Foreman a Part of the Past--and Present

Stubbornly, with a TV smile and an iron will, George Foreman straddles the fence, one foot in the past, the other in the present.

Controversial as his continuing presence may be, even as he prepares for his Nov. 2 pay-per-view bout in Tokyo against somebody named Crawford Grimsley, Foreman is the last of his generation, both a piece of history and today’s story.

Is he live or is he memorabilia?

He fought Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the glory days, he fought Evander Holyfield not long ago, he is mocking Mike Tyson now, and in between, Foreman, 47, has brushed up against or fought or watched just about every major figure who has passed through this sport.

“Isn’t that something?” Foreman said from his ranch in Marshall, Texas, when the recent wave of nostalgia about the Ali-Frazier-Foreman era was mentioned.

“There hasn’t been anything great happening for a long time in sports--just a lot of nice highlights, but nothing great. I think we all are surviving on the thrill of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in the first fight [in 1971].

“It ignited and pushed sports into a whole ‘nother world, and we’ve been on this great sleigh ride ever since. What’s happened since that’s been like that one?”

Nothing, of course, although the Ali-Foreman fight in 1974 is the subject of a heralded new documentary, “When We Were Kings.”

Foreman, who bristles when asked if he’s jeopardizing his health by continuing to fight, seems to revel in his role of elder statesman, speaking as a contemporary of Ali and Riddick Bowe, Ken Norton and Tommy Morrison, who is reportedly in negotiations to get on the Nov. 2 undercard, despite his having contracted the virus that causes AIDS.

In fact, Foreman, who lost a decision to Morrison in 1993, uses his long memory to defend Morrison’s desire to fight again.

“He’d be someone I’d fight,” Foreman said. “Where and when has to be put together by the promoters. But if a promoter puts up the right cash, I’d definitely fight him.

“I may be the only one saying this, but not many in boxing are as old as I am. I remember when, if a kid down the corner had polio, your parents wouldn’t allow you to go near him. It was like a curse on the family. People thought you could catch polio by touching. I remember those scares. I know what ignorance can do.”

Foreman also cheers on the probable return to the ring of Sugar Ray Leonard, who is negotiating to fight Hector Camacho on pay-per-view in February.

Leonard, who has had serious eye problems, last fought in 1991, when he was knocked out by Terry Norris, and many observers believe the wealthy, intelligent Leonard is getting back into boxing only to salve his very healthy ego.

“I think it’s great,” Foreman said of Leonard’s comeback. “Why did he leave? He kept hearing the negative things, that he should quit. So he bought it.

“The next thing you know, you’re sitting in your big home, on your big chair with big money, and you’re just wasting away your life, doing what people say you should do: playing golf, going to the movies. . . . But the worst death in the world is to live your life way people say you should live.”

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Foreman is less kind to the two often-troubled fighters considered the class of the heavyweight division--Tyson and Bowe.

“Don King has done a great job with Mike Tyson--it’s a Barnum and Bailey deal, you know, a sucker born ever day, just keep taking people’s money for nothing,” Foreman said. “That’s how he’s going to go down in history.

“They went and created this whole game for Tyson, and it’s not a good game. And Tyson eventually will find that out.

“Just like Joe [Frazier], he never had to fight Muhammad Ali, but he had to do it, you know what I mean? Joe could’ve gone on and left undefeated, but for the betterment of the sport, he fought Muhammad Ali to settle it. Fought him three times, actually.”

Bowe, a man as large as Foreman, with fast hands and an amiable attitude, could have been a dominant heavyweight, Foreman says. Instead, Bowe, whose trainer, Eddie Futch, just left him, is facing a Dec. 14 rematch with Andrew Golota, who was beating Bowe to a pulp in their first bout until he was disqualified for low blows.

“That’s a sad story,” Foreman said of Bowe. “I thought he had a great future because he liked what he was doing. He had that long jab, he was in shape, and he was just fearless.

“Then, all of a sudden, something just grasped him, took over his body, mind and . . . then, I see this guy who just doesn’t care about himself. I don’t know if he’ll ever get that back. Boxing is not about how well you can jab and throw left hooks, it’s about how much you care about yourself and how you carry yourself.

“I’ve seen them come and go like that for years. He’s just one of those guys who came, saw, and crashed.”

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Whether it’s all about hype or hate or some combination of the two, Holyfield, the focus of profuse doses of negative thoughts in the Tyson camp, is smart enough and confident enough to treat the venom as seriously as it deserves to be treated.

Tyson blisters him with sneering looks at press conferences to promote their Nov. 9 bout? Tyson’s co-manager, John Horne, blasts Holyfield for statements he allegedly has made about Tyson?

Holyfield just nods.

At a recent news conference in New York, Horne said that when Holyfield was champion and Tyson was on trial for rape, Holyfield said that he would never fight a rapist. Holyfield, who denies saying that, was unshaken by Horne’s comment that “the only rape will be in the ring Nov. 9.”

“It’s almost like they were trying to win the fight right then and there,” Holyfield said. “I don’t think it has to be part of the fight.”

But he followed that with the kind of statement that drives the Tyson camp crazy, saying, “The difference between a winner and a loser, a winner takes a chance to win. Loser doesn’t do anything but try to play defense and hopes a guy falls down, hopes something happens in his behalf.

“Winners know that they have to make it happen so they do what’s necessary to win. And I’m a winner.”

Boxing Notes

Now, Genaro Hernandez has his career held back by somebody else’s broken hand. Hernandez has had fragile hands for years, but his scheduled December bout against World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion Azumah Nelson was postponed--possibly until February or March--when Nelson broke his hand in training recently. Hernandez, a longtime 130-pound champion, gave up his title to move up to 135 to fight--and lose to--Oscar De La Hoya in September 1995. “I feel like it’s all been bad luck ever since that Oscar fight,” Hernandez said. “I knew this year was going to be a bad year for me. Hopefully, next year will be better. I’m hoping Azumah doesn’t retire or anything.”

The Pond of Anaheim, which is making a major push into boxing and just had two shows--drawing about 8,200 paid for last Saturday’s Julio Cesar Chavez pay-per-view card and about 2,100 for Forum Boxing’s show on Monday--is a contender for a potential Roy Jones Jr.-Mike McCallum HBO show on Nov. 22. The other site under consideration is Tampa, closer to Jones’ home in Pensacola, Fla. If the fight is in Southern California, super-bantamweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Junior Jones also could be on the card. . . . After that, Roy Jones could move to a pay-per-view fight, facing the winner of a December rematch between James Toney and Montell Griffin.

Riddick Bowe’s new trainer, after Eddie Futch’s recent departure, is Thel Torrence, who has been assisting Futch for the last five years and has been the lead corner man for several other fighters. Bowe has been training in Atlantic City, N.J., in preparation for his Dec. 14 rematch with Andrew Golota. . . . Chavez is slated to fight journeyman Mickey Ward on a Dec. 8 card in San Antonio, then has another tuneup on the De La Hoya-Miguel Angel Gonzalez card in January, then will fight De La Hoya in April. Promoter Bob Arum is bandying the name of Kostya Tszyu, the International Boxing Federation’s 140-pound champion, as a possible opponent for Chavez, but there’s no way Chavez will fight anybody that tough before he gets a De La Hoya rematch.

The World Boxing Hall of Fame is holding its “Banquet of Champions” tonight at the LAX Marriott, featuring Sugar Ray Leonard, Lloyd Marshall, Pipino Cuevas and Carlos Zarate--and ring official Marty Denkin and cut man Chuck Bodak. De La Hoya, honored as the fighter of the year, will present Bodak’s award.