Why We Never Saw Foreman-Tyson

On March 9 1987, former heavyweight champion George Foreman stopped journeyman Steve Zouski in the fourth round. Foreman's fight versus Zouski was the official beginning of the second leg of Foreman's 18-year career, after being retired for ten years. Foreman's bout with Zouski was his first fight since losing a decision to third-ranked contender Jimmy Young back on March 17 1977. Foreman said he came back to reclaim the title he lost to Muhammad Ali back in October of 1974. After beating Zouski, Foreman fought on a schedule that had him in the ring just about every other month. He would constantly tell anyone with a microphone after each fight that, he came back because he knew he could beat Mike Tyson and wanted to fight him for the title. Through Big George's first ten to fifteen fights, he was laughed at for the quality of the fighters he was fighting and wasn't taken seriously. Foreman never made excuses for them and admitted that he was fighting guys who had no chance of beating him. He said that he wanted to get used to being back in the ring and was in no hurry. In 1987, Foreman fought five times; in 1988, he fought nine times and in 1989, he fought five times. After 19 fights, Foreman was 19-0 (18). During the course of those 19 fights, Foreman only fought two name fighters: former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champ Dwight Muhammad Qwai (formerly Dwight Braxton), and fringe contender Bert Cooper, stopping both. details]

Comments (8)

SinatraJr

At that time young tyson will beat Big George.Tyson was so young but beated rather big boxers by his fast step in and powerful combination blows.Big George has good jab and body advantages than Tyson,but Tyson also has good defence tecknique like body movings,head slips and so on. So Tyson will beat slow Big George at that time. After Big George come back to champ again,if they fight Big George probably to win .

21y ago

RipTheJacker

are we serious here?? I'm glad the fight didn't happen. I love my Foreman grill. Tyson was too young,quick,hit too hard,had too good a chin for George. And Foreman was too slow. Remember how Evander touched George?? If that were Tyson......................

21y ago

czars_salad

foremann could be hit and tyson could dfinitly punch. Not saying tyson would win but he had a pretty good chanche he will not reach foreman, though

21y ago

leff

foremann could be hit and tyson could dfinitly punch. Not saying tyson would win but he had a pretty good chanche

21y ago

Crouching_Tiger

nice aticle. tyson had nothing to beat tyson with ? what about his left hook or his right uppercut? tyson was one of the hardest hitting boxers of all time. even a light puncher like ali knocked out foreman so i have no doubt that tyson could have knocked foreman out. this isnt to say i dont believe the article, nothing about tyson suprises me. I agree that Iron Mike had a fairly good chance against Big George. But the problem was did he have the fighting spirit to face him? I believe too that he was scared stiff of Foreman, otherwise he would have fought him back then. :boxing:

21y ago

czars_salad

great article.... tyson's career would have ended at that time if that fight did materialized

21y ago

cornerman

I remember hearing something like this story before that Tyson didnt want to fight Foreman, however in my opinion i think he was too powerfull for a 40 year old Foreman, especially in his peak.

21y ago

hatcheeks

21y ago