Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 21, 1991 TAG: 9104210100
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But Evander Holyfield and George Foreman never got to the paunch line.
At the Convention Center in Atlantic City, N.J., where Miss America is crowned every September, it was a beauty of a title fight. When the 12th round ended and the boxers went from a clinch to a hug, Friday night had become Saturday morning and midnight hadn't turned the heavyweight division into a pumpkin.
Holyfield kept his undisputed title with a unanimous decision. Foreman won just about everything else in a bout that made Time Warner's new pay-per-view cable venture, TVKO, a record success. Cox Cable Roanoke reported 1,120 customers purchased the program at $35.95 and $40.95, more than double the audience for the Mike Tyson-Donovan "Razor" Ruddock show a month ago.
That's the way it went across the country. The pay-per-view gross is expected to reach $60 million, and viewers got more than they expected. After all, on TVKO's phone-in "Viewer's Call" poll, no one thought the fight would go past the eighth round.
Although Foreman went downhill about that juncture, he didn't go down. If he had, of course, he might have obliterated that Budweiser logo in the center of the canvas. Former champion Foreman came into this fight big. Now, he's larger than life, sort of like another aging Texan, Nolan Ryan.
In Foreman's 24-fight comeback to Friday's bout, he went through more tomato cans than a cheap spaghetti restaurant. Foreman's return was remarkable because he is 42 - waist inches and years old. Here he was, the Great Wide Hope with his entourage. The Burger Buddies?
In a prefight video, Holyfield said, "Something big is going down. . . . It's George Foreman." To which Foreman replied, "I may be old, I may be fat, but here I is."
After En Vogue sang a disgraceful do-wop version of the national anthem, the audience had to figure this was a show that could get worse. You sort of expected Atlantic City ring announcer Michael Buffer to offer a variation on a well-known introduction and say, "Let's Get Ready to Crumble." Oliver McCall's heavyweight upset of previously unbeaten Bruce Seldon a night earlier on ESPN was looking pretty good about this time.
But Foreman had stepped into his corner for his 72nd professional fight with the impressive duo of Archie Moore and Angelo Dundee in tow. He had 49 pounds on Holyfield. He had a big, bad punch. He had stamina. He had no speed. Holyfield could have danced his way to victory, but he proudly chose to try to flatten Foreman.
It didn't happen, probably because Foreman was standing on two legs with calves the size of telephone poles.
Holyfield was getting $20 million for the night. Foreman's payday was $12.5 million, and there were many who figured the old, fat, bald guy would fight a few rounds, then go down and spend more than 10 seconds trying to focus on the ceiling lights.
However, the gregarious Foreman stopped joking from the first ding. He rang Holyfield's bell a few times, too, but far too few times. There were no knockdowns, no cuts. The champ relaxed on a couple of occasions, but this fight looked nothing like the lambada lessons that lulled the heavyweight division into somnolence until Mike Tyson's fist left a wake-up call several years ago.
If Buster Douglas was fat for his title bout with Holyfield last year, Foreman was firm. The biggest thing about Foreman wasn't his gut. It was his heart. When it ended, Foreman didn't scream for a rematch. He thanked the champ for taking a chance fighting a guy who finally proved he belonged in the ring again.
They call Holyfield "The Real Deal." So was this fight.
Muhammad Ali is a legend. Joe Frazier is a warrior. Foreman is a phenomenon. Maybe we've seen the last of Foreman in the ring. Maybe not. Even though Foreman eats hamburger, he obviously wasn't one.
\ AUTHOR Jack Bogaczyk is the covers TV and radio sports for this newspaper.
by CNB