Atlas: "Be careful, he's setting you up for the right hand." *gets knocked out with the right hand* Foreman: "I was setting him up for my right hand." Lampley: "Months before the fight, Foreman predicted what would happen." Moorer: "Listen, he's an old man and he got lucky." Bruh....
@@DJK-cq2uy Getting knocked out by Foreman ain't a sign of glass jaw....even old Foreman....like Foreman in 2023 ..could probably knock out most men if you stood in front of him..... Mooer was many things.....hard headed, a jack ass.....but glass jawed....only Foreman and Tua KO'd him in a 57 fight career....that's not a glass jaw
@Andro Libre Alex Stewart...feather fisted buckled his legs in 1991..watch the fight. Evander, a stud knocked him on his ass what three times in one fight.
Foreman saw it all happening 3 months beforehand. Atlas saw it all happening multiple rounds beforehand. Years later, Moorer still cant see it. There is no sport more poetic than boxing.
@Brock Barber Very well put. Michael Moore didn't then, doesn't now, nor is it likely that he ever will see it....see it for what it is: Forman set him up like a bowling pin, with Moore making the exact mistake George said he would--stand in front of him. Moore did it, Forman stretched him out, and luck had absolutely nothing to do with it.
roo7227 Along with Moorer's blood filling his mouth and spilling out as he tries to get up. Moorer was the 68 KO,SIXTY EIGHT not a record but still that's a lot of KO's let alone fights by today's standards.
markyncole My favorite part, and I'm not knocking Moorer, whom I always thought was a great fighter, but when he tries to get up and all he can do is lift his head, cause his body is refusing to cooperate... That's when you know someone just got hit real hard!.. lol..
***** Lol... yeah kid Moorer doesn't have an outstanding chin. If Holyfield can knock him down in a fight even if Holyfield loses which he did. George Foreman can win on a sneaky 1-2. That wasn't luck... even Moorer respects the hit. Saying lucky is his excuse for a poor chin.
Moore is truly in denial. George didn't beat some of the greatest fighters of all time off luck. He didn't win a gold medal off luck. George is an extremely intelligent fighter and power usually doesn't fade. He did set up thst right hand, moore never recovered
Dwayne Williams no such thing as luck in boxing some would of doged it some would have taken ot some would of blocked ot some would have saw him setting it up
That was not lucky..but that was a superb..because george has he own strategy...he wait and counting when he should throw one big punch to moore..and he got it...and goodnight to moore....
George didn't think he had a shot to win that fight. Ali Let George Beat on him for 8 rounds, then set him up one combination. George just did the same type of thing to Moorer that was done to him: Experience is, after all, the best teacher.
George is so classy, whenever he commentated on HBO he always gave fighters the credit that they were due. He such a modest, genuine guy, one of the greatest champions ever,
yeah lucky...with a 20 years age disavantage 10 rounds in a figth he was loosing.if you ask me i will say that ive seen better set up to get lucky than that
quite easy for a 45 year old man to get lucky... at 30, there's no way a 50 year old is kicking my ass after i have been roughing him up the whole ride
They way Big George looked up after Moorer got counted out was always my favorite. It felt like George finally redeemed himself after that heartbreak against Ali.
Me too, that's the part that always brings the tears. There's picture of Buster Douglas holding his right hand up and looking up after his win over Tyson. That picture has always been spine tingling and perhaps my favorite in the history of the sport.
Not quite the end of the story. What you must ask is WHY did he stand in front of Foreman? And the answer is because Foreman was playing him, he didn't use his full power and lured Moorer into believing that he could take what George could throw. He was wrong. Foreman roped his dope.
@@tonyb9735 Tremendous obvious pressure even then to be a star, you gotta knock MFers out, or no one cares. So obvious after the Tyson era. Ironically Tyson might have aimed for going the distance, cuz he knew what a monster George was.
LOL, "luck"? Your trainer is yelling at you to stop standing in front of him because he's trying to set you up for a right hand behind his jab, he does *exactly that*, you get knocked out by it and then call it 'luck'. Please. It wasn't luck. It was a man too arrogant to listen to his trainer and then paying the price for his ego by losing to a much smarter boxer.
It was just a different version of the rope-a-dope strategy employed by Ali vs Foreman in Zaire. Foreman knew that he had only one chance to beat Moorer and it was exactly as Teddy Atlas described. Moorer was too quick and as a Southpaw he could better protect against the right hand than other opponents. George had to move him to the left and lull him to sleep so he could set up the knockout combo. Foreman wasn't "lucky," but his strategy was risky (just as Ali's was in Zaire). He had to endure a tremendous amount of punishment just to set up his one shot at the knockout. Moorer easily could've have knocked him out or simply avoided exposing himself to the combo by moving around. He had an insurmountable lead in the fight. Unfortunately, Moorer made the tragic mistake.
Great comment, but Moore couldn’t have easily knocked him out. He was trying to. Also, you don’t win 65 heavyweight fights against two losses (George’s record coming into Holyfield), without an all-time chin.
george was setting moorer up all night by making micheal think georges power was gone, this made micheal gradually get closer and more comfortable standing in front of george. BIIIIG mistake. teddy saw this happening and was trying to tell micheal but he was too stubborn to listen
Exactly. As someone else in the comments said, 45 year old men don’t get “lucky” in the 10th round of a world heavyweight championship fight. It’s obvious Moorer is extremely bitter, and I can’t say I blame him, winning this fight might have propelled him to superstardom. He lost because of his own arrogance and ignorance. Foreman even said in interviews before the fight “at some point, he’s gonna have to stand in front of me, and that’s where I’ll get him”. Teddy Atlas, Moorer’s own manager, repeatedly said “don’t stand in front of him, create distance”. Moorer thought he knew better, and it cost him dearly. Luck had nothing to do with it.
Atlas is a pretty obnoxious dude, but he was right. Foreman DID have a plan to lull Moorer into sitting right in front of him to receive that straight right. Moorer should've listened.
of course, moorer is delusional...did he think that foreman imagined he would win by dancing around and beating him with speed or reflexes. you dont even need to know boxing to understand that foreman had to lure him in pay the price,get hit alot so he could get a chance to land some big ones there are simply no other way he could win..if moorer would had stuck runing around jabbing and moving there is simply no way foreman could win
@@aniqshardin Absolutely. That brand of tough love is something else. The way Atlas motivated that heavyweight russian fighter, by bringing up his late father and telling him by winning today, he's remembering his father's legacy, he could've used that leverage with cus for Tyson in the Holyfield fight as cus was a genuine surrogate father for Tyson.
Michael Moorer seems to have taken that loss really badly, judging by this interview. Unfair to say George got lucky, everyone else wasn’t saying that. It was clear George had the greater ring intellect, and all that came from his loss to Ali. That loss taught him something that the undefeated Moorer didn’t know, boxing is a sport of both physical and mental prowess. Just because you’re younger and faster doesn’t mean you’ll always win.
When you face an old master, stay away from the trap. Evander holyfield was smart enough to do that, you notice after he got hit a few times he stayed the heck away. What George did in this fight was even more genius than what he did against holyfield. He slowly turned up the heat over a number of rounds. This allowed him to accumulate damage on the younger man over a long period of time, so that when he turned it all the way up it would be too late.
To me, this was the greatest moment in the history of professional boxing. This was almost Shakespearean to be honest with you big George was an immovable target. Sure his hand speed was very slow. But pound for pound I think this guy had the most vicious punch in history of boxing. And the man was a ring tactician with a boxing IQ from the golden years of the sport. God bless you, George this is one of the greatest moments in sports history to me
Most vicious punch...AND one of the most vicious chins ever. Moorer hit him with plenty of "knockout" punches; they just weren't hard enough for George. I very much agree with you about this being one of the greatest moments in sports history; and amazingly, George was part of THREE of them imo. I think this moment cemented George as the ultimate heavyweight. Not the greatest, imo. But he had the ultimate heavyweight punch, the ultimate heavyweight chin, and the ultimate heavyweight mentality. In the dictionary, under the word "heavyweight", George's picture goes there. Not Tyson's. Not Liston's. Not even Louis's. Not even Ali's.
@@Nkosinati 100% x a million in agreement, love George, I’ve followed his career since his Olympic win, I was 10 yrs of age then, today I’m 64 and Foreman is one of my all times heroes, truly inspiring man in every aspect.
@@MarjorainMD ...Well, your comment confirms that it's past time for the man's story to be highlighted on the biggest stage. Can't wait for his movie release on the 28th; i pray that it's brilliantly done so as to honor him and The Lord he serves. I'm only 53, and for most of my young life George has primarily played the role of villain and "dope" in countless Ali movies and documentaries. It's his time; so glad he's alive and amazingly well to enjoy his flowers. And his achievement against Moorer...every bit as legendary as Ali's achievement in Zaire albeit for different reasons...hope the movie does it justice.
@@Nkosinati Once again I find myself in total agreement with your sentiment. Oh, man have to admit I’m nervous about the film, you know how most everything in a movie is the storyline, hope it matches and is faithful to the man and his achievements. As you well pointed out, we’re happy George is still well so as to see he’s not forgotten and we appreciate and love him. I’ll try to be brief on the following anecdote, it happened to a co-worker of mine back in 2006 I’ll use her own words and narrative…”We drove to Las Vegas with mother and sister (husband stayed behind taking care of my toddler) for the weekend to help my sis cope with a heartbreak, as we finished lunch @ Caesar’s Palace buffet we’re started to head out when we’ve noticed there were some people surrounding this particular table, I’m curious so I shoved and pushed my way through and lord & behold eating lunch and sitting at that table was George Foreman with a friend, I bluntly stood in front of him and said…GEORGE! my husband loves YOU! he answered “Well, where is he?” Home with our baby girl, without further ado George took a napkin from the dining table and wrote “To Jimmy best regards, keep on punching…love George” She had to narrate this story @ work to everyone who will listen, and because we worked together (same department) I spoke candidly perhaps once or twice regarding boxing past golden years and present where purses are astronomical) she nonchalant mentioned her husband’s favorite boxer George Foreman because her husband had his VHS fights on tape) The irony of all of this? she’s not interested in big George or much into boxing, but she recognized him on that dining table because her husband had the Foreman grill and saved the box in the closet with the picture of chubby bald headed George on it, oh the irony! 🥲 I wonder what he was doing there? comes to mind when he was commenting with Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant many of those HBO PPV nights, most of those fights were in Vegas of course. Stay well, best of health to you and we’ll be watching that film on the 28th, blessings.🙌
I was 18 when this,happened I remember....my mother and grandmother even watching routing on old George...he was a beloved figure in American Society....yet the boxing writers pretty much laughed him off....I remember my whole family jumping up and down.....and that 10 count seemed like a full minute because we knew if Moorer shook it off ,he would have probably won.
Moorer says its bull that Foreman planned it. He got lucky but Moorer's own trainer Atlas said be careful he is setting you up for the right hand and sure enough Boom! What an idiot. lol
Yes, Foreman did get lucky. In fact, he got lucky 68 times like that over the years;-) Heaviest hands in the history of the sport and it's not even close.
indeed -- pretty amazing to me that moorer lasted as long as he did --- he got hit with that sledgehammer at least a dozen times throughout the fight - but none of them were the perfect punch - the last one however -- everything was just right & his lights went out -- that punch could have knocked three guys out -
Of course George planned this. That was the only possible way to win the title. He even spoke about it before the fight. "...at some point of the fight, Moorer will stay in front of me."
"I was crushing him for 10 rounds." You know what Moore? A long time ago, on an entirely different continent, a young champion named George was smashing away on a no hoper round after around...then suddenly Bam! Right hand, and it's all over. Sound familiar? George beat you because you did exactly what he needed you to do to do so. He was too slow to land rapid combinations and build up damage. Didn't have the reflexes to counter punch you. So what did he have left? The hammer in his right glove. Teddy warned you, told you EXACTLY what to do what would have led you to victory. But you were just too proud, and too stubborn to take an old man seriously. You can see it the entire fight. "He can hurt me. He can't hurt me." WHAM! "Ugh...he hurt me."
Boxer Randall Tex Cobb once said, “In tennis you make a mistake, it’s Love-15. You make a mistake in boxing, that’s your ass. Moorer made that mistake and it sure wasn’t Love-15. His ass was dizzy down on the canvas.
I love how effortless George makes it look, yet his punches are packed with dynamite. It's almost deceptive. He's also weird and unique in the ring, and that's why I love him.
I think that is why Moorer did not adjust. He took that shot a few times and thought that was it ....that was all his power. Till he kept landing it and finally wore him down and KO'd him
Moorer just doesn’t realize he was fighting one of the most powerful and devastating punchers of the heavyweight division. He had no respect for Foreman’s punch, paid the price....
Compare that to Holyfield, who said that after the second round, where he got caught with a punch and thought he lost teeth against Foreman, respected his power completely. He was criticised for clinching Foreman in the 12th as much as he did. His reason, because he knew Foreman would be going for the knockout, and didn't want to chance it that he would get KO'ed by one hit. Foreman said he planned the 1-2, Jim Lampley (the commentator who said "it happened") swears to this day that Foreman told him for months that Moorer would stand still in the later rounds and be knocked out by a 1-2, Atlas saw it early and kept telling Moorer in the fight, everyone except Moorer was weary of Foreman's power, and he paid the price.
@@MrDioXIII foreman learned from hf fight if he pushed from the beginning moorer would did the same thing like hf did move around and outbox him, so he punched moore softly in earlier round to make moorer think he can handle his power and go toe to toe with him
I love the speech George delivered 12:33, "I just want to go out of there and show the world that age 45 or 55 is not a death sentence. We can do anything we want to do. The crowd erupts.
Teddy Atlas repeatedly told MM that Foreman was moving him into the right hand. Atlas' ability to read the fight was impeccable! He called it as it transpired.
Moorer chose to stand in front of Foreman and trade. Always a mistake. I have always said, one man I wouldn't want to punch me in the face is George Foreman. That was like 23 years ago, so he is something like 68 now. I stand by my previous statement.
My Dad is 64, im 23 and I try to keep in good shape. Not bragging but i have some muscles, my dad is little chubby now but you can tell he was a weight lifter when he was young. He fought in the streets to survive back in them days and he has ungodly power. He hit me in my abs accidentally once trying to teach me self defense. I couldn't breathe for a couple minutes he knocked the wind out of me, If that was accidental then id hate to see a real punch from him.
I watched this live with a bunch of people. We were speechless, literally, for about 3-4 minutes. Someone eventually says "Did that just happen?!?!" It did.
+MrGrant68 your comment ends all arguments. It was his problem from day one. He would not listen. Before this fight, against Holyfield, Teddy is pleading with him to step it up, and you only had to look at the pouty expression on his face, which tells you how hard he was to work with. He was warned not to stand in front of George well before the knockout round. There was no question that George set him up, and the punch he landed well and truly knocked him into the middle of next week!!
Coming here again, like many times before... but this time after seeing a Teddy Atlas interview from this year (2024) and this phrase he said there sums it up pretty nicely: he was telling his whole camp, that George "Ain't trying to win a fight... he's trying to win a life back" and that his heart sunk when he saw he was wearing the same trunks than in Zaire. Redemption is a pretty powerful driving force.
One thing I noticed about Foreman's comeback, was that he never teed off on his opponents like he used to in his first career. He would use the jab, set up the right, and every now and then, he'd throw hooks and uppercuts. The difference was his mindset. In the 70s, he really wanted to destroy his opponents. He would throw everything at them in the first few rounds (if they even made it that far) and considering he had one of, if not THE hardest punch in all of combat sports, it was usually pretty damn effective to say the least. In his comeback, he was still knocking people out, but you can tell he didn't want to do unnecessary damage to the opponent. He didn't have that same killer instinct that he once had, but in return he fought smarter and could carry his power into the later rounds, which was his only true weakness in his first career (hence the Rumble in the Jungle). Foreman is most definitely worthy of a top 5, or even top 3 heavyweight boxer of all time. Maybe even number 1, with all things considered.
It has to do with age. These powerfull hooks and overhand rights really take out a lot out of you energy-wise. So George was using the jab a lot more to preserve energy.
good analysis re 2nd career george.... I got george in his prime (I think it was in the first frazier fight, he was really focused and polished in that fight), 3-4th greatest all time, prime vs prime.
George still fought smart in his youth. His whole style revolved around old boxing techniques from bareknuckle boxing. He uses his left hand to deflect or smother the opponent's punches to set up for his jab to keep his opponents at arm's length to leverage his superior size and wingspan. He was essentially that one character in a fighting game that nobody thinks to counter, and so they suffer when someone actually knows how to play them. It's a good idea in theory, and George proved it definitelt held up to scrutiny. Old George just adjusted his style by adding the cross guard and got a lot smarter about when and where to throw punches, rather than blasting his opponents with repeated barrages. I think I agree with Old George's assumption that he would beat his younger self. He just has a significantly higher ring IQ and he is still strong enough to take his own blows and dish out some mean damage. It'd be a battle of attrition that the older man would ironically win.
My father was a very successful amateur. I remember a story he told me about when his 50 something year old trainer knocked him off his feet and out with a left hook. As my then young and arrogant father got his senses back his trainer said: 'You never lose your punch. Your legs go. But you never lose your punch.'
It is clear from this HBO Special that Michael Moore never liked George Foreman. Calling him "Fake" and "A Big Con", not to mention a liar. I would like to ask Moore why he agreed to fight him? George was not ranked in the TOP TEN by the WBA and only barely by the IBF...so how did he get this shot? Michael could have set a fight with Lennox Lewis before he lost to McCall. Perhaps reuniting all three belts! Moore passed on that opportunity. Riddick Bowe was a top contender that barely lost the title to Holyfield. How about Tony Tucker? No, Moore did not want a challenge. He did not want to risk losing his newly acquired title, so he selected a 45-year old that had not fought in 18 months. GEORGE FOREMAN was a premium name and represented a BIG PAYDAY with LOW RISK for Moore. Perhaps if Moore selected a real contender for his first defense he would not have taken him so lightly, would have listened to his trainer, and maybe even won. Michael only has himself to blame for blowing this fight.
+jasona9 You're missing a lot of key information. Lewis had in fact been in negotiations with both Moorer and Bowe, and ended up signing a contract to fight McCall, as he would split a record $31 Million purse with Bowe if they fought, with the only stipulation being that he had to beat McCall. This nixed a Moorer fight for a while, because it would be stupid to pass up that kind of money, plus he and Bowe had been Olympic rivals, so while Bowe and Lewis were tied up in contracts, Moorer didn't have many other options to stay active. Holyfield? He just beat him months before. Herbie Hide? The WBO belt was a joke at the time. Tony Tucker you said? He was on the downslope of his career fighting unknowns in bums, and ended up dropping his next 3 fights following Moorer's win over Holyfield. Ray Mercer or Tommy Morrison? Both had just fought to draws against complete bums on the exact same card. And of course Tyson was still in jail. The Heavyweight division was in a huge slump with no real contenders or big payday fights existed for him other than lose-lose situations. If he had fought any of the guys who weren't tied up, he'd get shit for pay, unimportant wins, and/or a useless belt nobody cared about. He figured that Foreman would bring him a huge payday, big name status, and keep him sharp for a Holyfield rematch or a fight against Bowe or Lennox. Basically, as much of a dick as Moorer was, he really didn't have many options and Foreman seemed to be the best one; big pay and a big name.
TheGr8one1022 You listed solid information. I admit to not knowing of "formal negotiations" between the top boxers of that period. I wrote my post based on an interview I saw with Moorer after he won the WBA and IBF titles. Moorer stated that he was not interested in fighting Lewis.. I heard that from the horses mouth! As I wrote above Moorer spoke very unfavorably about Big George. To write that George did not earn a title shot in the ring is an extreme understatement. I was just "spit-balling" when I mentioned Bowe and Tucker. At the time this fight came to fruition I believed a stronger opponent for Moorer could have been found. Of course, what did I know? George shocked the world!
+jasona9 Lol yeah I think I just kinda feel slightly bad for Moorer so I have to give him a little credit. The Heavyweight division was in a weird spot after Tyson went to jail so some funky stuff went down, all the belts were spread apart, etc.
I love the way Teddy Atlas described the trap, “I’m just an old man throwing punches,” like George was only shadow boxing. And then, out of nowhere, as George hits the combination, and the classic statement by the fight announcer, Jim Lampley, as classic as Cosell’s, “Down goes Frazier,” Jim Lampley in almost a state of disbelief and ecstasy, “It happened; it happened!!!”
Sane Man Indeed great quote, Bernard Shaw. Well Shaw wrote a more verbose version and someone who no one knows shortened it to this which is brilliant but will never receive the credit. I seem to remember from QI the original quote referenced children a pity it has to be wasted on children or something like that. It is the invisible shortening I like.
I agree. I think older George was a way better fighter than young George. If only he could have put that together when he was younger, he would have been unstoppable.
I was watching this at home with my pops, had to be about 11 or 12 and right before the ko before the last 2 one two combos I told my pops "Idk how he's gonna beat Moorer he's old. My pops having watched George as a kid in the 70's said "I grew up watching this guy and one thing he has is PWR, if he lands a good hard shot it's over." I told him "but he isn't even swinging ir throwing hard" and he said "with his strength he doesn't have to" and then 💣💥!
I did notice that he connected with that same 1-2 before the one that knocked him out. To hear George explain how he lowered the punch the second time was beautiful.
I love the way Michael Spinx shook his head at 16:58. Anyway, punching power is the last thing to go. Michael Moorer was the result of what happens when you get too overconfident. You underestimate your opponent, and you end up getting KO'ed. Michael Moorer should have listened to his corner. They kept telling him that he was being set up.
The look and mannerisms of Spinx during that clip is the bitter truth of a man speaking from experience.. lol.. I laughed my ass off too, when I saw it.. lol..
I was working as a sous chef at a restaurant called Peppers On The River in Berea, Ohio.... We were slammed that night... The fight was on TV at the bar.... And from time to time we go out and see what was happening.... When Foreman knocked Moorer out, the entire restaurant went up in a frenzy.... And I'll tell you I cried ..I was so happy for him...
I actually wasn’t home that night. I was in college and was calling a hockey game for our campus radio station that night. When we got back to the station saw the AP wire had moved a bulletin which is high priority and it was that Foreman had knocked out Moorer.
I watched this live back in '94. I remember thinking to myself that it really looked like Foreman was setting Moorer up for a knockout. I had watched every comeback fight of his since 1987, and I saw him knocking out guys by throwing much harder shots. During the Moorer fight I kept wondering to myself why George was throwing these short punches. By the fifth or sixth round I had figured it out from observation through Teddy's instructions and Clancy's commentary. Moorer simply fell into a trap.
"Michael Moorer Grills" yeah the fuck right. He actually believes that if he had successfully defended against Goerge, that George wouldn't be a star anymore?, LOL. it's exactly like they said "there are many champions but few stars".
It’s amazing how Foreman, wearing the same trunks he lost to Ali in, came full circle in his mid 40’s to outsmart another fighter much like Ali outsmarted him. It was the culmination of George’s redemption. It’s as if the destruction of George’s ego allowed him to rebuild himself from the ground up. He transformed into a completely different man, and it took that new man to gain what the young, bad boy George could not. George’s story couldn’t be more perfect and inspiring. It’s as if it was a perfectly written novel. And it couldn’t have happened to a better guy. George became such a humble and gracious guy after he quit boxing all those years ago.
dbreiden83080 Meaning he wasn't using the square circle in a thoughtful strategic way...he let Big George make him stand in front of him...and Bang Bang, One Two, out go the lights.
Standing in front he largely whipped his ass. Put yourself in his place. You are winning huge for 10 rounds and get caught. I get why Michael feels the way he does. He is not wrong..
Moorer is bothered by the way he lost. Moorer was always that kinda guy who thought he was smarter than he really was. Foreman exposed the big con that was Moorer by outsmarting him.
@@windcatcher331 Calling Moorer a "big con" is disingenuous. He was a tremendous fighter that made a mistake. He was technically superior to almost everybody he fought in the ring. The problem was that he wasn't really a heavyweight. He was a light-heavyweight. He gave up 28 lbs to Foreman in that fight. He didn't have heavyweight power. A true heavyweight could've knocked Foreman out early in that fight. In any case, Moorer regained the heavyweight title in 1996. He was not a "big con." He just got beat.
@@jc22558 Yeah my remark way back then was genuine, but harsh. Maybe too harsh. He did act like he thought he was smarter than everybody when he truly wasn't, but Moorer was being genuine about that. But Moorer made a stupid error when he stood right in front of Foreman. Weight was not a factor in that fight given Moorer smoked Foreman like a joint for 10 rounds. Moorer had to know Foreman's only chance was is if he stopped moving and gave Foreman the time to set and fire, which he did. Had he followed Atlas' instructions, Moorer wins by wide unanimous decision. As such he got outsmarted. Foreman knew his only chance was a pucnher's chance.
Moorer still saying that this wasn't set up. Foreman said he was setting that up. Moorer's own corner told him he was setting that up. All those years later, Moorer still couldn't just listen. Or just actively refused to.
Foreman was an exceptional talent, the way he destroyed Joe Frazier to take the crown is one of the most amazing things I've seen in boxing. When he crossed paths with Ali he was still young & a bit immature, & the intellegent, more experienced Ali took advantage. By George's own admission, that fight nearly ruined his career. he was depressed, got badly out of shape, & almost never got back in the ring. Had he never lost to Ali, he might've gone down as the greatest HW of all time
The poetic Irony of all of this was, when Foreman said he finally felt what Ali felt when the crowd was cheering Ali out and foremoan kept pummeling. This fight was exactly that.. Foreman grew up and became that next level fighter Ali had been.
Great veteran fighters can have plans to find weaknesses to win fights. That's what Ali did to Foreman in Zaire. And Foreman did a similar thing to Moorer. 1. Foreman knew that Moorer was too small to knock George out. 2. George took his time. He wanted Moorer to get over confident and stand right in front of him. Moorer was cocky and wanted to knock out George. 3. Then George used his left hook to the body to move Moorer to George's right. 4. And in the 10th round came the big punches from George.
Just goes to show that those old school heavyweights were nothing to be played with. There’s a reason Big Georges generation of heavyweights are considered the Golders generation.
Moored did exactly what George said he would do, even after teddy warned him to not stand in front of George. George previously predicted late in the fight Moorer would stand in front of him. Boom! That’s not luck, that’s patience, skill and power.
Foreman set him up the whole fight. I watched this live when it happened. Even I thought Foreman was in over his head as the fight progressed. Then I started seeing a change in the latter rounds. When Foreman should have been losing steam his punches started snapping and popping, making Moorer's head blow sweat beads with every jab and straight. It was incredible to watch live
I was waiting for this fight since it was announced. I was telling my dad the whole time that Moorer was tailor made for Foreman because he had no chin. Sooner or later George was going to hit that chin and it would be lights out.
When I was watched this live, it was like a miracle when Foreman won. It truly was one of the best nights in the history of boxing. Now all these years have passed, and i rewatched this. I feel bad for Michael Moorer!
Moorer was in a no-win situation. Going into the fight unpopular with fans & writers, against Foreman, who everybody loved, had he played it smart & stayed away from Foreman's power, everyone would've said he was scared & running from a 45 year old man. So he tried to stay in front of George & box him, & everybody says he was foolish. He was just trying to prove to doubters he was a worthy champion. I'm sure in Moorer's mind Foreman was a has-been, & heavyweight champs don't run from 45 year old "has-beens"...he would've never gotten respect. By losing, he really didn't get any respect either. He was in a catch 22
No he could have won by showing George respect. You don't run from any old 45 year old... you out box one of the greatest power punchers to ever live when he didn't have his legs to cut the ring off... That would have been a win. Or if you are as much of a man as you think your are... you Stand and trade and win that way... Moore was unwilling to do the former, even as his corner screamed for him too. As we all know he was just plain incapable of doing latter. Thing is... You do almost still have a point until you take into account that the first thing George said about him after the knock out was how much power he had... how hard he punched and well he had boxed. George in victory extended not just grace and acknowledgement of Moorer's talents... but extended a covering of respect as one of the most liked Champs ever... And what did Moorer do with that covering? Piss it away as an arrogant cunt who said George was just lucky... Moorer proved himself to be the less of the two mentally... and when it comes right the fuck down to it... that is were you win boxing matches. What did Moore do...
@Mikaeel Naseer Foreman just looked so slow and plodding against Morrison, like he was half asleep the entire fight. I think he was expecting a short slugfest with Tommy. Morrison had obviously watched Foreman fight and was smart enough to realize that the only way to beat Foreman was to stick and jab the entire fight. Morrison had enough respect for Foreman's power and the humility to know not to go toe to toe.
Foremans punches weren't that fast but when you're swinging a bowling ball by a rope it doesn't have to be very fast. Some of the heaviest punches ever thrown.
Foreman's arms are like telephone poles. Even his jab breaks bones. If he was more athletic he'd be the scariest heavyweight of all time. But what he lacked in athleticism he made up for in power. He ragdolled some of the best boxers to ever step foot on the canvas. That beating Ali gave him did something to him mentally though. He admits it too. Ali was something very special.
Iron Mike You can go to his church any Sunday, I did. It was pretty incredible. He came up to me and shook my hand, as he didnt recognize me. I have trouble finding winter gloves that fit, but he probably could have wrapped his hand around mine
Iron Mike all true, but I think Foreman may have beaten Ali the second time around. Ali was very smart, but he would have had to come up with a different game plan the second time to bring down big George again.
Before the fight: Foreman told Lampley that he would catch Moorer late in the fight when Moorer would stand right in front of him. During the Fight: Moore's trainer Tony Atlas - Don't stand there, He's setting you up to hit you with one shot! Years later: Moorer - Bullshit- Don't fake it - You got lucky! Don't sit there and say you planned it! You're lying!
i've watched this clip for 20x or more already ... i'm still in awed ... Foreman defeating 2 undefeated champions in different eras ... I bet MM has never been hit the way Foreman did to him in his career
"I think the myth of George's power has been exposed by Michael Moorer....." Larry Merchant "George is a clubber. He can't get you out with one shot..." Gil Clancy.
+SeanP7195 Let's be fair dude, they were just saying what everyone thought. Before the knockout punch, Foreman hadn't landed any truly significant blows, and even when he landed the straight right, it looked like he was pushing the punch rather than throwing it and it landed with minimal force; while strong, it was like a car backing slowly into somebody as opposed to speeding into them. And while Merchant has his moments of unprofessionalism, you can't say he knows nothing about boxing. He's been commentating on boxing solely since 1978 and for 20 years before that he was an overall sports analyst and newspaper reporter. In that long span of time, even an idiot would have a wealth of boxing knowledge.
Moorer just plain underestimated Foreman’s punching power. ... he continue to stand in front of Foreman, in spite of being ahead by a big margin on all the scorecards. Foreman: “Micheal Moorer was fallin’ Into a trap.” No truer words were spoken. Foreman never panicked, and kept himself on a steady pace...and still had the power to knock him out in the 10th round. Unbelievable achievement by a George Foreman became a smarter fighter in his comeback despite losses to Evander Holyfield and Tommy “The Duke” Morrison.
There is video tape before the fight of George talking to Jim Lampley at George’s place. George said Moorer will let George knock him out. “It has happened,” Lampley says at the end of the fight. He said it because of George’s prediction.
Didn’t have the speed of 70’s Foreman(obviously),but man the power was still there, that’s scary power right there, from that distance, to be able to KO a man. Wow
"Unless he studied Moorer and knew for sure what type of moves he was capable of coming with." Which is precisely what George did. He watched tapes of all Moorer's recent fights until his eyes probably bled. It's an important part od preparing for a match. :)
I saw one of his first comeback fights in Orlando in the ball room of a hotel across from Universal Studios in the late 80's (was probably '87)...he hit his opponent with one right and he collapsed like a 50 lb. sack of potatoes. George had some serious pop in his punches.
Never forget this fight, Foreman was so relaxed when he threw that punch ,it didn't even look like a hard punch, right on the chin,but was beautiful! ❤
Every time I watch this, I can't hold back the tears at the end. I love both Michael Moorer and George Foreman though. Being a Detroit native and having the opportunity to see Michael Moorer in the Kronk Gym and at the Palace of Auburns Hills before he won the title from Evander Holyfield, when both he and Holyfield appeared on USA Tuesday Night Fights.
"lucky" no such thing as a lucky punch in boxing unless the fighter is blind folded... you throw a punch and aim it to connect, and if it does its the opponents job to duck or block it. i hate that mentality. if thats the case, everytime a baseball player hits a home run, its just luck. or a person scores a touchdown. shows you the immature level michael Moorer is at. he got rocked, simple as that...face the facts.
maybe if the fighter is swinging for the fences like a lunatic i can see that being a lucky punch, but throwing a jab and setting yourself up for a big shot, how in gods name is that luck. No logic in that way of thinking, and shows you the intelligence in boxing by the people that would even entertain that notion.
Michael Tomson I quite agree. What are you supposed to do in boxing? Punch the opponent, if you do, how is it lucky to do something you are supposed to do in the 1st place?
I often come back to watch this it reminds me of my pop. We watched this fight and honestly i didn't big George would win. But when he did the whole house went insane
George is my favorite of all time. I've watched this knockout many times. AND I've had about 4 George Foreman grills. I've been a Foreman fan since the '68 Olympics. He distinguished himself proudly to a 10 year old me.
the expectation was that George would come out looking for a knockout but he didn't want to do the predictable so he saved his energy and lured Moorer in with slow punches and defense. Then in the later rounds he had energy and it started to show in his punches. He waited until Moorer stood in front of him and started landing that left hook that he wasn't throwing before and bam.
How cna you hate boxing... is the purest thing. Two man beating eatchother up. No nationality, no politics, no advantages just pure unadulterated manwhood. They are both legends in my book.
Michael Moorer's ego was Foreman's best asset in this bout. To this day, he won't admit that Big George drew him in exactly like Teddy Atlas warned over and over.
What's absolutely stunning to me about this retrospective analysis is that one obvious key to what happened is mentioned within the first few minutes, but whoever wrote the script, directed this, or edited it didn't see it.... Michael Moorer was the George Foreman, the Mike Tyson, the Ernie Shavers, and the Sonny Liston of the light heavyweight division. He won the title in less than a year and knocked out 100% of his opponents. It would take quite a lot for a man with that much experience of being a Marauder, a Terminator, an unstoppable force to learn that his punches just don't do that anymore with his new much larger opponents. See, I have watched this whole fight 3 times now. And it doesn't seem to me that Moorer isn't aware that he is providing the opportunity for Foreman to hit him, it's that he's trying to knock Foreman out himself. It's sort of like when an interviewer asks a super self confident title challenger how he will game plan to deal with the champion and he turns it around saying "Shit, he better have a game plan to deal with what I do."
This was a big deal in ‘94…Holyfield was my guy but even at a young age, I was happy as heck for Mr. Foreman. It was inspiring to see that at 10-11 years old…
I watched several times over yhe year, and I am still amazed. Big George... What a man! He proved that he was not only a Heavy Weight Champion, but possibly one of the best Champions! Wining that at 45 and earning possibly more money than any other boxers, my hat to the man!
Im with you, I wanted George to win but watching George take a beat down was hard and Moorer was easily beating him and making it look easy. I'm also thinking George has nothing to be embarrassed about, from starting his comeback where people laughed at him to the Holyfield fight where he gave Evander all he could handle. Evander still says to ths day George was the hardest puncher who hit him. Even going to the knockout round, Moorer still controlled the fight though by then Moorer was getting hit more, if Moorer would just have turned left or right a few times I don't think he gets knocked out but he did the one thing no fighter should do and that's stand flat and go head on at George. Egos can make or break a fighter, you have to have a ego to want to be the best but that same ego can bite you in the butt
Watching again, probably fourth or fifth time lol. Can tell George was setting him up. I cried when George won . I won some cash on this one . One of the greatest of all time
13:07 - Maybe now the best Foreman quote I have ever heard in my life. Teddy was just trying to do what Michael wouldn't, but look how George turned it around, LMAO!
Sour grapes Moorer ,George had this planned since 87 no one knew who he'd fight if he were to get a shot ,Many probably believed Tyson would be still champ. Foreman did what no other Heavyweight will ever do regain his title 20 yrs later ,so Moorer can cry all he wants ,You were beat and beat by a much older wiser and better man so deal with it Michael Moorer
Brooklyn Styles Thanks ,but I'm not a nigga ,I'm green Irish ,lol ,George fought a great fight and was a better boxer when he made his comeback . He learned from his bout with Ali and pulled off a great feat.
Atlas: "Be careful, he's setting you up for the right hand."
*gets knocked out with the right hand*
Foreman: "I was setting him up for my right hand."
Lampley: "Months before the fight, Foreman predicted what would happen."
Moorer: "Listen, he's an old man and he got lucky."
Bruh....
Fact based
I highly doubt that Moore will
E V E R admit what the rest of us have always known.
🤣🤣
@@DJK-cq2uy Getting knocked out by Foreman ain't a sign of glass jaw....even old Foreman....like Foreman in 2023 ..could probably knock out most men if you stood in front of him..... Mooer was many things.....hard headed, a jack ass.....but glass jawed....only Foreman and Tua KO'd him in a 57 fight career....that's not a glass jaw
@Andro Libre Alex Stewart...feather fisted buckled his legs in 1991..watch the fight. Evander, a stud knocked him on his ass what three times in one fight.
Foreman saw it all happening 3 months beforehand.
Atlas saw it all happening multiple rounds beforehand.
Years later, Moorer still cant see it.
There is no sport more poetic than boxing.
Michale Moorer is not wrong... Foreman got lucky. But the luck found him hard at work trying to make it happen.
@@sergiobollana how many times have you watched the whole fight and how recently was the last time??
There was no way Foreman could out point Moorer. George knew he could get a KO punch. He got it.
Factual
@Brock Barber Very well put. Michael Moore didn't then, doesn't now, nor is it likely that he ever will see it....see it for what it is: Forman set him up like a bowling pin, with Moore making the exact mistake George said he would--stand in front of him. Moore did it, Forman stretched him out, and luck had absolutely nothing to do with it.
"Once again Heavyweight Champion of the World"... That has to be damn satisfying to hear..
It brought a tear to my eyes, I'll tell you that!
'once again' got me.
"middle aged men simply do not win against 26 year old HW champions of the world" :)
@@Lava1964 me too
Tears to my eyes?
I lose it every time I watch this clip.
😢
God bless you, George!
Moorer was hard headed, would have won if he listened to Teddy. His mistake was thinking he could go toe-to-toe with big George Foreman.
exactly!
***** LOL.. meanwhile, watched the skin on the back of his neck reverberate when he gets hit.. He got knocked the fuck out, period..
roo7227 Along with Moorer's blood filling his mouth and spilling out as he tries to get up. Moorer was the 68 KO,SIXTY EIGHT not a record but still that's a lot of KO's let alone fights by today's standards.
markyncole My favorite part, and I'm not knocking Moorer, whom I always thought was a great fighter, but when he tries to get up and all he can do is lift his head, cause his body is refusing to cooperate... That's when you know someone just got hit real hard!.. lol..
*****
Lol... yeah kid Moorer doesn't have an outstanding chin. If Holyfield can knock him down in a fight even if Holyfield loses which he did. George Foreman can win on a sneaky 1-2. That wasn't luck... even Moorer respects the hit. Saying lucky is his excuse for a poor chin.
Moore is truly in denial. George didn't beat some of the greatest fighters of all time off luck. He didn't win a gold medal off luck. George is an extremely intelligent fighter and power usually doesn't fade. He did set up thst right hand, moore never recovered
Dwayne Williams he didn't set it all up, he did however set up that punch
Dwayne Williams no such thing as luck in boxing some would of doged it some would have taken ot some would of blocked ot some would have saw him setting it up
Yeah, calling George's win luck is just stupid.
That was not lucky..but that was a superb..because george has he own strategy...he wait and counting when he should throw one big punch to moore..and he got it...and goodnight to moore....
George didn't think he had a shot to win that fight. Ali Let George Beat on him for 8 rounds, then set him up one combination. George just did the same type of thing to Moorer that was done to him: Experience is, after all, the best teacher.
Foreman ko'd 2 undefeated champs 2 generations apart
mark unrau Frazier and Moorer
Good point.
Frazier is still awesome. Nowhere near as arrogant as Moorer.
5 years later and Foreman is still underrated somehow.
George foreman set this fight up and Micheal fell into his trap then sold grills smile
George is so classy, whenever he commentated on HBO he always gave fighters the credit that they were due. He such a modest, genuine guy, one of the greatest champions ever,
"You got lucky"?
Give me a break Moorer. It's hard for a 45 year old man to "get lucky" in the 10th round.
yeah lucky...with a 20 years age disavantage 10 rounds in a figth he was loosing.if you ask me i will say that ive seen better set up to get lucky than that
quite easy for a 45 year old man to get lucky... at 30, there's no way a 50 year old is kicking my ass after i have been roughing him up the whole ride
He may have been "loosing" but he tightened it up in the end.
@- Cicero facts lol
@- Cicero
George could probably beat the majority of us just by spitting on us. I can't imagine how scary it was to face a prime Foreman.
They way Big George looked up after Moorer got counted out was always my favorite. It felt like George finally redeemed himself after that heartbreak against Ali.
There's no "like" about it. He did.
Me too, that's the part that always brings the tears. There's picture of Buster Douglas holding his right hand up and looking up after his win over Tyson. That picture has always been spine tingling and perhaps my favorite in the history of the sport.
Recapturing the Heavyweight Title after ALL
He stood flat footed in front of probably the most powerful puncher in heavyweight history, got caught on the button and knocked out. End of story.
he was a bully
RealDjToddThunder he was a true gentleman & bad ass, rare combination indeed
Not quite the end of the story. What you must ask is WHY did he stand in front of Foreman? And the answer is because Foreman was playing him, he didn't use his full power and lured Moorer into believing that he could take what George could throw. He was wrong. Foreman roped his dope.
@@tonyb9735 Tremendous obvious pressure even then to be a star, you gotta knock MFers out, or no one cares. So obvious after the Tyson era. Ironically Tyson might have aimed for going the distance, cuz he knew what a monster George was.
It was a slip. Moorer won that fight.
LOL, "luck"? Your trainer is yelling at you to stop standing in front of him because he's trying to set you up for a right hand behind his jab, he does *exactly that*, you get knocked out by it and then call it 'luck'. Please.
It wasn't luck. It was a man too arrogant to listen to his trainer and then paying the price for his ego by losing to a much smarter boxer.
It was just a different version of the rope-a-dope strategy employed by Ali vs Foreman in Zaire. Foreman knew that he had only one chance to beat Moorer and it was exactly as Teddy Atlas described. Moorer was too quick and as a Southpaw he could better protect against the right hand than other opponents. George had to move him to the left and lull him to sleep so he could set up the knockout combo.
Foreman wasn't "lucky," but his strategy was risky (just as Ali's was in Zaire). He had to endure a tremendous amount of punishment just to set up his one shot at the knockout. Moorer easily could've have knocked him out or simply avoided exposing himself to the combo by moving around. He had an insurmountable lead in the fight. Unfortunately, Moorer made the tragic mistake.
exactly
Great comment, but Moore couldn’t have easily knocked him out. He was trying to. Also, you don’t win 65 heavyweight fights against two losses (George’s record coming into Holyfield), without an all-time chin.
george was setting moorer up all night by making micheal think georges power was gone, this made micheal gradually get closer and more comfortable standing in front of george. BIIIIG mistake.
teddy saw this happening and was trying to tell micheal but he was too stubborn to listen
Exactly. As someone else in the comments said, 45 year old men don’t get “lucky” in the 10th round of a world heavyweight championship fight. It’s obvious Moorer is extremely bitter, and I can’t say I blame him, winning this fight might have propelled him to superstardom. He lost because of his own arrogance and ignorance. Foreman even said in interviews before the fight “at some point, he’s gonna have to stand in front of me, and that’s where I’ll get him”. Teddy Atlas, Moorer’s own manager, repeatedly said “don’t stand in front of him, create distance”. Moorer thought he knew better, and it cost him dearly. Luck had nothing to do with it.
Atlas is a pretty obnoxious dude, but he was right. Foreman DID have a plan to lull Moorer into sitting right in front of him to receive that straight right. Moorer should've listened.
of course, moorer is delusional...did he think that foreman imagined he would win by dancing around and beating him with speed or reflexes.
you dont even need to know boxing to understand that foreman had to lure him in pay the price,get hit alot so he could get a chance to land some big ones
there are simply no other way he could win..if moorer would had stuck runing around jabbing and moving there is simply no way foreman could win
Atlas told him that in the corner before round 10.
Atlas is obnoxious? The dude can motivate any bum to a world-class fighter! Listen to him talk; he can move mountains with words.
@@salex354 things wouldve been different if he was in tyson's corner after gus died.just my opinion.atlas like disciplines, tyson had none
@@aniqshardin Absolutely. That brand of tough love is something else. The way Atlas motivated that heavyweight russian fighter, by bringing up his late father and telling him by winning today, he's remembering his father's legacy, he could've used that leverage with cus for Tyson in the Holyfield fight as cus was a genuine surrogate father for Tyson.
Michael Moorer seems to have taken that loss really badly, judging by this interview. Unfair to say George got lucky, everyone else wasn’t saying that. It was clear George had the greater ring intellect, and all that came from his loss to Ali. That loss taught him something that the undefeated Moorer didn’t know, boxing is a sport of both physical and mental prowess. Just because you’re younger and faster doesn’t mean you’ll always win.
Amen brother!
Coping mechanism. This was a younger version of him too. I imagine deep down he knows he got took to school.
When you face an old master, stay away from the trap. Evander holyfield was smart enough to do that, you notice after he got hit a few times he stayed the heck away.
What George did in this fight was even more genius than what he did against holyfield. He slowly turned up the heat over a number of rounds. This allowed him to accumulate damage on the younger man over a long period of time, so that when he turned it all the way up it would be too late.
But that’s Moorer. If it makes sense he won’t agree. Typical dumb boxer. In his own head.
So are you ready for a Michael Moorer return pushing 60 to vanquish the demon of George Foreman?
To me, this was the greatest moment in the history of professional boxing. This was almost Shakespearean to be honest with you big George was an immovable target. Sure his hand speed was very slow. But pound for pound I think this guy had the most vicious punch in history of boxing. And the man was a ring tactician with a boxing IQ from the golden years of the sport. God bless you, George this is one of the greatest moments in sports history to me
Most vicious punch...AND one of the most vicious chins ever. Moorer hit him with plenty of "knockout" punches; they just weren't hard enough for George. I very much agree with you about this being one of the greatest moments in sports history; and amazingly, George was part of THREE of them imo. I think this moment cemented George as the ultimate heavyweight. Not the greatest, imo. But he had the ultimate heavyweight punch, the ultimate heavyweight chin, and the ultimate heavyweight mentality. In the dictionary, under the word "heavyweight", George's picture goes there. Not Tyson's. Not Liston's. Not even Louis's. Not even Ali's.
@@Nkosinati 100% x a million in agreement, love George, I’ve followed his career since his Olympic win, I was 10 yrs of age then, today I’m 64 and Foreman is one of my all times heroes, truly inspiring man in every aspect.
@@MarjorainMD ...Well, your comment confirms that it's past time for the man's story to be highlighted on the biggest stage. Can't wait for his movie release on the 28th; i pray that it's brilliantly done so as to honor him and The Lord he serves. I'm only 53, and for most of my young life George has primarily played the role of villain and "dope" in countless Ali movies and documentaries. It's his time; so glad he's alive and amazingly well to enjoy his flowers. And his achievement against Moorer...every bit as legendary as Ali's achievement in Zaire albeit for different reasons...hope the movie does it justice.
@@Nkosinati Once again I find myself in total agreement with your sentiment. Oh, man have to admit I’m nervous about the film, you know how most everything in a movie is the storyline, hope it matches and is faithful to the man and his achievements.
As you well pointed out, we’re happy George is still well so as to see he’s not forgotten and we appreciate and love him.
I’ll try to be brief on the following anecdote, it happened to a co-worker of mine back in 2006 I’ll use her own words and narrative…”We drove to Las Vegas with mother and sister (husband stayed behind taking care of my toddler) for the weekend to help my sis cope with a heartbreak, as we finished lunch @ Caesar’s Palace buffet we’re started to head out when we’ve noticed there were some people surrounding this particular table, I’m curious so I shoved and pushed my way through and lord & behold eating lunch and sitting at that table was George Foreman with a friend, I bluntly stood in front of him and said…GEORGE! my husband loves YOU! he answered “Well, where is he?” Home with our baby girl, without further ado George took a napkin from the dining table and wrote “To Jimmy best regards, keep on punching…love George”
She had to narrate this story @ work to everyone who will listen, and because we worked together (same department) I spoke candidly perhaps once or twice regarding boxing past golden years and present where purses are astronomical) she nonchalant mentioned her husband’s favorite boxer George Foreman because her husband had his VHS fights on tape)
The irony of all of this? she’s not interested in big George or much into boxing, but she recognized him on that dining table because her husband had the Foreman grill and saved the box in the closet with the picture of chubby bald headed George on it, oh the irony! 🥲
I wonder what he was doing there? comes to mind when he was commenting with Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant many of those HBO PPV nights, most of those fights were in Vegas of course.
Stay well, best of health to you and we’ll be watching that film on the 28th, blessings.🙌
I was 18 when this,happened I remember....my mother and grandmother even watching routing on old George...he was a beloved figure in American Society....yet the boxing writers pretty much laughed him off....I remember my whole family jumping up and down.....and that 10 count seemed like a full minute because we knew if Moorer shook it off ,he would have probably won.
Moorer says its bull that Foreman planned it. He got lucky but Moorer's own trainer Atlas said be careful he is setting you up for the right hand and sure enough Boom! What an idiot. lol
Right
Exactly. So how does his trainer know but you didn’t. Stop Michael your hating!!!
@@edjralvarado exactly
Exactly
WHAT AN IDIOT LOL
Yes, Foreman did get lucky. In fact, he got lucky 68 times like that over the years;-) Heaviest hands in the history of the sport and it's not even close.
That’s what people don’t realize. Those heavy hands only need 6 inches to get the job done.
As President you should have stopped that fight for Moorer’s sake.
Yes sir
I agree, he utterly destroyed Norton and Frazier...Frazier was crushed twice ! George is the best !!
indeed -- pretty amazing to me that moorer lasted as long as he did --- he got hit with that sledgehammer at least a dozen times throughout the fight - but none of them were the perfect punch - the last one however -- everything was just right & his lights went out -- that punch could have knocked three guys out -
ESPN needs to do a 30 for 30 on Foreman's comeback
th-cam.com/video/PeLeNhix2pk/w-d-xo.html
Yes
Good call
Here comes the movie
Of course George planned this. That was the only possible way to win the title. He even spoke about it before the fight. "...at some point of the fight, Moorer will stay in front of me."
Very true
He just knew how Michael was in the ring.
"I was crushing him for 10 rounds."
You know what Moore? A long time ago, on an entirely different continent, a young champion named George was smashing away on a no hoper round after around...then suddenly Bam! Right hand, and it's all over. Sound familiar?
George beat you because you did exactly what he needed you to do to do so. He was too slow to land rapid combinations and build up damage. Didn't have the reflexes to counter punch you. So what did he have left? The hammer in his right glove. Teddy warned you, told you EXACTLY what to do what would have led you to victory. But you were just too proud, and too stubborn to take an old man seriously.
You can see it the entire fight. "He can hurt me. He can't hurt me." WHAM! "Ugh...he hurt me."
He used the same strategy Ali used against him in reverse
"somewhere late in the fight, he's gonna come and stand in front of me."
@@nathandubose2876 Ali had the benefit of Angelo Dundee tampering with the ropes pre-fight. They were notorious cheats, the whole team...
Boxer Randall Tex Cobb once said, “In tennis you make a mistake, it’s Love-15. You make a mistake in boxing, that’s your ass.
Moorer made that mistake and it sure wasn’t Love-15.
His ass was dizzy down on the canvas.
Foolish pride is what got Moorer Koed
I love how effortless George makes it look, yet his punches are packed with dynamite. It's almost deceptive. He's also weird and unique in the ring, and that's why I love him.
george was punching holes in heavybags before his fight with ali. unreal power.
I remember in one interview Moorer said it felt like George had bricks in his gloves.
I think that is why Moorer did not adjust. He took that shot a few times and thought that was it ....that was all his power. Till he kept landing it and finally wore him down and KO'd him
@@maxpower2511 George was pulling his punches in the early rounds
@@casualxxgamerxx9662 Eh, I do not think he was pulling, he was most likely just timing it.
Moorer just doesn’t realize he was fighting one of the most powerful and devastating punchers of the heavyweight division.
He had no respect for Foreman’s punch, paid the price....
Compare that to Holyfield, who said that after the second round, where he got caught with a punch and thought he lost teeth against Foreman, respected his power completely. He was criticised for clinching Foreman in the 12th as much as he did. His reason, because he knew Foreman would be going for the knockout, and didn't want to chance it that he would get KO'ed by one hit.
Foreman said he planned the 1-2, Jim Lampley (the commentator who said "it happened") swears to this day that Foreman told him for months that Moorer would stand still in the later rounds and be knocked out by a 1-2, Atlas saw it early and kept telling Moorer in the fight, everyone except Moorer was weary of Foreman's power, and he paid the price.
@@MrDioXIII foreman learned from hf fight if he pushed from the beginning moorer would did the same thing like hf did move around and outbox him, so he punched moore softly in earlier round to make moorer think he can handle his power and go toe to toe with him
@@MrDioXIII Yeah, Holyfield said his whole mouth area was numb, and he had to ask his corner if all of his teeth were still there.
Still gives me goosebumps, the greatest comeback ever, in any sport.
It will never be bettered.
Tom Brady?
Get off the drugs kid....@cherylcollette6736
I love the speech George delivered 12:33, "I just want to go out of there and show the world that age 45 or 55 is not a death sentence. We can do anything we want to do. The crowd erupts.
Teddy Atlas repeatedly told MM that Foreman was moving him into the right hand. Atlas' ability to read the fight was impeccable! He called it as it transpired.
Moorer chose to stand in front of Foreman and trade. Always a mistake. I have always said, one man I wouldn't want to punch me in the face is George Foreman. That was like 23 years ago, so he is something like 68 now. I stand by my previous statement.
Good post Patrick, I wouldn't want George hitting me anywhere.
My Dad is 64, im 23 and I try to keep in good shape. Not bragging but i have some muscles, my dad is little chubby now but you can tell he was a weight lifter when he was young. He fought in the streets to survive back in them days and he has ungodly power. He hit me in my abs accidentally once trying to teach me self defense. I couldn't breathe for a couple minutes he knocked the wind out of me, If that was accidental then id hate to see a real punch from him.
I watched this live with a bunch of people. We were speechless, literally, for about 3-4 minutes. Someone eventually says "Did that just happen?!?!" It did.
I watched it with your momma
If lampley says it happened, it happened.
Michael didn't listen to Teddy..and he paid a high price
edgar95035 LISTEN to YOUR Coach/corner! they told exactly what George was going to try to do and Michael??? you did not listen and George did it!
+MrGrant68 Exactly!
+edgar95035 Moorer was a tough fighter, but an idiot in terms of boxing intelligence.
+MrGrant68 your comment ends all arguments. It was his problem from day one. He would not listen. Before this fight, against Holyfield, Teddy is pleading with him to step it up, and you only had to look at the pouty expression on his face, which tells you how hard he was to work with. He was warned not to stand in front of George well before the knockout round. There was no question that George set him up, and the punch he landed well and truly knocked him into the middle of next week!!
that's right Mr. Grant...he was like that too with Emmanuel Steward...so why even hire a trainer if he's not gonna listen
Coming here again, like many times before... but this time after seeing a Teddy Atlas interview from this year (2024) and this phrase he said there sums it up pretty nicely: he was telling his whole camp, that George "Ain't trying to win a fight... he's trying to win a life back" and that his heart sunk when he saw he was wearing the same trunks than in Zaire.
Redemption is a pretty powerful driving force.
One thing I noticed about Foreman's comeback, was that he never teed off on his opponents like he used to in his first career. He would use the jab, set up the right, and every now and then, he'd throw hooks and uppercuts. The difference was his mindset. In the 70s, he really wanted to destroy his opponents. He would throw everything at them in the first few rounds (if they even made it that far) and considering he had one of, if not THE hardest punch in all of combat sports, it was usually pretty damn effective to say the least. In his comeback, he was still knocking people out, but you can tell he didn't want to do unnecessary damage to the opponent. He didn't have that same killer instinct that he once had, but in return he fought smarter and could carry his power into the later rounds, which was his only true weakness in his first career (hence the Rumble in the Jungle). Foreman is most definitely worthy of a top 5, or even top 3 heavyweight boxer of all time. Maybe even number 1, with all things considered.
It has to do with age. These powerfull hooks and overhand rights really take out a lot out of you energy-wise. So George was using the jab a lot more to preserve energy.
good analysis re 2nd career george.... I got george in his prime (I think it was in the first frazier fight, he was really focused and polished in that fight), 3-4th greatest all time, prime vs prime.
He was conserving his energy.
He did sometimes against the lesser fighters.
George still fought smart in his youth. His whole style revolved around old boxing techniques from bareknuckle boxing. He uses his left hand to deflect or smother the opponent's punches to set up for his jab to keep his opponents at arm's length to leverage his superior size and wingspan. He was essentially that one character in a fighting game that nobody thinks to counter, and so they suffer when someone actually knows how to play them. It's a good idea in theory, and George proved it definitelt held up to scrutiny. Old George just adjusted his style by adding the cross guard and got a lot smarter about when and where to throw punches, rather than blasting his opponents with repeated barrages. I think I agree with Old George's assumption that he would beat his younger self. He just has a significantly higher ring IQ and he is still strong enough to take his own blows and dish out some mean damage. It'd be a battle of attrition that the older man would ironically win.
'The myth of Foreman's power has been exposed tonigh..... Oh.'
My father was a very successful amateur. I remember a story he told me about when his 50 something year old trainer knocked him off his feet and out with a left hook. As my then young and arrogant father got his senses back his trainer said:
'You never lose your punch. Your legs go. But you never lose your punch.'
It is clear from this HBO Special that Michael Moore never liked George Foreman. Calling him "Fake" and "A Big Con", not to mention a liar. I would like to ask Moore why he agreed to fight him? George was not ranked in the TOP TEN by the WBA and only barely by the IBF...so how did he get this shot? Michael could have set a fight with Lennox Lewis before he lost to McCall. Perhaps reuniting all three belts! Moore passed on that opportunity. Riddick Bowe was a top contender that barely lost the title to Holyfield. How about Tony Tucker? No, Moore did not want a challenge. He did not want to risk losing his newly acquired title, so he selected a 45-year old that had not fought in 18 months. GEORGE FOREMAN was a premium name and represented a BIG PAYDAY with LOW RISK for Moore. Perhaps if Moore selected a real contender for his first defense he would not have taken him so lightly, would have listened to his trainer, and maybe even won. Michael only has himself to blame for blowing this fight.
+jasona9 You're missing a lot of key information. Lewis had in fact been in negotiations with both Moorer and Bowe, and ended up signing a contract to fight McCall, as he would split a record $31 Million purse with Bowe if they fought, with the only stipulation being that he had to beat McCall. This nixed a Moorer fight for a while, because it would be stupid to pass up that kind of money, plus he and Bowe had been Olympic rivals, so while Bowe and Lewis were tied up in contracts, Moorer didn't have many other options to stay active. Holyfield? He just beat him months before. Herbie Hide? The WBO belt was a joke at the time. Tony Tucker you said? He was on the downslope of his career fighting unknowns in bums, and ended up dropping his next 3 fights following Moorer's win over Holyfield. Ray Mercer or Tommy Morrison? Both had just fought to draws against complete bums on the exact same card. And of course Tyson was still in jail. The Heavyweight division was in a huge slump with no real contenders or big payday fights existed for him other than lose-lose situations. If he had fought any of the guys who weren't tied up, he'd get shit for pay, unimportant wins, and/or a useless belt nobody cared about. He figured that Foreman would bring him a huge payday, big name status, and keep him sharp for a Holyfield rematch or a fight against Bowe or Lennox. Basically, as much of a dick as Moorer was, he really didn't have many options and Foreman seemed to be the best one; big pay and a big name.
TheGr8one1022 You listed solid information. I admit to not knowing of "formal negotiations" between the top boxers of that period. I wrote my post based on an interview I saw with Moorer after he won the WBA and IBF titles. Moorer stated that he was not interested in fighting Lewis.. I heard that from the horses mouth! As I wrote above Moorer spoke very unfavorably about Big George. To write that George did not earn a title shot in the ring is an extreme understatement. I was just "spit-balling" when I mentioned Bowe and Tucker. At the time this fight came to fruition I believed a stronger opponent for Moorer could have been found. Of course, what did I know? George shocked the world!
+jasona9 Lol yeah I think I just kinda feel slightly bad for Moorer so I have to give him a little credit. The Heavyweight division was in a weird spot after Tyson went to jail so some funky stuff went down, all the belts were spread apart, etc.
moorer did exactly what teddy atlas told him not to do!
George did plan the fight out and win just like Ali outwitted him over twenty years earlier. Big George used his head this time.
Right
I love the way Teddy Atlas described the trap, “I’m just an old man throwing punches,” like George was only shadow boxing. And then, out of nowhere, as George hits the combination, and the classic statement by the fight announcer, Jim Lampley, as classic as Cosell’s, “Down goes Frazier,” Jim Lampley in almost a state of disbelief and ecstasy, “It happened; it happened!!!”
Old Foreman Mindset With younger Body Would have been the best ever!
Famous quote "Youth is wasted on the young".
Sane Man Indeed great quote, Bernard Shaw. Well Shaw wrote a more verbose version and someone who no one knows shortened it to this which is brilliant but will never receive the credit. I seem to remember from QI the original quote referenced children a pity it has to be wasted on children or something like that. It is the invisible shortening I like.
I agree. I think older George was a way better fighter than young George. If only he could have put that together when he was younger, he would have been unstoppable.
Unfortunately, some lessons are only learned through painful experience.
I was watching this at home with my pops, had to be about 11 or 12 and right before the ko before the last 2 one two combos I told my pops "Idk how he's gonna beat Moorer he's old. My pops having watched George as a kid in the 70's said "I grew up watching this guy and one thing he has is PWR, if he lands a good hard shot it's over." I told him "but he isn't even swinging ir throwing hard" and he said "with his strength he doesn't have to" and then 💣💥!
I did notice that he connected with that same 1-2 before the one that knocked him out. To hear George explain how he lowered the punch the second time was beautiful.
I love the way Michael Spinx shook his head at 16:58. Anyway, punching power is the last thing to go. Michael Moorer was the result of what happens when you get too overconfident. You underestimate your opponent, and you end up getting KO'ed. Michael Moorer should have listened to his corner. They kept telling him that he was being set up.
Often, the only person you harm by disrespecting your opponent in the ring is yourself.
The look and mannerisms of Spinx during that clip is the bitter truth of a man speaking from experience.. lol.. I laughed my ass off too, when I saw it.. lol..
I was working as a sous chef at a restaurant called Peppers On The River in Berea, Ohio.... We were slammed that night... The fight was on TV at the bar.... And from time to time we go out and see what was happening.... When Foreman knocked Moorer out, the entire restaurant went up in a frenzy.... And I'll tell you I cried ..I was so happy for him...
Dave Kerns: So was I. What in incredible accomplishment!
I actually wasn’t home that night. I was in college and was calling a hockey game for our campus radio station that night. When we got back to the station saw the AP wire had moved a bulletin which is high priority and it was that Foreman had knocked out Moorer.
Chopping trees, carrying a cow, pulling a jeep gah damn George was really a spartan
I watched this live back in '94. I remember thinking to myself that it really looked like Foreman was setting Moorer up for a knockout. I had watched every comeback fight of his since 1987, and I saw him knocking out guys by throwing much harder shots. During the Moorer fight I kept wondering to myself why George was throwing these short punches. By the fifth or sixth round I had figured it out from observation through Teddy's instructions and Clancy's commentary. Moorer simply fell into a trap.
He did set a trap. Lull moorer to sleep and make him comfy lol...then put his ass to sleep !!
"Michael Moorer Grills" yeah the fuck right. He actually believes that if he had successfully defended against Goerge, that George wouldn't be a star anymore?, LOL. it's exactly like they said "there are many champions but few stars".
Pretty sure he was joking.
arrogance gets you no where.
+nellystake Ali wasn't as arrogant as you think.
Ali was a great fight seller but after fights specially years after that he was never denying his opponents
It’s amazing how Foreman, wearing the same trunks he lost to Ali in, came full circle in his mid 40’s to outsmart another fighter much like Ali outsmarted him. It was the culmination of George’s redemption. It’s as if the destruction of George’s ego allowed him to rebuild himself from the ground up. He transformed into a completely different man, and it took that new man to gain what the young, bad boy George could not. George’s story couldn’t be more perfect and inspiring. It’s as if it was a perfectly written novel.
And it couldn’t have happened to a better guy. George became such a humble and gracious guy after he quit boxing all those years ago.
Michael Moore was a very good fighter but his denials just show that he really never understood the Sweet Science.
Moorer *
Meaning what? That he did not dominate the whole fight and got caught? Because that is what happened.
dbreiden83080 Meaning he wasn't using the square circle in a thoughtful strategic way...he let Big George make him stand in front of him...and Bang Bang, One Two, out go the lights.
Standing in front he largely whipped his ass. Put yourself in his place. You are winning huge for 10 rounds and get caught. I get why Michael feels the way he does. He is not wrong..
Sorry but I disagree...I guess we view the fight differently, but the scoreboard only supports one of our views.
Moorer is so bothered by the fact that he lost. You lost, Bro. We all do.
Moorer is bothered by the way he lost. Moorer was always that kinda guy who thought he was smarter than he really was. Foreman exposed the big con that was Moorer by outsmarting him.
@@windcatcher331 Calling Moorer a "big con" is disingenuous. He was a tremendous fighter that made a mistake. He was technically superior to almost everybody he fought in the ring. The problem was that he wasn't really a heavyweight. He was a light-heavyweight. He gave up 28 lbs to Foreman in that fight. He didn't have heavyweight power. A true heavyweight could've knocked Foreman out early in that fight.
In any case, Moorer regained the heavyweight title in 1996. He was not a "big con." He just got beat.
@@jc22558 Yeah my remark way back then was genuine, but harsh. Maybe too harsh. He did act like he thought he was smarter than everybody when he truly wasn't, but Moorer was being genuine about that.
But Moorer made a stupid error when he stood right in front of Foreman. Weight was not a factor in that fight given Moorer smoked Foreman like a joint for 10 rounds. Moorer had to know Foreman's only chance was is if he stopped moving and gave Foreman the time to set and fire, which he did. Had he followed Atlas' instructions, Moorer wins by wide unanimous decision. As such he got outsmarted. Foreman knew his only chance was a pucnher's chance.
best comeback in sports history.
Moorer still saying that this wasn't set up.
Foreman said he was setting that up. Moorer's own corner told him he was setting that up.
All those years later, Moorer still couldn't just listen. Or just actively refused to.
Foreman was an exceptional talent, the way he destroyed Joe Frazier to take the crown is one of the most amazing things I've seen in boxing. When he crossed paths with Ali he was still young & a bit immature, & the intellegent, more experienced Ali took advantage. By George's own admission, that fight nearly ruined his career. he was depressed, got badly out of shape, & almost never got back in the ring. Had he never lost to Ali, he might've gone down as the greatest HW of all time
he also KO Ron Lyle and Ken norton
If he'd never lost to Ali he'd never have become the Foreman that knocked out Moore at 46
The picture of George picking up that calf sent a chill down my spine....... Dont want to piss him off. Good thing he is a really nice guy.
The poetic Irony of all of this was, when Foreman said he finally felt what Ali felt when the crowd was cheering Ali out and foremoan kept pummeling. This fight was exactly that.. Foreman grew up and became that next level fighter Ali had been.
Great veteran fighters can have plans to find weaknesses to win fights.
That's what Ali did to Foreman in Zaire.
And Foreman did a similar thing to Moorer.
1. Foreman knew that Moorer was too small to knock George out.
2. George took his time. He wanted Moorer to get over confident and stand right in front of him.
Moorer was cocky and wanted to knock out George.
3. Then George used his left hook to the body to move Moorer to George's right.
4. And in the 10th round came the big punches from George.
Teddy literally warned him exactly what was going to happen and he ignored it.
the punch george landed at 20:27..right before the 2 punches that KOd moorer was a bomb too..i was shocked moorer took it and didnt fall
Just goes to show that those old school heavyweights were nothing to be played with. There’s a reason Big Georges generation of heavyweights are considered the Golders generation.
Moored did exactly what George said he would do, even after teddy warned him to not stand in front of George. George previously predicted late in the fight Moorer would stand in front of him. Boom! That’s not luck, that’s patience, skill and power.
Foreman set him up the whole fight. I watched this live when it happened. Even I thought Foreman was in over his head as the fight progressed. Then I started seeing a change in the latter rounds. When Foreman should have been losing steam his punches started snapping and popping, making Moorer's head blow sweat beads with every jab and straight. It was incredible to watch live
Very unsure Wayne don't turn his back
I was waiting for this fight since it was announced. I was telling my dad the whole time that Moorer was tailor made for Foreman because he had no chin. Sooner or later George was going to hit that chin and it would be lights out.
When I was watched this live, it was like a miracle when Foreman won. It truly was one of the best nights in the history of boxing. Now all these years have passed, and i rewatched this. I feel bad for Michael Moorer!
What a legend, George is one of the greatest of all time, no doubt about it. Somebody who learned a very hard lesson from Ali.
+natagaima 20 YEARS IT TOOK TO LEARN THAT LESSON AND RICHLY EARNED THAT TITLE THAT NIGHT IN NOVEMBER 1994!!!!
Dreia yeah Ali was sttuborn, stood in front of him, and later in life felt the consequnces.
@@johnnguyen270 yup, it doesn't matter how long it took for him to learn it , he learned it well, and the price was worth the wait
@@azteka6103 i would say ali got the worst consequences from earnie shavers. Those punches were lethal. Ali also had a chin of granite.
18:05 Moorer: "That's BS!" Well, Mike, at the end of the fight, somebody was flat on the canvas...and it wasn't George.
Dude his own trainer Teddy Atlas was even telling him George is setting you up for the 1 2
Moorer was in a no-win situation. Going into the fight unpopular with fans & writers, against Foreman, who everybody loved, had he played it smart & stayed away from Foreman's power, everyone would've said he was scared & running from a 45 year old man. So he tried to stay in front of George & box him, & everybody says he was foolish. He was just trying to prove to doubters he was a worthy champion. I'm sure in Moorer's mind Foreman was a has-been, & heavyweight champs don't run from 45 year old "has-beens"...he would've never gotten respect. By losing, he really didn't get any respect either. He was in a catch 22
No he could have won by showing George respect. You don't run from any old 45 year old... you out box one of the greatest power punchers to ever live when he didn't have his legs to cut the ring off... That would have been a win.
Or if you are as much of a man as you think your are... you Stand and trade and win that way...
Moore was unwilling to do the former, even as his corner screamed for him too. As we all know he was just plain incapable of doing latter.
Thing is... You do almost still have a point until you take into account that the first thing George said about him after the knock out was how much power he had... how hard he punched and well he had boxed.
George in victory extended not just grace and acknowledgement of Moorer's talents... but extended a covering of respect as one of the most liked Champs ever...
And what did Moorer do with that covering? Piss it away as an arrogant cunt who said George was just lucky...
Moorer proved himself to be the less of the two mentally... and when it comes right the fuck down to it... that is were you win boxing matches.
What did Moore do...
@Mikaeel Naseer Foreman just looked so slow and plodding against Morrison, like he was half asleep the entire fight. I think he was expecting a short slugfest with Tommy. Morrison had obviously watched Foreman fight and was smart enough to realize that the only way to beat Foreman was to stick and jab the entire fight. Morrison had enough respect for Foreman's power and the humility to know not to go toe to toe.
Poor Michael... Boo Frickity Hoo
@@ArkAngelHFBGamesMoore still has nothing to be ashamed of bro. And he was a monster at Light Heavy
Foremans punches weren't that fast but when you're swinging a bowling ball by a rope it doesn't have to be very fast. Some of the heaviest punches ever thrown.
Foreman beat Moorer on my 37th birthday. The best birthday present ever.
Foreman's arms are like telephone poles. Even his jab breaks bones. If he was more athletic he'd be the scariest heavyweight of all time. But what he lacked in athleticism he made up for in power. He ragdolled some of the best boxers to ever step foot on the canvas. That beating Ali gave him did something to him mentally though. He admits it too. Ali was something very special.
met him once....shook his hand......biggest hands I've ever seen. Fists like Christmas Hams
amensupremera Oh I'm sure. What a cool experience by the way. Cheers.
Iron Mike You can go to his church any Sunday, I did. It was pretty incredible. He came up to me and shook my hand, as he didnt recognize me. I have trouble finding winter gloves that fit, but he probably could have wrapped his hand around mine
Iron Mike all true, but I think Foreman may have beaten Ali the second time around. Ali was very smart, but he would have had to come up with a different game plan the second time to bring down big George again.
agreed, No way he falls for that nonsense a second time. But, in the end, losing that fight made him the great man he is today.
Before the fight: Foreman told Lampley that he would catch Moorer late in the fight when Moorer would stand right in front of him.
During the Fight: Moore's trainer Tony Atlas - Don't stand there, He's setting you up to hit you with one shot!
Years later: Moorer - Bullshit- Don't fake it - You got lucky! Don't sit there and say you planned it! You're lying!
Who is still watching this October 30, 2018? George is one of the biggest punchers in heavyweight history!!!! I love this fight!!!!
i've watched this clip for 20x or more already ... i'm still in awed ... Foreman defeating 2 undefeated champions in different eras ... I bet MM has never been hit the way Foreman did to him in his career
"I think the myth of George's power has been exposed by Michael Moorer....." Larry Merchant
"George is a clubber. He can't get you out with one shot..." Gil Clancy.
+Cefcecdfs No one is worse than Larry Merchant. Just another member of the tribe talking their way into something they know nothing about.
+SeanP7195 Let's be fair dude, they were just saying what everyone thought. Before the knockout punch, Foreman hadn't landed any truly significant blows, and even when he landed the straight right, it looked like he was pushing the punch rather than throwing it and it landed with minimal force; while strong, it was like a car backing slowly into somebody as opposed to speeding into them. And while Merchant has his moments of unprofessionalism, you can't say he knows nothing about boxing. He's been commentating on boxing solely since 1978 and for 20 years before that he was an overall sports analyst and newspaper reporter. In that long span of time, even an idiot would have a wealth of boxing knowledge.
Moorer was like the proverbial frog in slowly boiling water.
Big George did a number...I witnessed this live, what a night....
feckyoo2 same here. at the time I never thought the punch had any power behind it. heating it mic'd up though, damn. the impact was thudding.
hearing****
Yeah, the first one two stunned him, you could tell even watching it live. The second fucked him up!
feckyoo2
George broke Moore's mouthpiece and busted his lip open with that last punch.
You’re satisfied just to do enough, to keep him off you. You can’t do that now. In this world, we can’t do that all the time. - Teddy Atlas
How great is Big George?
My grandad was a war hero ( he never talked about it and I found out after he passed) and he loved Big George.
❤
Moorer just plain underestimated Foreman’s punching power. ... he continue to stand in front of Foreman, in spite of being ahead by a big margin on all the scorecards.
Foreman: “Micheal Moorer was fallin’ Into a trap.”
No truer words were spoken.
Foreman never panicked, and kept himself on a steady pace...and still had the power to knock him out in the 10th round. Unbelievable achievement by a George Foreman became a smarter fighter in his comeback despite losses to Evander Holyfield and Tommy “The Duke” Morrison.
There is video tape before the fight of George talking to Jim Lampley at George’s place.
George said Moorer will let George knock him out.
“It has happened,” Lampley says at the end of the fight.
He said it because of George’s prediction.
21:55 best view of how hard the KO punch was, George really leaned into it
Jesus. It looks so casual.
Agree
Didn’t have the speed of 70’s Foreman(obviously),but man the power was still there, that’s scary power right there, from that distance, to be able to KO a man. Wow
"Unless he studied Moorer and knew for sure what type of moves he was capable of coming with."
Which is precisely what George did. He watched tapes of all Moorer's recent fights until his eyes probably bled. It's an important part od preparing for a match. :)
I saw one of his first comeback fights in Orlando in the ball room of a hotel across from Universal Studios in the late 80's (was probably '87)...he hit his opponent with one right and he collapsed like a 50 lb. sack of potatoes. George had some serious pop in his punches.
Never forget this fight, Foreman was so relaxed when he threw that punch ,it didn't even look like a hard punch, right on the chin,but was beautiful! ❤
Every time I watch this, I can't hold back the tears at the end. I love both Michael Moorer and George Foreman though. Being a Detroit native and having the opportunity to see Michael Moorer in the Kronk Gym and at the Palace of Auburns Hills before he won the title from Evander Holyfield, when both he and Holyfield appeared on USA Tuesday Night Fights.
Foreman was setting that punch up the whole fight.
"lucky" no such thing as a lucky punch in boxing unless the fighter is blind folded... you throw a punch and aim it to connect, and if it does its the opponents job to duck or block it. i hate that mentality. if thats the case, everytime a baseball player hits a home run, its just luck. or a person scores a touchdown. shows you the immature level michael Moorer is at. he got rocked, simple as that...face the facts.
maybe if the fighter is swinging for the fences like a lunatic i can see that being a lucky punch, but throwing a jab and setting yourself up for a big shot, how in gods name is that luck. No logic in that way of thinking, and shows you the intelligence in boxing by the people that would even entertain that notion.
A lucky punch just means a blind punch the opponent never even saw.
Michael Tomson I quite agree. What are you supposed to do in boxing? Punch the opponent, if you do, how is it lucky to do something you are supposed to do in the 1st place?
This should end all debates between the 80's, 90's vs the new generation
If Foreman had a rematch with Ali he probably would have won.
I agree. Foreman was always very good at learning from mistakes.
Graham Strouse So was Ali.
Ali probobly would have still won because George was too slow.
+Pablo Sabado Ali's strategy had nothing to do with speed. Rope a dope is a one time thing.
+Mike Killagreen he was avoiding all of Foreman's shots while tiring him out. There was speed.
I often come back to watch this it reminds me of my pop. We watched this fight and honestly i didn't big George would win. But when he did the whole house went insane
George is my favorite of all time. I've watched this knockout many times. AND I've had about 4 George Foreman grills. I've been a Foreman fan since the '68 Olympics. He distinguished himself proudly to a 10 year old me.
the expectation was that George would come out looking for a knockout but he didn't want to do the predictable so he saved his energy and lured Moorer in with slow punches and defense. Then in the later rounds he had energy and it started to show in his punches. He waited until Moorer stood in front of him and started landing that left hook that he wasn't throwing before and bam.
lol Moore was so salty
JackMcCabe 76ers, he was. I had to rewatch it . . .
How cna you hate boxing... is the purest thing. Two man beating eatchother up. No nationality, no politics, no advantages just pure unadulterated manwhood. They are both legends in my book.
Michael Moorer's ego was Foreman's best asset in this bout.
To this day, he won't admit that Big George drew him in exactly like Teddy Atlas warned over and over.
What's absolutely stunning to me about this retrospective analysis is that one obvious key to what happened is mentioned within the first few minutes, but whoever wrote the script, directed this, or edited it didn't see it....
Michael Moorer was the George Foreman, the Mike Tyson, the Ernie Shavers, and the Sonny Liston of the light heavyweight division. He won the title in less than a year and knocked out 100% of his opponents.
It would take quite a lot for a man with that much experience of being a Marauder, a Terminator, an unstoppable force to learn that his punches just don't do that anymore with his new much larger opponents.
See, I have watched this whole fight 3 times now. And it doesn't seem to me that Moorer isn't aware that he is providing the opportunity for Foreman to hit him, it's that he's trying to knock Foreman out himself. It's sort of like when an interviewer asks a super self confident title challenger how he will game plan to deal with the champion and he turns it around saying "Shit, he better have a game plan to deal with what I do."
"george has sweatshirts older than moorer". lmao larry merchant
The one of the top five (of not three) heavyweights of all time.
19:13 - "You just knew you were dealing with something that, mentally, was a little different." Perfect
This was a big deal in ‘94…Holyfield was my guy but even at a young age, I was happy as heck for Mr. Foreman. It was inspiring to see that at 10-11 years old…
I watched several times over yhe year, and I am still amazed. Big George... What a man! He proved that he was not only a Heavy Weight Champion, but possibly one of the best Champions! Wining that at 45 and earning possibly more money than any other boxers, my hat to the man!
Im with you, I wanted George to win but watching George take a beat down was hard and Moorer was easily beating him and making it look easy. I'm also thinking George has nothing to be embarrassed about, from starting his comeback where people laughed at him to the Holyfield fight where he gave Evander all he could handle. Evander still says to ths day George was the hardest puncher who hit him. Even going to the knockout round, Moorer still controlled the fight though by then Moorer was getting hit more, if Moorer would just have turned left or right a few times I don't think he gets knocked out but he did the one thing no fighter should do and that's stand flat and go head on at George. Egos can make or break a fighter, you have to have a ego to want to be the best but that same ego can bite you in the butt
You hit George with everything! And couldn't put this man down! Now it was George's turn... Lights out buddy!
Watching again, probably fourth or fifth time lol. Can tell George was setting him up. I cried when George won . I won some cash on this one . One of the greatest of all time
13:07 - Maybe now the best Foreman quote I have ever heard in my life. Teddy was just trying to do what Michael wouldn't, but look how George turned it around, LMAO!
Sour grapes Moorer ,George had this planned since 87 no one knew who he'd fight if he were to get a shot ,Many probably believed Tyson would be still champ. Foreman did what no other Heavyweight will ever do regain his title 20 yrs later ,so Moorer can cry all he wants ,You were beat and beat by a much older wiser and better man so deal with it Michael Moorer
Brooklyn Styles Thanks ,but I'm not a nigga ,I'm green Irish ,lol ,George fought a great fight and was a better boxer when he made his comeback . He learned from his bout with Ali and pulled off a great feat.
Yeah ,I got my grammar wrong, I had a few to many tokes lol , But hey we all get our grammar wrong at times . Thumbs up for you too .
Marra 66 nigga dis shit 500 years ago u think they still care
Jay Vb Actually it was 22 Yrs ago when George made History and people will talk about his great feat for the next 500 Years .
Not only are you one of the greatest boxers ever you are also a role model and a great preacher