George Foreman vs the Toronto Five

   Boxing has always had time for a good sideshow and the current Jake Paul roadshow is far from the first ridiculous event to hit the ring,

Recently, I wrote about Paul and mentioned a few of boxing's goofy events, and my nephew, Jeff, asked if I would write about one event with an athlete in his prime that participated in a farce.

In April 1975, George Foreman hadn't fought since his October 1974 upset loss of his title to Muhammad Ali, and while today that wouldn't be considered to be a big deal, at that time it was a little unusual and with rumors flying about a change to the psyche of Foreman after his surprising knockout loss, promoter Don King came up with the idea of Foreman defeating five guys in one night to rebuild Foreman himself and in the eyes of the fans for a potential Ali rematch.

Understandably, the opponents weren't going to be top ten caliber but considering the issues of Foreman's stamina the argument was going to be made by Foreman that five guys scheduled for three rounds would be the same as going a full fifteen rounds.

So in Toronto, Wide World of Sports televised Foreman's "comeback" with Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali calling this farce with a surprisingly mute Don King sitting beside Ali as the circus played out.

Foreman's first opponent in veteran Alonzo Johnson, who had two claims to fame- he was one of the main sparring partners for Muhammad Ali and in Ali's eighth pro fight Johnson had taken Ali the ten-round distance.

That noted, Johnson was never more than a journeyman and hadn't fought in years before being installed as the opening challenger.

The first thing that I think of when seeing Johnson is the resemblance to the nearsighted boxer in the early 80s film "Tough Enough" starring a young Dennis Quaid and the second thing is that Johnson fights similar to the character as well.

Foreman fights the first round on his toes in an absolutely awful Ali impersonation as he boxes Johnson from range rather than walking down the older and out of his league opponent.

That's about the only way that Johnson could get out of the first round against George Foreman-If Foreman fought in the least aggressive way possible.

Foreman must have realized this in the corner as he quickly charged out and finished Johnson in the second with his trademark powerful looping shots.

The next opponent was even more anonymous than the rest in Jerry Judge and Judge delivered the most interesting match against Foreman.

Foreman comes out much more aggressively against Judge and drops the much smaller Judge to a knee with an uppercut and give Judge credit for getting up and trying to continue but the fun has just begun as Foreman walks in to finish Judge, Judge launches a desperate right hand that not only lands bur stuns Foreman, who clinches for a few seconds.

Judge survives the round and the two fighters jaw at each other after the round with Foreman playing full wrestling heel talks to Ali and the crowd between rounds.

One would think that Foreman would start the round strongly to finish Judge off but instead decides to dance around the ring with his legs flailing looking more like Pee Wee Herman dancing to "Tequila" rather than Ali.

Finally, Foreman drops Judge, the referee waves off the fight, and shortly thereafter Foreman and Judge share the obligatory post-fight responses with all seeming well for the next fighter to give Big George a try- BUT NO (this works really well with Cosell being at ringside and I can use a Cosell phrase), as the fighters exchange words and then begin to exchange punches as if the fight has resumed!

Judge then takes Foreman to the mat as if he was Dan Gable and would receive two points for the takedown before the fighters are finally separated.

Foreman then goes to the ropes and raises both arms in the manner of Clubber Lang in the opening montage of Rocky III as Ali taunts Foreman and the crowd boos along with throwing trash into the ring.

Next up is smallish Terry Daniels, who in today's game would have been a cruiserweight but had name recognition for a title challenge of then-champion Joe Frazier in 1972.

The problem with Daniels was that since that fourth-round knockout loss to Frazier, he had won just six of nineteen bouts and was simply too frail to hold up against the booming punches of Foreman and Foreman dropped Daniels in the first round but ran out of time to finish him.

Foreman landed some heavy shots in the second, driving Daniels around the ring but as Daniels offers a flurry against Foreman, Foreman waves to the referee to end the fight-AND THE REFEREE LISTENS  TO HIM!

Daniels follows Foreman to his corner and as with Jerry Judge, Foreman begins exchanging punches with Daniels, eventually knocking him to his knees with an uppercut as the corners for both men begin pushing and shoving each other.

By this time, Cosell is in full "above it all" mode using every synonym that one can think of for farce with Ali publicizing an appearance later that night as he continues to belittle Foreman.

The fourth fighter to take his chances is veteran trialhorse Charlie Polite, who would finish his career with twenty MORE losses than wins, and would fight on for a few years after this with his most notable fight coming against a young Gerry Cooney, who would stop Polite in four rounds.

However, Polite had fought a young George Foreman five years before in Foreman's hometown of Houston and lasted into the early part of the fourth round before being stopped, so Polite had some first-hand knowledge of Big George.

Polite's knowledge of Foreman came in handy as he was the first opponent to last the three rounds as Polite used various survival tactics with laying on the ropes (as Ali constantly instructed), tying Foreman up in close, and using movement to hear the final bell and although Foreman did knock Polite down in the final round, Polite wasn't in serious danger of being knocked out.

These fights weren't being scored as they were technically exhibitions, so Foreman wasn't declared the winner but the crowd continued to boo and jeer Foreman, who continued to joust with Ali after the fight but at least Foreman didn't punch Polite after the fight ended so progress with this fiasco had been made.

The final fight of the evening was thought to be quasi-interesting as former fringe contender Boone Kirkman was scheduled to be in the cleanup spot for the evening.

Kirkman had been undefeated in November 1970 before a battle of unbeaten heavyweights against George Foreman at Madison Square Garden saw Foreman knock Kirkman down three times in less than two rounds in what was Foreman's biggest career win to that date and perhaps his most notable win before his title victory over Joe Frazier, although an argument could be made that his win over Gregorio Peralta might deserve that honor.

Kirkman was being considered for a possible rematch with Foreman after a 1973 win over former WBA champion Jimmy Ellis before being upset by Al "Blue" Lewis in a tuneup fight in 1974.

Kirkman lost his next two fights by late-round TKO to contenders Ken Norton ( seven rounds) and Ron Lyle (eight rounds) so he was facing Foreman on a three-fight losing streak.

Foreman knocked Kirkman down in the first round and cut him over his left eye but as Charlie Polite did, Kirkman made it through the three rounds.

Ali missed the end of the evening as he had to make his plane to his event and missed a tired Foreman complain about the tactics of the five attempted to emulate Ali's winning strategy in Zaire.

Boxing is dealing with the various circuses with the Paul brothers, legends fighting in their 40s and 50s in glorified sparring sessions, and other athletes trying to be fighters, so its effects on the game can be mixed but don't believe that boxing has always been above the fray of the carnival circuit- events such as this and Muhammad Ali vs Antonio Inoki ( held a year after this) prove that not to be the case.

As for George Foreman, Foreman's Toronto tryst was his only ring appearance in 1975 but he would rebound with two huge wins over top contenders Ron Lyle ( in the 1976 Fight of the Year) and Joe Frazier (winning their rematch) and two other wins over fringe contenders Scott LeDoux and Dino Denis before a shocking upset loss in 1977 to Jimmy Young.

The Young loss would send Foreman into a ten-year retirement until 1987 when Foreman emerged to begin the trail back to the heavyweight championship but the real road to redemption began with a frustrated Foreman attempting to flex his muscles against five overmatched heavyweights as he vainly tried to regain his mojo for a rematch that never arrived.