Moorer’s Comeback Continues

For a while, Michael Moorer talked clinically about his craft, about his time as heavyweight champion, about beating Evander Holyfield for the most coveted title in boxing, about losing it to a pillowy George Foreman.

And then emotion took over.

“I never had a childhood,” he said. “I was always fighting. I never went to my prom. I never went to the Christmas dance.”

The words were coming fast now, tumbling over one another.

“High school graduation, I was in Colorado Springs with an amateur team,’ he said. “I flew in for graduation and I flew right back afterwards, right back to training.”

The grind led Moorer to the pinnacle of boxing, twice heavyweight champion. And it also led him right out of the ring.

One day in 1997, after being knocked down five times and losing the title to Holyfield in a rematch, Moorer decided he’d had enough speed bags and jump ropes, enough of road work and sparring.

So he walked away from the game.

“I was bored with the sport,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m done with this.’ I wanted to have some fun, and I did.

“I lived my teen-age years in my late 20s. I made up for lost time.”

Indeed.

There was an arrest in 1999 on drunken-driving charges, part of a troubling romance with alcohol. His weight ballooned to 270 pounds. He barely resembled the fighter he had been when he ruled the division.

Moorer was good when he started. He turned pro in 1988 and won his first 26 fights by knockouts. He was 34-0 by 1994 when he outpointed Holyfield for the WBA and IBF titles.

Seven months later, he fought Foreman, an old man embraced by boxing fans for his folksy style. Moorer beat on the big man for 10 rounds and then walked into a right cross that put him down.

“He caught me good,” Moorer said. “I tried to get up but my body wouldn’t let me. He became the oldest heavyweight champion in history.”

At 45, Foreman was beloved, the people’s champion.

Moorer rebounded from that setback by outpointing Axel Schulz in Germany to win the IBF title, by then vacated by Foreman. Then in a title unification bout, Holyfield stopped Moorer in eight rounds and sent him spiraling into other adventures.

The arrest became big news.

“When you’re an athlete and you do something bad, it’s out of proportion,” Moorer said. “The average Joe Blow walking down the street gets in trouble, you never hear about it. With athletes, they drag it out. Bad news sells. People still talk about something that happened six, seven years ago.”

Eventually, Moorer had enough of life on the wild side. He remembered his roots, planted so long before in the ring.

The fight game can be addictive, a roller-coaster ride of emotions that accompanies and often defines the men who climb between the ropes.

Two years ago, Moorer made the climb again.

“I had to get the hunger back in myself,” he said. “It was tough to go back. I had let my body go. There were no workouts, no training.”

Slowly, he got back into boxing condition. There have been five fights in the comeback, four wins and a draw. Next up is David Tua, next Saturday night in Atlantic City as part of HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” series.

“I’m proud of my rebound,” Moorer said. “I’ve grown so much in the last two years. I’ve gotten so much out of life.”

The fight against Tua matches two old pals who were training partners in Houston during Moorer’s first boxing incarnation, one that seems a lifetime ago.

“David is a very nice person, but business is business,” Moorer said. “He understands that.”

At 34, Moorer is not sure where this comeback will lead him.

“I never thought I’d be boxing this long,” he said. “I thought I would only box in the amateurs through high school. But I had a good knockout record when I started and I thought, ‘Why not stick around?’

“I’m just doing what I know how to do--fight. I want to be the best at what I do. I don’t know what’s out there for me as far as my future.”

Then he paused and remembered why all boxers get into this business in the first place.

“The championship is every fighter’s goal,” he said. “I can come back and do it again. I’m blessed to have a second chance.”