The story of Tyson and Foreman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCVWNv_q6G8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvIhQvgF0sU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjjZx_4rpBc

 

Boy, George was layin' down the law on mumblemouth Mike, I don't blame Tyson for tucking tail and running.

 

Was Mike Tyson scared of George Foreman before or after Foreman got his face disfigured by Alex Stewart and shut out by Tommy Morrison?

 

I'm pretty sure it was after Mike got his ass soundly defeated by Boobster Douglas.

 

Dundee and Foreman pursued this fight and called Tyson out for years with no joy. Was probably the biggest money fight on offer at the time as Holy was yet to convince many he was a genuine threat at heavy. I dont know that Tyson was scared but he and his handlers knew it was a bad stylistic match for him. Tyson has to come at George unlike Moorer, Holy or Morrison who have been given as examples of why Tyson shouldnt be concerned about George.

I think Mike could beat old Foreman, but I can see that it wasnt a good fight for him to take.

 

It would have been a decent payday but remember this:

You have egomaniac promoter in Bob Arum and Don King who neither would concede a nickel they feel is owed to their meal ticket. You also have Showtime vs. HBO issue to deal with. Remember Tyson's last fight on HBO was against Alex Stewart during which his camp had a falling out with HBO. George Foreman fought on HBO. Mike Tyson fought on Showtime. This was not a legacy fight that needed to happen. The networks would have had a multitude of issues and given HBO's dominance in the sport of boxing and Tyson and King's reluctance to appear on HBO I seriously doubt HBO would have conceded to Showtime to make this fight.

In addition you had a public that would not have bought a Foreman victory as a likely scenario. I mean Holyfield was a lightly regarded Heavyweight champion at that time who never got his proper due; but even his detractors gave him the benefit of the doubt over George Foreman. Mike Tyson back then had massive support. He had a legion of fans, sportswriters and experts that unanimously gave Tyson the distinction as the best fighter in the world despite the Douglas loss. So the notion that Foreman would have been viewed as a legitimate threat at that time period is really preposterous. The fight would have been a novelty and nothing more. Had Tyson beaten him back then it would have been a footnote. But he opted for a bigger challenge in Ruddock and fought him 1 month before Evander fought Big George.

Incidentally Tyson-Ruddock did better than Holyfield-Foreman (albeit slightly) in terms of PPV sales and the live gate making the money issue a little less significant.

At the end of it all it was never a career defining fight.

You know, a decade from now some hack writer is going to claim that Vitaly Klitschko was scared shitless of Hashim Rahman. Even though we know that right now that is not the case, you'll have people swearing up and down that Rahman scared him into retirement. Lets just hope they are a little more reasonable than some people are on this issue.

 

haha.....George was just after a big money fight, and Tyson, being the champion at the time and the "baddest man on the planet," represented the most lucrative fight for a comebacking George who was pretty short on funds. I'm sure Foreman realized that he couldn't beat Tyson, but he probably figured that earning mega-millions was worth getting pounded!

 

Bingo!!!

 

Foreman was all about greed and money. He should have proved that he was a contender before fighting for the heavyweight championship.

 

Foreman and co. were hoping for a free shot. All George had to do was fight and beat a legitimate contender to get a shot at Tyson. But Foreman instead chose to make a lot of noise about fighting Tyson and how he would destroy Tyson all the while feasting on the usual schmear cases and tomato cans. Even Bill Cayton commented once about how Foreman needed to face a serious contender in order to prove his merit as a contender and/or title challenger. But George was just hoping for a free shot!

 

Well,it seems obvious,that the fight wouldn't have gone the distance.
At least one promoter was going to lose his cash cow.

 

Yeah, you never know in boxing why things never happen or why they do, and Foreman would be regarded mainly as a novelty against Tyson, but one that would draw money. That he continued to get title shot after title shot without beating a serious opponent testifies to this.

And just because he should have been seen as such a low threat it should have been even more tempting to cash in on him. It's not like Holyfield, Morrison and Moorer didn't have more serious contenders out there, but they opted for the easy pay-day. Why Tyson didn't is of course only up to speculation, but it lends some credence to the theory that he wanted no part of him. As you said there could be a million other reasons for why the fight never happened, but it makes one wonder a bit.

 

Tyson never fought Lewis, Moorer, Bowe, or Mercer either during that time period.

 

After defeating Moe Larry and Curly, Im sure all the name heavyweights were shaking in their boots by Foreman. This footage was before Tyson went to prison, and Foreman wound up getting ranked and fought Holyfield for the title. We know what happened after that. Arum started promoting Foreman well after this and was responsible for his third comeback to fight Moorer. Thats when the Tyson fight was looking like a good possibility. Had Tyson not gone to prison, he probably would have faced Foreman had he beaten Holyfield for the title in 90.

 

Early foes in George's comeback

1 Kenny Stand
2 Willie Fall
3 Izzy Breethin