.

FOREMAN: He catches me asleep. He got me with two of them.

And I can say that didn't hurt, but I'd be lying.

(LAUGHS)

I'd be telling a lie.

COMMENTATOR: There are the right hands.

Moorer landing two in rapid-fire succession.

Left hand over the top lands for Moorer.

Foreman takes another step backward.

GIL: I'm surprised Moorer is just out there fencing with George.

COMMENTATOR: I think he thinks he's gonna knock him out.

I thought that he would fight cautiously and work for a decision.

But he now looks to me

as though he thinks he's gonna be able to knock Foreman out

and he thinks he'll do it by standing in front of him and trading shots.

HOLYHELD: I-l felt that Moorer disrespect him

because he wanted to knock him out, more so than just beat him, you know?

You know, I wanted to knock George out,

but I hit him with 17 punches unanswered

and, and he still stayed up.

COMMENTATOR: Upper cut by Moorer, blasted Foreman's chin backward.

But you notice, he hit me and didn't run away

and I'm really thinking, this is delicious.

I don't like being hit now,

but the idea that someone is hitting me and standing right there?

You're supposed to run.

I barely missed him then.

You can see, in another round I'll get a little closer.

COMMENTATOR: And George makes it out of the round

that bedeviled him in Zaire 20 years ago.

That's the moment I was really tired, about the ninth round,

when I hear that ten-second, ding, ding,

I was like, "I can't wait to get to my corner."

And in the corner, Angelo Dundee upset me.

He came back and started talking about,

"I hate to say it, but you're falling behind on points,"

and I got so upset.

Like I said, I'm not trying to win a fight on points.

COMMENTATOR: In round nine, George Foreman threw only 35 punches.

His activity level dropping now.

Earlier in the fight, he was routinely throwing

between 50 and 60 punches in each round.

Right hand landed there and another.

A right and a left and suddenly Moorer stops bunting

and it's Foreman's initiative.

GIL: There's that competitive spirit of George's again.

He feels he's nailed Moorer with a good punch and he's a good finisher.

He knows how to do it, but he's in with a tough guy.

The punch is the only thing that followed me all my life.

Went into the ring the first time and I hit a guy and he went down

and I said, "What happened? I thought we were supposed to box."

COMMENTATOR: Give him all the credit in the world,

but, again, he's a 45-year-old man in a young man's game.

In the first nine rounds of fight,

he, he doesn't throw a single meaningful left hook.

If you watch that last round,

in the first 30 or 40 seconds of that last round,

he throws two big sweeping left hooks.

COMMENTATOR: Foreman wading in to set up a left hook.

And another left hook!

And another left hook shot that missed.

And that was for the purpose of stopping Michael from moving in this direction

and making him be stationary, so that George could knock him out.

COMMENT AT OR: Right hand landing for Foreman.

He's had a pretty good round here in number ten.

GIL: That's the best right hand in the fight.

COMMENTATOR: Down goes Moorer on a right hand!

An unbelievably close and right-hand shot.

(CROWD CHEERS, SHOUTS)

After those months of talking to George and George, you know, predicting for me,

what was going to happen,

suddenly I'm looking at Moorer on the canvas.

The first thought in my mind is, "Why didn't I formulate a line for this?"

CUTMAN: Five, six, seven, eight...

You would have thought that I might be well prepared enough

to at least have thought of some reasonable thing to say.

That George is going to win the heavyweight championship again

because Moorer is not gonna get up.

He's not gonna beat this count.

And all I could think to myself is, "You idiot."

"You didn't prepare in the way that you should have."

And the only thing that came to mind was...

COMMENTATOR: It happened! It happened!

(CROWD CHEERS)

GIL: I can't believe it! I can't believe it.

LAMPLEY: "It happened, it happened"

sounds like it's about "OK, he knocked out Michael Moorer."

But to me it was all the stuff he told me.

Everything he said to me for months about what was going to happen.

It happened.

I will say, to my dying day,

"Yes, he issued the prophecy."

"He said it would work that way."

Look at Bob Arum.

He grabbed me. He said, "Praise the Lord!"

(LAUGHS)

ARUM: I jumped in the ring

and went over to him and hugged him

and that's one of my favorite pictures.

COMMENTATOR: As referee Joe Cortez waved his arms over Moorer,

George Foreman knelt in prayer in the neutral corner.

GIL: You know, this is a two-to-one fight,

but in my mind it was gazillion to one that George Foreman

could ever win the heavyweight championship again.

This is a really remarkable achievement.

That's the one thing I said George couldn't do.

He couldn't get you out with one punch.

But, boy, he sure fooled me and Michael Moorer.

COMMENTATOR: It landed on the point of the chin.

GIL: Right on the button where it says goodnight.

COMMENTATOR: You see the blood welling up behind Moorerk lips

as he momentarily went to sleep.

The 68th man in 26 years

to have fallen before the professional fury of George Foreman.

FOREMAN JR". It was unbelievable to me.

I just remembered him talking to me when I was in the seventh grade.

I'm playing college basketball now, I'm a grown man,

and in the seventh grade he said I was gonna be the heavyweight champion.

COMMENTATOR: So you've got a 45-year-old heavyweight champion.

Let's go to Michael Buffer for the official particulars.

ANNOUNCER: Here at the MGM Grand, the impossible dream has happened.

The winner

and once again heavyweight champion of world,

Big George

Foreman.

(CROWD CHEERS)

INTERVIEWER: George, you're a far different fighter

than you were when last I saw you 20 years ago.

Would George Foreman today have stood a chance against that George Foreman?

No doubt about it cos I'm using brain power now.

You would have stood a chance?

I would have gotten out of the way

and then waited and knocked a young George Foreman out.

TRAMPLER: In my opinion, the second George Foreman

would have beaten the first one

cos he was smarter, he was calmer, he was more patient.

He didn't get excited.

(CROWD CHEERS, SHOUTS)

LAMPLEY: He was so much the opposite of, of the first guy.

COMMENT AT OR: Right hand landed there. And another.

LAM P L EY: Smarter. Better.

More well rounded. Greater technical craft.

Number two George beats number one George, I'm pretty sure.

DUNDEE: If the old George Foreman had fought Muhammad in Zaire,

he wouldn't have been affected by Zaire.

If he'd have been the guy that he was when he came back,

it would have been maybe a different ball game.

ARUM: I love my promotional career having been associated with him

and to see what he became,

both as an athlete, but more important as a person.

Well, he became this beloved figure.

Um, we can change.

This is a country where people come to reinvent themselves.

HOLYHELD: He, he made a transition.

And it's one of the things that a lot of people think,

being that bad guy, it's easier.

But my mama always told me,

"Ah, well, you be that bad guy and you really not that bad guy,"

they gonna hold you there a lot longer than you want to be."

All right? So my mama... "Never pretend to be something that you not."

FOREMAN". I was victorious that night and celebrated the best I could,

but I thought about Michael Moorer

and the night I lost the championship by surprise to Muhammad Ali.

And I sat in my dressing room.

Joe Frazier came to the room

and sat with me and consoled me.

Of all the people in the world it was Joe Frazier to come and comfort me.

And I hoped Michael Moorer was able to find that person in his room that night.

TRAMPLER: You know, to me, George Foreman

is the last great American heavyweight. There hasn't been a better one since

and there were very few better ones before him.

I think it's one of the greatest individual accomplishments in sports

and I'm not certain to what you would compare it.

This man won what we used to call

the biggest individual prize in global sport.

Twice, 21 years apart,

as two different fighters

and even more to the point, as two different human beings.

You know that after beating Moorer that you'd finally exorcised

the bitter memory of your loss to Muhammad Ali.

You've heard from Muhammad since your victory, right?

He sent me a telegram and signed it.

You know, congratulations. You showed that you had the courage and the guts.

When that man tell you you got guts,

you feel like, "Hey, I've gotten there now."

MERCHANT: George, nothing has symbolized you

as much as your farewell to boxing.

Thank you very much.

I wouldn't want it to do it with anyone better than Larry Merchant.

God bless you.

And remember the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine.

No home should be without this thing. God bless you. Go get one.