Why Foreman avoided Tyson
George Foreman has revealed he was scared to fight Mike Tyson and apparently the feeling was mutual.
There was talk of former world heavyweight champion Foreman’s 1987 comeback evolving into a fight against Tyson, the man of the moment.
But Foreman said he wanted no part of it.
‘‘That guy was a nightmare in the ring. I didn’t want anything to do with that guy. I didn’t want a part of Mike Tyson. He was a monster,’’ Foreman told ESPN.
‘‘If he missed you with his left, then missed you with his right, he’d bite you.
‘‘Those are the kind of guys you see in a nightmare. You want to wake up and say, ‘So glad that’s a dream’. I didn’t want any part of Mike
Tyson – no way.’’
Foreman revealed he had heard that Tyson wasn’t keen on fighting him either.
‘‘He was scared and I was glad of that,’’ Foreman, regarded as one of the heaviest punchers, said.
That theory was backed up by veteran American boxing journalist Frank Lotierzo. He recounted a lunch he had with Don King’s longtime matchmaker Bobby Goodman who told him Tyson was scared of George Foreman and that Foreman was a con man, putting on the old-man show so he’d always be overlooked.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, the 71-year-old Foreman reckons Tyson would have been ‘‘a tough fight’’ for him and he again confirmed there had been real interest in setting up such a bout.
He told On The Ropes Boxing: ‘‘There were a couple of times, serious negotiations were going on with the Mike Tyson fight. Mike Tyson just didn’t want to fight me. Not to say he couldn’t have beaten me.
‘‘I mean, this guy could punch. The bigger they are the harder they’d fall as far as Mike Tyson was concerned. I guess that I have a feeling, his first original trainer and manager, Cus D’Amato, must have told him about George Foreman’s punching power as though I would never comeback.
‘‘So sometimes when you come back and a guy remembers those stories, he says to himself, ‘Look, leave that guy alone’.
‘‘But I don’t think I would have been that much problems to him. I had a good left jab and I’d always do better when guys come to me, but Tyson was pretty smart with his footwork and hand speed. That would have been a tough fight for me.’’