George Foreman was arguably the most formidable heavyweight of all time, but once admitted to avoiding one fighter in particular.
After taking a ten year hiatus between 1977 and 1987, Foreman made a sensational comeback after he encountered a number of financial difficulties which left him with no other option but to lace the gloves up once more.
Then in his 40s, ‘Big’ George set his sights on recapturing the world heavyweight championship and after two failed attempts against Evander Holyfield and Tommy Morrison, he made it third time lucky against Michael Moorer in 1994, who he defeated via tenth round stoppage to win the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles.
Speaking at the Oxford Union, Foreman admitted that he avoided a showdown with the hard-hitting Tony Tucker, who ‘Big’ George claims was just ‘too tough’.
“They tried to force me to fight Tony Tucker after I’d beaten Michael Moorer and I remember looking at Tony Tucker and saying ‘momma didn’t raise no fools. I’m not fighting him.’
“And they took the titles. Some people I’m not going to fight. That’s the good reason, I didn’t want to fight him. Too tough. I’ve got to tell the truth.”
Tucker is known for having the shortest ever reign as a world heavyweight champion – he lost his IBF title to Mike Tyson just 64 days after he won it from James ‘Buster’ Douglas in 1987.
He would go on to challenge for a world title on several more occasions before the end of his career, but would fall short at each time of asking against Bruce Seldon, Herbie Hide and Lennox Lewis respectively.
