LAS VEGAS – Mike Bazzel wasn't working the corners every week as a cutman when he met George Foreman or Muhammad Ali. 

'The Mechanic' was merely a fan at the time of each meeting, but that didn't stop him from turning those experiences into important memories.

Sadly, Foreman passed away on March 21. He was 76.

Bazzel went with some of his friends to see Foreman’s second fight of his ring return following a ten-year ring absence. Foreman stopped Charles Hostetter in the third round at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California.

“He hit the guy to the body. I’m up in the rafters – and it's not a full stadium, but it's maybe three-quarters full – and it was the loudest punch I had ever heard,” Bazzel recalled to BoxingScene. “You heard the body shot. The guy went down. It wasn't like how you see something on TV, a light shot and the guy goes down. It was a loud sound, like a shot, and he went down.”

After the fight, Bazzel went down to see Foreman. Keep in mind, this was 1987—a good six years before Bazzel would embark on his current career.

“We tried to make our way down just to see him,” Bazzel said.  “I touched his shoulder and that guy was a rock. I put my hand on his shoulder and he said, ‘How are you doing?’ I just never felt the guy with that kind of presence. 

“The only guy that I met that had that presence was Ali, when I met him in a bookstore.”

The recollection of seeing Foreman fight also reminded Bazzel of another memory. 

In 1996, Ali was scheduled for an autograph session at Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California. One of Bazzel’s co-workers—Floyd Burton, a line cook—had a son named Malcolm, who was named after Malcolm X. Burton told Bazzel about the book signing, a promotion of Thomas Hauser’s Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times biography on the former three-time world heavyweight champion.

“We wait in the rain for three hours with the usual weirdos and street performers,” Bazzel said. “Finally, they come out after three hours and a representative says Ali is tired. So, we were not going to get an autograph and we probably won’t get a picture with him, but we can see him if we buy the book. We would also get a pre-signed bookmark from him.”

Burton was armed with a Polaroid camera and was ready to take a photo of Malcolm with Ali. Bazzel and Malcolm walked into the bookstore to meet Ali. 

“All of a sudden, as I brought Malcolm, Ali looked up and saw that little boy. He just lit up with a big smile,” Bazzel said. “He reached out to grab him and all the cameramen went crazy. The bulbs went off. 

“I was in a daze. I don't remember shaking Ali’s hand. I think I did.” 

Burton was shaking his polaroid as he told both his son and Bazzel, ‘You have to see this picture.’ 

Bazzel didn’t even know what happened. 

“I asked Floyd what happened,” Bazzel said. “He goes, ‘You met Ali.’ 

“Then I remembered, I forgot my bookmark and I looked in the book. Ali had signed the book.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.