Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
"What is a miracle?" Foreman asked at a news conference Tuesday.
"A miracle is someone who eats too much," he said, and fights for the heavyweight boxing championship at age 42.
The self-proclaimed, 250-pound cheeseburger champion, also an evangelist, sees unbeaten Evander Holyfield's role in the fight as destiny.
"He was born so I could get my chance to become heavyweight champion of the world," said Foreman, who won the title with a second-round knockout of Joe Frazier in 1973. He lost it on an eighth-round knockout to Muhammad Ali in 1974, then retired from 1977 to 1987.
"My knees were shaking when I fought Joe Frazier," Foreman said. "Holyfield is not the kind of guy who makes your knees shake.
"He hits you with a combination and, if you don't go down, he says, `OK, I'll win on points.' "
Foreman predicted he would knock out Holyfield in two rounds.
Holyfield, who was 10 years old at the time, watched on closed-circuit television as Foreman beat Frazier.
"Joe Frazier's style was just cut out for Foreman," Holyfield, 28, said. "He was like a man running into a wall."
Frazier's style was to attack. Foreman knocked him down six times.
Foreman is different now, Holyfield said.
"Foreman was a lot stronger then and threw a lot more punches. Today, he doesn't throw a lot of punches," the champion said.
There is no question that Foreman still punches hard. He has scored 23 knockouts in winning all 24 of his comeback fights.
Holyfield is a 5-2 favorite for what the promoters are saying will be the biggest money-making fight in history.
The revenue from pay-per-view and closed-circuit television, foreign television rights and the live gate "will clearly make it the first $100 million event in history," co-promoter Bob Arum said.
Dan Duva, the other promoter, said, "It will be very close. It will be at least $90 million."
Arum said the highest gross for a fight was $77 million for the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvelous Marvin Hagler middleweight title match.
Arum also said he thought Holyfield would add $5 million to his guarantee of $20 million and Foreman $3 million to his guarantee of $12.5 million.
Arum predicted the telecast would reach two million homes out of a possible 17 million at an average of $40 per home.
by CNB