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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Battered Foreman Escapes By Majority Decision

Ed Schuyler Jr. Associated Press

At the final bell Saturday night, George Foreman looked like an old loser.

Axel Schulz, his corner and his German fans certainly thought Schulz had beaten the 46-year-old Foreman and won the IBF heavyweight championship.

But two of the three judges thought that Foreman had done enough to keep his title.

Foreman, his left eye closed by a knot the size of a golf ball, his legs wobbly, his paunch heaving, was a very weary warrior at the end. But it only took him a matter of minutes to hurl a challenge at Mike Tyson.

“That fellow ran and Mike Tyson would stand toe to toe and fight it out,” Foreman said. “There would be two punches. He would hit me and I would hit the ground or I would hit him and he would hit the ground.”

Foreman hit Schulz with a lot of thunderous left jabs but he could never put his punches together and the challenger was never on the canvas.

On the other hand, while the German could put punches together, he lacked the power to put Foreman down.

That seemed to be the winning combination for Foreman - his punishing jab and Schulz’s lack of power.

Judge Chuck Gianmpa called it a draw, 114-114, while judges Keith McDonald and Jerry Roth favored Foreman 115-113.

While Schulz’s finest round appeared to be the 12th, McDonald scored that one for Foreman, 10-9. If he had given it to Schulz, his card would also have been 114-114 and Big George would have kept the title on a majority draw.

“He ran and you don’t win the championship running,” said Foreman.

Schulz did a lot of circling but there were many times when he stood and fought and outpunched the champion.

“I’m always surprised when somebody gives me the decision,” Foreman said, his tongue firmly planted in a puffy cheek. “The guy had a great fight. I won on the point system. It was hard for me to get psyched up.”

But if Foreman thought before the fight the unheralded Schulz would be a dumpling, by the end of the fight he knew he’d been in with a hard man.

“I said before when you fight Germans, they have a lot of pride,” Foreman said. “I knew this guy would be tough. It did not surprise me how tough he was.”

“I’m very upset. I will not say anything,” was Schulz’s first reaction to his narrow defeat before a crowd of 11,000 in the MGM Garden.

Later, the unranked challenger said, “I think George is a big champion. If he is the champion I think he is, he will give me a rematch in Germany.”

But Foreman said after the fight that he had had enough of the young German.

“I will never fight that kid again. You can forget it,” Foreman said. “Wherever he came from, he can go back to.”

In the first six rounds, Foreman controlled the action with that punishing jab. At the end of the sixth, one judge favored him by four points and the other two by two each.

In the second half of the fight, Foreman’s age began to show badly and Schulz’s confidence began to build as he consistently won exchanges.