Foreman Loves to Say ‘Cheese’ : Boxing: He rates his favorite burgers as he prepares to take a bite out of Holyfield’s crown.

George Foreman, who is about to turn cheeseburger jokes into a $12-million payday, let his guard down Thursday morning.

Ever since the former heavyweight champion and his publicity man, Bill Caplan, noticed that the 275-pound Foreman got his biggest laughs when he joked about his cheeseburger-abuse problem, he has been asked repeatedly to come up with the Foreman rankings of America’s hamburger franchises.

Until Thursday, he had declined, explaining that he hadn’t signed a burger deal yet and didn’t want to ruin any potential ones.

But on Thursday, he let it out.

It’s Fatburger, folks.

And no, he said, he hasn’t been paid to say that. Not yet, anyway.

“They’re the best in the world, no question,” he said.

The Foreman rankings:

1. Fatburger.

2. Wendy’s.

3. Jack-In-The-Box.

4. Carl’s Jr.

5. McDonald’s.

6. Burger King.

“But McDonald’s has the best french fries,” said Foreman, in Los Angeles Thursday with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield to promote their title fight in Atlantic City, N.J., on April 19.

Caplan said that Foreman’s cheeseburger addiction is hopeless.

“The last time he was on the Johnny Carson show, some NBC executives wanted to take him to a fine restaurant of his choice in Los Angeles, and they started suggesting the best places in town,” Caplan said.

“But George insisted he wanted to go to a Fatburger. So that’s what we did. We pulled into a Fatburger in a stretch limo and George ate a whole sackful.”

Although Foreman’s cheeseburger jokes have become a vast reservoir of burger one-liners, there really is, Foreman implied, a serious explanation beneath the silliness.

Cheeseburgers take him back to his roots.

“When I was a kid in Houston, we were so poor we couldn’t afford the last two letters, so we called ourselves ‘po,’ ” he said.

“There was a Dairy Queen two blocks from my house where a burger was 29 cents. To me, that Dairy Queen was luxury, but I could afford only one a week. I was 16 when I joined the Job Corps in 1965 and left Houston. My goal that day was to come back one day rich enough to walk up to that Dairy Queen and order five burgers.

“Really, that’s what money represented to me then--lunch and dinner. When you walk around hungry, food is important. And you never forget.”

Foreman said that in the year after his loss to Muhammad Ali in 1974, he went into depression, but that cheeseburgers helped pull him out of it.

“I looked around at what boxing had given me, all the cars, the houses and all the money, and I was depressed because it seemed like there was something else I should be happy about, but I couldn’t figure out what it was,” he said.

“Well, it was cheeseburgers. One day I drove down to a Jack-In-The-Box near where I lived then, drove through in my Rolls-Royce and bought a burger.

“I drove home and ate it and it hit me. I suddenly remembered what I’d dreamed of that day, when I’d left Houston, the ability to buy all the burgers I wanted. So I went right back to that Jack-In-The-Box and bought another one.”

There’s something about a fast-food burger that can’t be duplicated in the home, he said.

“My wife makes a nice burger, but when she puts it down in front of me, I don’t know, I just always seem to say, ‘Let’s go out.’ ”

Fat jokes in the Foreman camp aren’t limited to cheeseburgers or to Foreman.

A few years ago, Caplan weighed 307 pounds. He dieted to 203. But since becoming Foreman’s shadow--and taster--he’s back up to 265. “I eat what George eats, so I weigh what George weighs,” Caplan said.

The 6-3 Foreman said Thursday that he weighs 275-280.

“Ten days of sparring and hitting bags and I’m in the 260s,” Foreman said. “If I stop a couple of days, I’m back in the 270s.”

“Where do you want to be for the Holyfield fight?”

“I just want to be there.”

Chocolate cake works, too.

At the news conference, waiters wheeled in a massive, triple-tiered chocolate birthday cake for Foreman, who turned 43 Jan. 22. As he cut a slice, he announced his wish: “I wish Evander Holyfield breaks both his legs.”

He said he has nothing against foods associated with better nutrition than burgers, but says cheeseburgers are his fuel food.

“Wheat bran and Vitamin B-12 tablets might make you feel good, but when you get ready to fight and you tell your body, ‘OK, body--let’s go!’ nothing happens. But I eat a cheeseburger and (he da-da-da’s the finale of ‘The 1812 Overture’) I’m ready to fight.”

Unlike the President, though, he likes broccoli, too. “I love it,” he said. “In fact, my favorite sandwich is broccoli and cheese.”

What will he do if he upsets Holyfield and wins back the heavyweight title 17 years after losing it?

“First of all, I’m going to throw the biggest party in the history of Atlantic City,” he said. “There won’t be enough room in all the hotels for the buffet tables. Then I’m going to buy a fast-food franchise and retire.”

Foreman also said he wanted to win for every American approaching or past his 40th birthday.

“I’m going to show America that when you think of someone over 40 or 50, you should use words like promise and potential. “

To say nothing of burgers.