Foreman Did His Damage

When the fight mob talks of “a spoiler,” it usually means a fighter who louses up the grand scheme of things by beating an up-and-coming drawing card or a No. 1 contender on his way to the title.

George Foreman is not, by definition, a “spoiler.” A spoiler is most often a moderately skilled but unorthodox pug difficult to solve, impossible to hit squarely and, most of all, spoilers can “take it.”

But George Foreman is solidly in the role of spoiler in the heavyweight division today. He has probably irreparably damaged the mystique of Evander Holyfield as a holy terror of the ring, a champion for the ages.

Spoilers usually get their reputations by defeating their opponent. Foreman got his by surviving his.

Evander Holyfield is a good enough fighter, but he is not to be confused with the Alis, Dempseys, Louises or Johnsons, the superstars of the cruel business.

Evander will not light up any marquees after he spent 12 grueling rounds trying, unsuccessfully, not only to knock out but even to knock down a man who is in his pugilistic dotage, who once laid out 10 years to become, of all things, a preacher.

It was hardly stop-the-presses stuff. When you have to go all out to get a decision over a parson who trains on junk food and minimal road work, you are not terribly bankable. You are not star quality. You are what Hollywood calls a star who needs a strong script, a top supporting cast and--most of all--a powerful co-star to sell tickets.

If Evander Holyfield could have dumped George on his backside even once, or stopped him by, say, the fourth round, his projected match with Mike Tyson could have grossed more money than “Gone With the Wind.”

But that was before the old patriarch, Foreman, unmasked Holyfield as not exactly a hollow champion, but not a solid one, either. If he can’t knock George Foreman, age 42, weight 257, to the canvas, what chance does he have with the 24-year-old Mike Tyson, who dines on raw meat and, maybe, iron nails?

There is another axiom in the fight game: A good big man will always beat a good little man.

If George Foreman were 10 years younger, he would be classified as a good big man, and there is no doubt he would have demolished Evander Holyfield. Evander is, alas, a good little man. Floyd Patterson reincarnated.

So, Mike Tyson is back in the driver’s seat in the continuing chase to pugilistic riches. Tyson would fight his shadow to a draw. Evander, as they say in Hollywood, can’t carry a picture by himself.

Tyson, the public will buy. But Mike is in a curmudgeonly mood of late. He is angered that he was not given the title shot. His associate, the omnipresent Don King, is not eager for Mike to have a big-money fight like Holyfield this year. Reason? A bit complicated. It usually is with Don.

It seems that Mike is still contractually obligated to manager Bill Cayton. Cayton was part of the group--Cus D’Amato and Jimmy Jacobs were the others--who plucked Tyson off the streets of Brooklyn and into a mode where he could beat up people for millions instead of just their lunch money.

Cayton footed the bill. He is in for 20%, but when Don King came on the scene offering more glamorous vistas for the heavyweight champ, Tyson chafed under Cayton’s more tempered lifestyle.

Cayton’s contract expires in February of next year. He even had to go to court to enforce that. King-Tyson would like to put off the Holyfield $100-million extravaganza until after Cayton is out of the cut.

Foreman has thrown the overalls in the chowder. He has diminished Evander’s reputation. Evander can fight Tony Tucker--or is it Tony Tubbs?--to a chorus of yawns. And what if one of them turns out to be a good big man?

There is a solution: Tyson could fight George Foreman this year and hold off Holyfield until after February.

But George is a certified spoiler. If he’s a spoiler against Tyson. . . . Well, the fight game may go back to what it was when they were fighting on barges.