Foreman Defeats Coetzer : Boxing: He and Morrison both win in eight rounds and are expected to meet in an April 16 match.

George Foreman pounded South African Pierre Coetzer at will Saturday night, knocking him down twice and finishing him in the eighth round before 6,366 at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center.

The victory, the 72nd against three defeats for the 44-year-old former heavyweight champion, seemed to lock up a match with Tommy Morrison, who stopped Carl Williams at 2 minutes 10 seconds of the eighth round in the match before Foreman’s.

But Foreman was uncertain about a Morrison fight. The two were expected to fight April 16 at Caesars Palace.

“I got to go home to talk that over with my wife,” Foreman said.

Foreman’s one-sided victory was only the second-best heavyweight match on the card. Morrison’s victory was the best heavyweight fight since Riddick Bowe beat Evander Holyfield for the undisputed title in November.

Foreman’s victory was achieved almost entirely with one hand--his left jab and occasional left hooks.

At the finish, two judges had Foreman ahead by 68-64, the third by 69-63. The Times card gave Foreman every round, 70-62.

The 258-pound Foreman had come into the fight saying he wanted one more shot at the heavyweight championship, claiming Bowe’s manager, Rock Newman, had backed out on a commitment with him.

If that is true, Newman and Bowe have even more reason to ignore Foreman. On July 18, Bowe had much much more difficulty defeating Coetzer than Foreman did, even though Coetzer lasted one round longer with Foreman.

For all of his flab and slowness afoot, Foreman still has a powerful left jab. He snapped Coetzer’s head back more than a hundred times Saturday night and turned his face into a bloody pulp.

Coetzer, at 216 pounds, looked like a speedy cruiserweight next to the ponderous Foreman.

Early in the fourth round, Foreman decked Coetzer with a left hook. Coetzer actually threw a punch after Foreman tagged him, then crashed to his back.

Late in the round, Coetzer was taking further punishment and Foreman yelled at referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight.

But Coetzer came back in the fifth round, peppering Foreman with jabs and straight rights, none of which had any apparent effect.

In the seventh, Coetzer hit Foreman with his best punch of the fight, a straight right hand to the face, but Foreman wasn’t fazed.

The fight ended in the eighth, when Foreman rocked Coetzer with a five-punch combination, finishing with a right that put him down. Coetzer got up, but when Foreman began punching him against the ropes, Cortez stopped the fight at 1:48 of the round.

Not soon enough, Foreman said.

“If boxing is to survive into the 21st Century, we need more compassionate referees,” he said.

“I know how hard I hit. I hit very hard. And I know how brave this guy is. I knew he’d keep getting up. There was no reason for him to take that much punishment.”

Morrison’s victory came after both fighters had been knocked down twice.

Morrison went down twice in the fifth round. Williams was knocked down in the first and third rounds.

In the early rounds, Morrison (35-1) dominated the taller Williams (26-6) with left hooks. After four rounds, Morrison had a two- to four-point lead on most scorecards, but he nearly blew it in the fifth.

Williams, on his toes and landing several scoring jabs, hit Morrison on the chin with a short right hand that caused Morrison to stumble forward and go down on one knee at 1:42 of the round. Morrison was up quickly, but quickly went down again.

Seconds later, Williams caught Morrison on the chin with a right uppercut, and Morrison grabbed onto Williams’ legs as he went down.

After the second knockdown, referee Mills Lane warned Williams for holding the back of Morrison’s neck.

Morrison, 228 pounds, won the sixth, largely on the strength of a late-round uppercut that backed Williams to the other side of the ring. But in the seventh, Williams, 225, seemed to be in charge again, hurting Morrison twice in the last 45 seconds.

At the finish, two judges had Williams ahead by 65-64 and the third had Morrison ahead by the same score. The Times card had Williams ahead by 67-66 entering the eighth.

In the first round, it looked like a repeat of Williams’ one-round knockout loss to Mike Tyson in 1989, when Tyson finished him with a left hook 93 seconds into the fight.

This time, a hook by Morrison 45 seconds into the fight knocked Williams down. But Williams was up quickly, and seconds later he hurt Morrison with a hard shot to his ribs.

On the undercard, junior-welterweight Vincent Phillips improved to 27-0 with a first-round knockout of Julio Flores (10-3). Another South African heavyweight, Frans Botha, improved to 25-0 by stopping Billy Wright (12-3) of Salt Lake City.