{"id":347331,"date":"2025-12-15T19:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/347331\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T19:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:25:07","slug":"george-foreman-named-the-only-man-he-avoided-during-his-81-fight-career-its-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/347331\/","title":{"rendered":"George Foreman named the only man he avoided during his 81 fight career: “It’s the truth”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is difficult to imagine George Foreman<\/a> refusing to fight anyone, yet that is exactly what he did during his remarkable second career.<\/p>\n

After a 10-year absence from the ring, \u201cBig George\u201d returned in March 1987, stopping Steve Zouski in four rounds. It was his first victory since halting Pedro Agosto in January 1977. The 1968 Olympic gold medallist would go on to cap one of boxing\u2019s greatest comebacks by knocking out Michael Moorer to win the IBF and WBA heavyweight titles \u2013\u2013 21 years after first claiming the crown in destructive fashion against Joe Frazier.<\/p>\n

Foreman had interest in facing Mike Tyson<\/a>, but a mandatory defence against the WBA\u2019s number-one contender, former IBF champion Tony Tucker, first stood in the way. On March 4, 1995, the WBA\u2019s 25-member executive committee voted to strip Foreman of the title after he refused to face Tucker<\/a>, opting instead to fight Axel Schulz on April 22.<\/p>\n

Given Tucker\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 \u2013\u2013 victories over Buster Douglas and Oliver McCall, and competitive defeats to Mike Tyson<\/a> and Lennox Lewis<\/a> \u2013\u2013 it might be assumed Foreman\u2019s reluctance was financial. The truth, however, was far simpler, as Foreman later explained during a speech at the Oxford Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried to force me to fight Tony Tucker after I\u2019d beaten Michael Moorer and I remember looking at Tony Tucker and saying, \u2018Momma didn\u2019t raise no fools. I\u2019m not fighting him,\u2019 and they took the title. Some people I\u2019m not going to fight. That\u2019s the good reason \u2013\u2013 I didn\u2019t want to fight him. Too tough. I\u2019ve got to tell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 8, 1995, the vacant WBA title was contested by Tucker and Bruce Seldon. The bout ended in the seventh round when ringside physician Ferdie Pacheco advised referee Mills Lane to halt the contest due to severe swelling around Tucker\u2019s left eye, a decision that infuriated his corner.<\/p>\n

Sixteen days later, Foreman retained his IBF title against German challenger Axel Schulz. The underdog pushed Foreman the distance but lost a points decision. Foreman would later be stripped once again, this time by the IBF, after refusing to grant Schulz a rematch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is difficult to imagine George Foreman refusing to fight anyone, yet that is exactly what he did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-347331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}