Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!looking!clarinews
From: clarinews@clarinet.com (FRED LIEF, UPI Assistant Sports Editor)
Newsgroups: clari.sports.misc,clari.sports.top
Subject: Commentary
Keywords: boxing, men's professional
Message-ID: <Ubox-heavy-column_97@clarinet.com>
Date: 15 Jan 90 22:37:10 GMT
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Approved: clarinews@clarinet.com
ACategory: sports
Slugword: box-heavy-column
Priority: major
Format: regular
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Codes: ysxprxx.


	ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (UPI) -- George Foreman, driven by visions of
another heavyweight title and fortified by vats of ice cream, is
boxing's Ponce de Leon.
	And win, lose or draw, Monday night's heavyweight bout with Gerry
Cooney at the Atlantic City Convention Hall brought Foreman no closer to
the fountain of youth than was poor, misguided Ponce centuries earlier.
	Foreman last held the heavyweight title in 1974. He fought a few
more years and then took a sabbatical for a decade before embarking on a
comeback that has had all the dignity of a roller derby collision.
	He says he is 42 now. Elsewhere he is listed as 41. Some dispute
this discrepancy as if it held the key to great truths.
	This is all part of the mystique of the thick waisted, bald-headed
preacher on the road back, and all part of the sweet science of hype for
boxing's latest -- and surely not last -- tawdry venture.
	Foreman weighed in Sunday night at 253 1/4 pounds. This was
practically anorexic considering he once topped 300 pounds and was
better suited for a trucking weigh station than a doctor's scale.
	The weigh-in at Caesars was actually televised live by ESPN.
Apparently, the network could not find a tractor pull competition to
fill the programming slot.
	So there was Cooney in a black robe waiting his turn on the scale
while the crowd at Circus Maximus Theater, drinks in hand, howled for
the gladiators. Cooney checked in at 231, cracked a contorted smile and
stepped aside.
	Foreman was next. He discarded his red-hooded robe and was
proclaimed fit at more than one-eighth of a ton. All the while, Roman
centurions stood guard in the wings while promoter Bob Arum and scores
of handlers and cameramen patrolled the stage.
	``Who would pay to see this fight?'' asked one woman on her way up
the escalator leading to the Circus Maximus Theater.
	It was a question well worth asking. The Convention Hall received
an extra 1,500 seats to raise capacity to 13,000. Arum said he was
``sure'' the bout would sell out. How many seats the casinos bought to
fill the house remained to be seen. Tickets ranged from $50 to $400, and
if ever evidence was needed that the dollar doesn't buy what iIt'l` be very food
5ntertainment.''
	   We are not exactla talking rUfindd entertainment here.
	Cooney has had proble-s with t(e bottle and drugs but says he's
clegn now. He has not fought in more than 2 1/2 years. He ha3 not won a
Vight for almost four years.
	/  Conpider that`Foreman's last four opplnents zerd against such
luminaries as Everett Martin, Bert Cooper, J.Balarming state of the heavyweight division is such that the
winner of Monday night's bout moved into position to face Mike Tyson for
                                t