The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/When We Were Kings: Review and Commentary: Difference between revisions

222 • THE MAILER REVIEW

He took fights in places like Anchorage and other locations not on the boxing map. “I had seen others, like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, fail in their comeback attempts because they were looking for overnight success. I knew it would take a long period of time to do it right, so I started from the bottom and worked my way up and it took three years”.{{sfn|Dundee|p=282}} He fought twenty-one fights against increasingly challenging opponents, in- cluding Gerry Cooney, Tommy Morrison, and Evander Holyfield.

On November , , age  years,  days, the New George got his chance. Following the ninth round in a fight against champion Michael Moorer, George had lost every previous round on all scorecards. His corner man told him, “You gotta put this guy down. You’re behind, baby.” Foreman’s corner man was none other than Angelo Dundee, Ali’s former handler (“Foreman,” You Tube). George bristled at Angelo’s comment, but boy did he ever go out and follow directions. Like Ali in Zaire, he controlled the ac- tion of the circle. Moving to his left, he saw the opening and landed that sneaky right directly on Moorer’s chin. Traveling no more than twelve inches, the punch was reminiscent of the one Joe Louis floored Max Schmeling with in the first round of their rematch in . Moorer was starched, as they say in boxing, landing on the seat of his pants, knocked out cold. Twenty years after losing the title to Ali, Foreman took it back from a man  years his junior. He had come full circle—along with his red boxing trunks, the same ones he wore in Zaire–with alterations for waist size. Muhammad Ali, whose disabilities had by this time become very evident, wrote to George. He said, “Congratulations, Champ, you had the courage and the guts to go out and do it”.{{sfn|Dundee|p=298}}

more for television appearances, Foreman’s profit from the grill approaches $ million—more, by far, than he earned or ever dreamt of in his boxing career. He continues to sidelight as a boxing commentator for HBO and pay- per-view broadcasts.{{sfn|Rovell}}

Asked in recent years to reflect on the Rumble in the Jungle, the New George delivers his own version of the Butterfly Effect. “I’m just happy that I didn’t win it . . . because everything would be different . . . it made me fall into the hands of God . . . it was that fragile . . . one little thing could have messed the whole thing up. The world would have been different for us”{{sfn|Brunt|p=189}} . . . ”I’m just proud to be part of the Ali legend. If people men- tion my name with his from time to time, that’s enough for me. That, and I hope Muhammad Ali likes me, because I like him. I like him a lot”.{{sfn|Hauser|p=278}}

Cosell, Howard, narrator. George Foreman Knocks Out Joe Frazier., ABC Sports/Sweetfights.com,

, youtu.be/vztPjLhwU.