09.07.05 – By Jack Welch: George Foreman has recently come out saying that he thinks if he were Mike Tyson’s manager, Tyson could once again become a great boxer and an American icon. Never mind the fact that Tyson has been convicted of rape, threatened to eat another man’s children (the man happened to be childless) and once bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear; all Mike needs is some TLC from the 70s version of the bad boy of boxing who turned himself into a hamburger eating, grill selling lovable bear of a man..
Tyson is fast, he is quick and he is still as strong as an OX. Take away the fast and the quick along with a hundred or so pounds and there is a striking resemblance between Foreman and Tyson. They were both portrayed as villains (many times it was warranted) in the public’s eye through bad press, they both had tough childhoods that led to crime at an early age and they each still posses the ability to knock another man’s brain to one side of his scull.
The question is, why would a resurrected Foreman have any interest in a man who once said he “wanted to fade into Bolivia”? It can’t be money. Old George has made more cash in the past five years hocking appliances with his name on them then he ever did by bashing the heads in of fellow heavyweight fighters. Another possibility would be he just want’s to see his name in the headlines again. I don’t buy that either. George, at this point in his life, is one of the most recognizable people in the world, over the age of 50.
No I think this is one of those rare cases. A case in which one man truly wants to help another man. Foreman has not forgotten what it feels like to be hated, to be jeered and called an outcast. I think Foreman really does have a soft spot in his heart for Tyson. He wants to see Tyson looked at with respect, the same way George is seen today.