Most Folks Thought ‘People’s Champion’ Was Beaten

In eulogies for Howard Cosell, his call of George Foreman’s devastating knockout of Joe Frazier in 1973 received near-constant repetition: “Down goes Frazier. Down goes Frazier. Down goes Frazier.”

If there were a Dow Jones-like measure of George Foreman after generous judging awarded him a majority decision over Axel Schulz Saturday night, it would read: “Down goes Foreman. Down goes Foreman. Down goes Foreman.”

Foreman looked as if he would rather be fixing Meineke mufflers while wolfing down a bag of Doritos and hawking his coming autobiography with Oprah.

But he did not look like the heavyweight champion who whacked Michael Moorer for the International Boxing Federation title or the fighter who came close to defeating Evander Holyfield.

“Eighty percent of the people who watched it thought Axel Schulz won,” said Cedric Kushner, Schulz’s promoter, who met with HBO officials Monday to discuss a rematch, or another fight on HBO’s July card. “So Mr. Schulz should be regarded as the uncrowned champion.”

HBO’s ardor for Foreman is undiminished. Its desire to keep him fighting into his 70s is unabated. So what if he looked all of his 46 years? Whatever Foreman wants, he’ll get.

Luckily, he won. Winning is the only thing, no matter how sloppily or unfairly. “He won on two of the three most important scorecards in the world,” said Seth Abraham, the president of Time Warner Sports, the parent company of HBO. “Controversial decisions are part of the sport. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Schulz won, but I don’t think it was a robbery.”

For HBO, Foreman remains an almost untarnished prize. He still pulls a big rating. If he survives to his next pay-per-view fight on TVKO, he ostensibly lures buyers. So he’s excused for not decking Schulz. Forgive Foreman his diminished skills? Of course!

“Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t score 42 every night,” Abraham said.

But Gil Clancy, who scored the fight for Schulz, thinks Foreman is done.

“Every day, he’s a day older, and it really shows,” he said. “He’s got all the money in the world, so I don’t know why he keeps on fighting. I think the 11th round was the last good round George is going to fight.”

But Grandpa George will fight again, probably on July 22, perhaps in Germany, on a card that may feature Schulz. “We have no drop-off in our interest in George,” said Abraham, who will meet with Foreman on Thursday, presumably to ask him to fight better or sign for Wonder Bra commercials.

Foreman’s failure to maul a moving target has made Schulz into a viable commodity for HBO at least until he fights someone his own age. The 26-year-old Schulz earned $350,000 for fighting Foreman. What he earns next depends on his opponent.

“I can only say that if Mr. Foreman is truly the people’s champion, as he says he is, then a rematch with Mr. Schulz is the correct thing to do,” Kushner said.

Airwaves

NBC’s tribute to Boston Garden on Sunday was superb… . ESPN’s blanket coverage of the Warren Sapp drug-testing story during the National Football League college draft on Saturday elevated the marathon program above the pick-by-pick formula… . CBS is changing the name of the “Eye on Sports” anthology program to “The CBS Sports Show.” Why? It won’t help ratings.