George Foreman took on plenty of big names throughout his illustrious career but he once admitted there was one fighter he chose to avoid.
Foreman is widely regarded as being one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, first claiming world honours in 1973 when he knocked out Joe Frazier inside two rounds.
His second title reign came over 20 years later, when at the age of 45 he stopped Michael Moorer, with Foreman still holding the distinction of being the oldest world heavyweight champion of all time.
Foreman took on a number of fellow icons over the years, including the likes of Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield, but he once revealed during a speech with the Oxford Union that he chose not to fight former IBF heavyweight champion Tony Tucker.
“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 title. 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 won the IBF title with a win against Buster Douglas in May 1987, but he would lose it just 64 days later when he was beaten by Mike Tyson, meaning he holds the shortest world heavyweight title reign in history.
Tyson wasn’t able to stop Tucker as the fight went the distance, only the second time up to that point that ‘Iron Mike’ had gone the full 12 rounds.
It was the same outcome for Lennox Lewis when he met Tucker in May 1983, as he also secured a unanimous decision win. Tucker competed for the last time in May 1998, with his final record reading 57 wins from 65 fights, 47 of those wins by knockout.
