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Every Joe Gans Lightweight Title Fight – Part 5: Kid McPartland
The black champion walked to his corner at once and began preparations for departure while McPartland was still struggling against fate on the floor. – The New York Evening World, October 14, 1902.
The story of Joe Gans and Kid McPartland goes all the way back to November of 1898 and the time of their first fight, in New York. It was McPartland, then, who was labelled the fighter with perhaps the greatest left-hand in the sport and it was Gans, odd to read, who was a local attraction, a genius according to his Baltimore boosters but unproven to the wider world.
How times had changed.
But in 1898 it was McPartland who held the left, and it was McPartland who began as the favourite. This was something of a graduation night for Gans and two things fascinate above all others. The first is how well Gans, or perhaps the wily Al Herford, had McPartland scouted, and the second is how beautifully Gans put that scouting to work. The first of these is no small matter; Gans had observed McPartland from ringside but he had not film to study, no long hours of analysis. Still, for the most part, Gans reduced the McPartland’s celebrated left to something of a liability.
Gans boxed McPartland carefully, in a way that a ringsider at the Rufe Turner fight would have recognised. His essential strategy for a fighter that he finds dangerous is to handle them like they are deadly while simultaneously dominating them with accuracy and timing, and the first McPartland fight was such a contest. Gans spent the early rounds “fiddling” in the lexicon of 1898, “feeling his man out” to you and me. By the third what was notable was the ease with which Gans was parrying and blocking the left while having joy with his own. McPartland was sending in grazing left-hands or bodyshots while Gans repeatedly rattled McPartland’s teeth, literally, decades before the advent of the gumshield.
The price for his isolation of the McPartland left was his sucking up the occasional right, but Gans knew enough to know he could hold those punches without issue. When McPartland tried to change the pattern by rushing Gans, Gans was prepared for this too and lifted his man with uppercuts. Once his dominance was established, which was clear some time around the thirteenth round, he began fighting two-handed and with more abandon. It was late in the contest before McPartland was able to score a meaningful left, but he did so in the nineteenth round and for a moment it seemed he might save himself, but it was the Kid, not Gans who visited the canvas, dropped by a left-hand, of course, in the twenty-fourth round. Gans “escaped with little punishment” according to The Brooklyn Eagle, an opinion shared by The New York Sun.
Mid-career Bernard Hopkins is the fighter who comes to mind when reading about 1800s Gans. Brilliant at turning his opponent’s strength to a weakness and countering what is best in him, he seems first and foremost a general but lacking, perhaps, the vicious streak that would have allowed him to definitively conquer the better men he faced. Keep in mind the terrible battles Elbows McFadden forced upon Gans in the 1800s but that come the 1900s, Elbows could not live with his old foe. Now, McPartland returned to the fore, hoping, perhaps, his own experiences from the 1800s might help him.
That hope, such as it was, lay perhaps in his second fight with Gans, staged in 1899. A short-form fight over six, it reads suspiciously like the first six of their 1898 contest, much careful sparring early giving way to Gans offence at the end of the fifth, but no more was to be learned and the fight is generally reported a draw. A second fight over the shorter distance delivered the same result. McPartland, then, had information to hand with which to build his own plan.
The earlier incarnation of Gans was fought on even terms and forced to quit against Erne; the championship version destroyed him in one. The earlier incarnation of Gans was stretched to the absolute limit by Elbows McFadden; the championship version destroyed him in three. The earlier incarnation of Gans out-thought McPartland but was forced to traverse the distance against a dangerous fighter. What would the championship version make of him?
The fight was slated for October 6 and McPartland, at the end of September, brimmed with confidence.
“I am leaving nothing to chance,” he told reporters after training. “I have met Gans before…and I always managed to keep him busy. I know the coon’s [sic] style pretty well and I really believe I can do more with him than any other lightweight.”
“McPartland appears extremely confident,” reported The Buffalo Courier. “If confidence, condition, shiftiness and a dangerous punch cut a figure (and they usually do), McPartland will give a good account of himself.”
Certainly, his training camp seemed fit for purpose. McPartland often boxed three men a day, including the big, rough lightweight prospect Warren Zurbrick. “The more the merrier,” McPartland offered. “I shall be ready for all comers.” McPartland’s camp was an open book for fighters, all of whom were welcome to spar with him.
The truth of McPartland’s history shows a spotty attitude to training, “in and out” as the parlance of the day would have it. At the end of September 1902 though, McPartland was in crisp shape. The reason for this was McPartland’s membership in Kid Carter’s camp. Kid Carter was a middleweight contender of the era who had failed two weeks prior in an attempt at Tommy Ryan’s championship. The camp, described as a “siege” by one paper was a strict one and one that saw not just Carter but McPartland, too, trained to the absolute quill. McPartland rolled out of that camp and into preparation for his own crack at the world championship.
“Boxing with such big fellows as Kid Carter has done me a heap of good,” he said. “I feel stronger than ever and men of my own weight feel weak and light in front of me…I think I am better now than ever before.”
Five-thousand tickets went on sale on noon of the twenty-ninth of September; around this time rumour emerged of Kid McPartland developing a system specifically designed to offset the Gans left, much as Gans did to McPartland in 1898. Whether or not this story was a red herring is unknown, but it is a fascinating wrinkle. McPartland’s condition though seemed, for the moment, beyond reproach, The Buffalo Evening News making a fit McPartland “about the only man in the country today outside of Erne who has a possible chance to beat [Gans].”
It is interesting that the article excludes Jimmy Britt, who was in the picture to be matched with Gans at around this time but for hand-trouble. These injuries were the pugilist’s bane in a time of small gloves with minimal padding and was the reason so many six-round non-title fights were settled more peacefully, “exhibitions” only as was the accordance with law in many states. Fighters could not afford to put themselves forth to the full in every fight, especially not when they were fighting two, four, even more times in one month. Care had to be taken in sparring and fighting alike – training to the point of absolute peak only to break one’s hand in the first round after throwing an ill-advised left-hook was, I imagine, a special kind of misery.
Gans was not immune. On October fourth, the fight was postponed for one week. The announcement was odd. Herford, who was due to arrive with Gans in Buffalo the next day prior to travelling up to Fort Erie in time for the fight two days later, instead wired the International Club with news that Gans had “sprained his hand” and “would not take any chances until it was strong.” Sixty hours from weigh in, this was a blow, not least to McPartland who felt himself ready. The blow was perhaps softened by the $200 forfeit he was able to collect but according to the Buffalo Illustrated Times he “almost cried” when told the fight was off.
Now scheduled for the thirteenth, just one week later, the usual speculation began to circulate regarding Joe’s conduct; had he trained properly? Could he make weight? Was the injury real, or a fabrication? No answers were forthcoming from the Gans camp who were used to such accusations, but it was announced that the champion would now be arriving in Buffalo on the ninth. McPartland sulked, and crossed into Canada to be weighed, a necessity if he wished to collect his money. Sure enough, the challenger hit 134lbs. His face apparently “drawn and pinched,” The Buffalo Enquirer also reported that McPartland “never looked better in his life.” Tight at the weight but clearly ready to fight, he was not in the best of moods.
“Of course I claimed Herford’s forfeit,” he snapped. “I would not give him a penny if I could help it. He has been telling the same tales of me being afraid of Gans that he did about Frank Erne. [Training] was hard work and I will have to do the whole thing over again. Then it makes a man nervous. I am not afraid of the result of the battle. Gans knows that I have no fear of him. I never saw the negro I feared.”
Gans maintained his silence. Herford went to the trouble of telephoning The Courier to tell them that he planned to instruct Gans to give McPartland “an extra good beating” for these remarks.
Herford’s loyalty to Gans was mirrored in that of Gans to Herford, and this despite some allegedly shady dealings. Herford’s qualifications for handling a fighter as peerless as Gans were equally shady, his background that of a restaurant manager and gambler, not a boxing man. Showbusiness is showbusiness as the saying goes, however, and the two seemed to come to some sort of accord whereby Gans did all the work and Herford counted the money – and did all the talking.
“I had a hard time getting Gans where he is,” Herford once told assembled Baltimore reporters, overlooking, one might argue, Joe’s own role in his triumph. “I tell you boys it is a pretty tough job getting a colored boxer up to the top of the ladder these days. Of course some may say, look at Tom O’Rourke. Did he not make George Dixon the champion?”
It is unrecorded as to whether or not any of those assembled pointed out to Herford that Dixon, himself, was the man most responsible.
Gans and Herford arrived in Buffalo the day before the fight and seem to have set down in Buffalo for mere minutes before heading straight for Fort Erie and The American Hotel. “[Gans] looked to be in superb condition,” reported The Courier, which apparently caught a glimpse of the champion. Speaking briefly, Gans reported that his hand was ready and that he was too. He covered a reported twelve miles along the Canadian shore, “finishing as if he had been out for a short walk.”
Charley White was the other big arrival, the perennial championship referee having travelled from New York. Nor was he alone; many New Yorkers had travelled with him having secured tickets for the fight.
McPartland, who had finished his training the day before and tipped the beam at just under 134lbs, took his rest and waited. He weighed in at 3pm on the day of the fight weighing just under 135lbs; Gans followed him to the scales and matched the number but it was noted that he looked the bigger man. This was a problem for McPartland, for his plan to nullify the Gans offence called for him to impose himself upon Gans physically.
“Stretching…the rules to their utmost,” reported the Buffalo Morning Express, “McPartland tried his best to get Gans into a mauling, waltzing match.”
Gans has seen this before however, and from McPartland himself no less. He remained patient and he remained distant where it was possible. He also began to look for the right-hand, a change from his first fight with McPartland where he seemed to favour the left. Meanwhile, when it came to McPartland’s ranged efforts, Gans’ defence was more devastating than ever.
“McPartland did not land over eight solid blows during the entire time of the bout,” wrote The Buffalo Evening Times. “Gans smothering most of his leads before they were fairly started.”
While he smothered McPartland’s shots, Gans waited and that cost him the occasional left to the body. Some combination of McPartland’s grappling and Joe’s maneuvering caused Gans to slip in the second. In the third, Gans changed up and returned McPartland’s pressure but continued to block what McPartland returned with consummate ease. The fight so far had been defined by the “pretty blocking and shifty footwork” described by The Enquirer but Gans now changed it up.
McPartland “put forward a very fair effort” as The Evening World saw it, “but the effort to make weight had evidently told heavily on his frame…Cool, collected, holding himself in reserve form the first gong [Gans] stealthily pursued [McPartland] from corner to corner, never venturing to dangerous depths and unerringly grasping the occasional opportunities left open for him.”
As he stalked, he lashed McPartland’s body and although McPartland was able to block many of these shots, he left himself wide open for Gans right hand to the jaw which dropped him for an eight count close to the end of the third. McPartland, at least, had not showed fear in the opener but by the third he was on the run, Gans in cautious, tempered, stalking pursuit.
McPartland clinched his way through the fourth and in the fifth was reduced to remaining at distance but trying to time his rushes to get inside the Gans artillery while avoiding or blocking punches. Such strategy is doomed to failure in a four round smoker but against a great champion in his prime it spells the end. Gans literally “went over to McPartland’s corner” at bell and began hitting him. Almost every report of the fight describes the economy of risk with which Gans boxed but you can tell he has smelled the blood in the fifth; his approach seems intemperate for the first time, and McPartland was not so far gone as to miss the chance and “put left on face” [sic] according to The Enquirer’s round-by-round; then Gans rushed.
The end, when it came, was sudden but layered. Gans had spent the fight hitting to the body to open up a pathway for the right hand to the head. Here, he feinted with a right hand to the jaw and “McPartland, falling into the trap, raised his guard to the blow.”
The Courier continues the tale:
“In precisely the same manner that Bob Fitzsimmons won his famous battle from Jim Corbett,” it reported, “Joe Gans, the lightweight champion, knocked out Kid McPartland. The final blow…was a terrific left-handed drive to the solar plexus.”
The final punch is reported in much detail and is worth quoting in full that the reader may clearly understand the technique.
“In delivering the blow Gans shifted his position so as to bring his right leg in front of him, sending home his blow with full force simultaneously with the shift.”
The shift, a pivot, or switch, depending upon the era, was a much-admired technique perfected by Fitzsimmons and then Stanley Ketchel, here executed by Joe Gans. McPartland was immediately floored and “writhed in agony” as Gans coolly returned to his corner and prepared to depart the ring. He did not even look towards the shape snatching wildly for breath in a crumpled heap on the canvas.
“My punch,” McPartland wept, no less, once recovered. “He got there first!”
“He’s improved,” he offered later. “He’s a hard man to reach. He got me with just the same smash I was trying to put on him.”
Gans seemed please. He spoke at length to the press, not something he went out of his way to do, often preferring to speak through Herford.
“McPartland found me a different proposition tonight to what I was when we last fought. He gave me a good go tonight until I finally got him properly gauged. He is a shifty fellow and has a good defense and a wicked blow with that left. I knew I would beat him and figured that he would go out when I landed the first square blow. I thought it would be a jaw punch but he was too foxy, and I had to try the solar plexus on him.”
Joe’s plans were a matter of much interest but here Gans did hand over to Herford, who announced that Gans would travel down to Lancaster in Pennsylvania to face no less a figure that Dave Holly. Holly was inconsistent, but a serious proposition, especially the day after a title fight. Undefeated in twenty-nine fights he perhaps had plans on making Gans the thirtieth and therefore gaining himself a title shot. Those plans did not come to fruition; Gans dropped him four times as Holly became the latest elite pugilist to turn in a performance laced with fear.
This seems now beyond belief, but The Baltimore Sun was clear: “Holley [sic] made almost no effort to fight, confining his work to running around the ring out of the champion’s reach and clinching.”
“Gentlemen,” Gans addressed the crowd afterwards. “If the management will get a good man to meet me here, I will try and give you a better exhibition.”
“While disappointed in not scoring a knockout,” The Sun continued, “Gans took the fight almost in the nature of a joke.”
Holly would finish his career credited with victories over the like of Rufe Turner, Jack Blackburn and the all-time great Joe Walcott.
“That Gans is the superior of all the lightweights, there is no doubt,” concluded The Times. “He is the exponent of all that is clever, and though his gameness has been often questioned he must be given credit for being about the best the world has ever produced in the lightweight division.”
Before he was finished, Gans would prove himself as game as any pugilist who had ever stepped onto an ill-stretched canvas and scraped his carefully scarred leather soles in resin.
This series was written with the support of boxing historian and Joe Gans expert Sergei Yurchenko. His work can be found here: http://senya13.blogspot.com/
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More
Those lightweights.
Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.
Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.
Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.
Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.
“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.
Even in Las Vegas.
Verona, New York
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.
Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.
“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.
Foster disagrees.
“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.
Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).
Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.
“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.
Muratalla likes challenges too.
“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.
Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship
WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.
Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.
But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.
“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.
In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.
Bad choice for Mucino.
Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.
Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.
Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.
Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.
“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.
It should be exciting.
Fights to Watch
Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).
Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).
Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
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Bakhram Murtalaziev was the Fighter of the Month in October
As we close the book on October, let’s look back at the month’s stellar performances. Kenshiro Teraji added another exclamation point to his brilliant career with an 11th-round stoppage of Cristofer Rosales. England’s Jack Catterall, considered no more than a decent domestic-level talent for most of his career, showed that he had been underrated with a comprehensive 12-round decision over declining Regis Prograis. But the top performance, by a landslide, was delivered by Bakhram Murtalaziev who annihilated Tim Tszyu on Oct. 19 in Orlando, Florida.
Murtalaziev was undefeated (22-0, 16 KOs) and the reigning IBF junior middleweight champion, but he was the underdog and the “B” side. As champions go, and there are roughly five dozen across the 17 weight divisions, the California-based Russian ranked among the least well-known. He had won his title in Berlin with an 11th-round stoppage of an unexceptional 38-year-old German-Ecuadorian campaigner, Jack Culcay, and he would be making his first defense.
Managed by Egis Klimas who also handles Oleksandr Usyk and Vasiliy Lomachenko, among others, Bakhram Murtalaziev came from a good barn in the vernacular of a horseplayer, but on paper that alone was insufficient to get him over the hump against Tim Tszyu who a few short months earlier was widely considered the best 154-pound boxer in the world.
That was before he met up with Sebastian Fundora who blemished his record, but that setback could have been written off as a fluke.
As we recall, Tszyu was scheduled to fight Keith Thurman in the initial PBC offering on Amazon Prime Video, but Thurman suffered a biceps injury in training and Fundora was bumped up from the undercard to fill the breach. With only 12 days’ notice, Tim Tszyu went from fighting a five-foot-seven fighter who fights out of an orthodox stance to fighting a southpaw who stood almost a full foot taller. The “Towering Inferno” has his limitations, but poses a special problem to anyone, let alone an opponent with little time to formulate a good game plan.
Tszyu was hampered in the Fundora fight by a gash on his hairline that hampered his vision. The injury happened in the second round when he ducked under Fundora and walked into an elbow. The gash bled copiously throughout the fight and yet the best that Fundora could do was win a split (albeit fair) decision.
To say that Tszyu failed to rebound from the Fundora misadventure would be putting it mildly. Murtalaziev steamrolled him, knocking him to the canvas four times in all before Tszyu’s corner tossed in the towel at the 1:55 mark of the third stanza. It was painful to watch. Referee Chris Young was faulted for allowing the match to continue as long as it did. Compounding Tszyu’s misery, his celebrated father, a first ballot Hall of Famer, was ringside. Kostya Tszyu hadn’t seen his oldest son fight in the flesh since Tim’s pro debut in 2016.
Although the dichotomy is imperfect, Tim Tszyu, who turns 30 on Saturday, is more of a puncher than a boxer. That may work against him so far as clawing his way back to a position of prominence. The noted boxing coach Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, a keen student of the history of boxing in the modern era, expressed this sentiment in a Q and A story for Boxing Scene. “Destructive fighters usually don’t come back to full capacity after bad KO losses,” he said, citing John Mugabi, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, and Naseem Hamed to illustrate his point. Moreover, added Edwards, “No one will ever be afraid of him again.”
But there were two stories that emerged from the Murtalaziev-Tszyu fight. Tim Tszyu crashed, but Bakhram Murtalaziev emerged from obscurity, announcing his presence (pardon the cliché) as a force to be reckoned with. As for his next assignment, the best guess is that it will come against Sebastian Fundora or Errol Spence Jr. who are expected to meet early next year. And based on Murtalaziev’s stunning performance in Orlando, it will be impossible to bet against him.
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Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later
Foreman-Moorer: 30 Years Later
By TSS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT JAMIE REBNER — In sports, middle-aged athletes are not supposed to beat opponents who are half their age and in their athletic primes. Only the greatest ones can use guile, technique, and experience to compensate for the dulling of speed, reflexes, and athleticism that have unavoidably eroded with time.
That is why George Foreman’s feat of reclaiming the heavyweight title at 45 is so impressive. It was thirty years ago this coming Tuesday, Nov 5, 1994, that Foreman scored a monumental upset in knocking out Michael Moorer to win back the title he had lost twenty years prior against Muhammad Ali in The Rumble in the Jungle. In doing so, Big George became the oldest heavyweight champion, breaking the record previously held by Jersey Joe Walcott, who had won the title at 38.
When Foreman beat Moorer, he was in the twilight of his second career, a comeback that began in 1987. George had retired in 1977 after losing to Jimmy Young and experiencing a spiritual awakening in his locker room. That led him to become a minister and devote himself to his family and congregation. During his retirement, he opened a youth center in Houston, which required much financial support, prompting him to return to the ring.
After winning 24 straight fights from 1987-1990, Foreman lost his first title shot by decision to Evander Holyfield in 1991. He rebounded from that loss with three more wins before getting a crack at the WBO title against Tommy Morrison in 1993. But his performance against Morrison was disappointing and he lost another decision. After that, Foreman was out of the ring for 17 months before he was gifted another title shot against Moorer.
Foreman got that gift because Moorer, due to his sullen demeanor and curtness with the media, was not a draw with the fans. He was also an unproven champion, having beaten Holyfield for two belts only seven months prior. So. Moorer needed a name opponent who could bring in the crowds for his first title defense. And the other top heavyweights like Oliver McCall (WBC champ), Lennox Lewis, and Riddick Bowe didn’t have close to Foreman’s drawing power. So. deserving or not, Foreman was chosen as the challenger to make a fight that would be worth the public’s attention and pockets.
Even Foreman was surprised by getting selected to fight Moorer. “I never in my wildest imagination thought I’d get a title shot again,” he told Associated Press sports columnist Tim Dahlberg. Still, George was determined to make his third time a charm.
But as motivated as George was, there was an irrefutable gap in speed between himself and the much younger champion. From the opening bell, Moorer used his superior quickness and reflexes to make Foreman look stiff and slow. And although George landed punches early on, he fired them one at a time while Moorer countered with multiple shots. But despite Moorer’s advantage in connects, his trainer Teddy Atlas advised him from the get-go not to stand in front of Foreman and make himself a stationary target for a right-hand bomb.
But Moorer failed to heed that advice as he continued to outwork Foreman in the middle rounds. Although he was winning, Moorer’s overconfidence kept him at close quarters, and he continued to circle unwisely to his left and into Foreman’s dangerous right hand. And despite absorbing many quality shots, Foreman never appeared hurt or discouraged thanks to his granite chin and unyielding resolve. He was determined to win and he was willing to walk through as many flush shots as he needed to do so.
With Moorer content to stay in range, Foreman gladly returned his firepower and he landed some telling right crosses, uppercuts, and plenty of thudding body blows during the battle. And while Moorer continued to pile up points and rounds, as long as George was marching forward and throwing shots, he had a puncher’s chance.
And with a minute to go in round ten, that punch came. After missing a three-punch combination, Foreman scored with a one-two, with the right hand landing on the forehead. He immediately repeated that combination but this time aimed the right hand lower on Moorer’s jaw. That slight adjustment caused his bulldozer right to collide perfectly with Moorer’s chin, sending the champion crashing to the canvas and sprawled onto his back. The champion couldn’t beat the count, and just like that, the fight was over, Moorer’s short-lived title run ending before it ever truly began.
With a single, shattering blow, Foreman etched his name into boxing history. Wearing the same trunks from Zaire 20 years before, he was now heavyweight champion of the world once again. It was a shocking result that defied conventional wisdom since seldom do 45-year-old boxers score knockouts over champions in their athletic primes. But Foreman reminded us that he was anything but your typical quadragenarian. He was special, and he had two distinct heavyweight championship reigns to prove it.
—
About the author:
Jamie Rebner lives in Toronto, Canada. He has been a freelance boxing writer since 2016 and his writing has appeared in The Fight City, Boxing News Online, The Ring, and Ringside Seat magazine. His Substack blog is Fight Fundamental, and he is currently writing a book about George Foreman’s comeback. He is also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @J_NReb.
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