Right at the very beginning of George Foreman’s wholly unlikely return to the ring after a full decade out of action, when those who did know about the former champ’s plans to fight again were shaking their heads in disbelief, Brent Bowers believed in George.
Making the long, 80-mile round-trip to Houston, for only gas money, Bowers began sparring with Foreman. Almost every day, starting in 1986, the two would go to work with the headgear on. Bowers, who had boxed himself and was asked to come on board as Foreman’s chief sparring partner, would go home with bruises all over his body. His family and friends felt he was nuts for putting himself through the ordeal, taking punches from an old, no-hope, much overweight former champion who had zero chances of ever doing anything in the ring at such an age.
Yet in time, as we all know and celebrate, Foreman – who sadly passed away last year – made believers of millions. And when ‘Big’ George was a hit again, Bowers was rewarded generously, and not only in monetary terms. Bowers became Foreman’s cut man a few fights into the improbable return, and he was there, working the corner, in numerous fights the 38-year-old would have as his comeback slowly but steadily gathered steam.
Recently, Bowers penned his fascinating book: Cut Man: Ringside Reflections of Boxing’s Greatest Comeback, detailing what it was like to be there as sporting history was being made. Speaking in his engaging Texan drawl, he shared his many memories with Boxing News.
How did it all begin with George?
I needed some work and my wife said why not go back to boxing? I had been a fighter and I was pretty much broke. A friend of mine said George Foreman was making a comeback and that he needed a sparring partner. So I began making the 80-mile round trip, with George broke himself and only able to pay me gas money.
Everyone thought Foreman’s comeback was a joke. Nobody would work with George as far as training him. Gil Clancy, he wouldn’t even answer his calls, he wanted nothing to do with it.
It must have been tough taking Foreman’s punches, even with headgear on!
Yes, sir! George trained like nobody else I’ve seen – 10 rounds of sparring, eventually with four different sparring partners. When we began sparring, George would only hit me on the shoulder or on the arms, but when we went at it harder, when I would hit George, he would punch so hard he’d lift me up in the air. And George would hit the heavy bag for 10 rounds straight, throwing non-stop punches. George would really slam that bag, and he’d lift you up in the air when doing that, too.
I was George’s sparring partner – I’d say we must have sparred 700 rounds or more overall – and I worked his corner later on. I was there when he fought in London (against Terry Anderson). That was a great trip. I worked the Gerry Cooney fight, and the Bigfoot Martin fight. The Alex Stewart fight, I was again George’s chief sparring partner. I worked a whole bunch of ’em.
You believed in George right from the start.
Yes. What happened was, George took us to churches, where he would give his sermons, and he took us to some prisons, where he would tell the inmates his story, about how he had been a thug and that he’d turned his life around. In Sacramento (where Foreman would kick off his comeback, this against Zouski in March of 1987), the opponents kept falling out and it took a while to get the first fight done.
Charlie Shipes, who had been in prison after his career as a great welterweight, he came on and became George’s main trainer. Charlie had lost everything; his family had turned their back on him, and George asked him if he’d train him when he got out of federal prison. That film, ‘Big George Foreman’ that came out a couple of years ago, that was not true at all – that was the biggest joke I’ve ever seen. Doc Broadus didn’t train George Foreman, Charlie Shipes did! They didn’t even mention Shipes’ name in that film. I asked George, and he said that, once he’d sold it (his life story), there was nothing he could do about that.
You must have been so pleased when George’s comeback became the success it did, with everyone sure enough forced to take him seriously…
Oh, yeah. The Gerry Cooney fight was big, I was the chief second in the corner for that fight. That was George’s first pay-per-view fight on the return. And then what happened was, they brought Angelo Dundee in, and George fought the double-bill, with Mike Tyson on the card, and then George fought [Evander] Holyfield for the title the following year (1991).
Can we just talk about Foreman’s great chin? The best in the heavyweight division?
No doubt. George had a great, great chin. In the Cooney fight, he was hurt early, but George showed no mercy and he knocked Cooney out. For me, that fight [Foreman-Cooney] was my first big payday on the comeback. George gave me a $10,000 bonus after that fight. The Alex Stewart fight was tough. The problem was, George could’ve knocked him out, in the second round, but he showed mercy. You remember Everett Martin? He was the only guy to go 10 rounds with George [at that time in the comeback]. George knocked him down in the seventh round and his eyes rolled in the back of his head, but he got up. And he didn’t get paid one penny for that fight. Martin had a contract and he broke it to go with another contract and nothing happened, until he fought George and then they filed a lawsuit. They took his entire purse. What bothered George was, Everett kept saying, during the fight, ‘It’s my time, Lord! It’s my time.’ George was a preacher of course, and Everett was too.
The [Michael] Moorer fight, wow, George was taking a beating. I was there for that fight. Matter of fact, I made a few bets for people on that fight….George didn’t know it, and he wouldn’t have been too happy about that (laughs). Moorer was really trying to knock George out. He could’ve ran those last few rounds and won a decision. I had Moorer winning pretty much all those rounds before [the KO].
But, yeah, George’s chin, I do think it was the best ever. In the Ali fight back in the day, when George was trained by Dick Saddler, he was drugged. I’ll tell you the story I was told. George asked him if the water he was given by Saddler, this in the dressing room before the fight, was different to usual, and he was told “Same water as always!” Years later, the truth came out. He gave George water with morphine in it, and that drained him and he lost his energy. Saddler was paid off, that’s what I was told. George always said that we’d never know the truth. He thought about it a long time. George in his comeback, he never went down one single time.
When did you last see George before he passed away?
Six months before. I met him and he was meeting some doctors who wanted him to represent their drug that was supposed to help with diabetes. It was gonna be a done deal but within three months he was in a wheelchair, and three months later he passed away.
People really wanted to see the Foreman-Tyson fight, and it was close in 1990.
George would have won. Look at it this way, Evander Holyfield stopped Tyson twice, yet he couldn’t even knock George down. Tyson wouldn’t fight George, he was scared to fight him. George really wanted to fight Tyson, because that’s where the money was at. When they fought on the same card, in Las Vegas in June of 1990, when Tyson fought [Henry] Tillman after losing to Buster Douglas, and George fought Adilson Rodrigues, it was initially going to be just the Tyson fight, and they only sold 2,000 tickets or so. They put George on the card and it sold out.
It’s kind of funny. A week before the card, George was in Vegas, signing autographs and meeting the fans for photos, and Tyson would not sign any autographs and he would not talk to any reporters. At the press conference the day before the fight, of course Tyson speaks first, and he says, “you people have been bugging me all week, so ask me your questions now.” A reporter got up and said, “when is George Foreman going to be answering questions!” Tyson went part mad (laughs).
No, Tyson wanted no part of George, it would have been a massive payday for both of ’em. I think George would have stopped him the same way he did Moorer, late on. George would have been too strong for Tyson, he’d have pushed him off the way he did Joe Frazier. Tyson screwed up when he left Kevin Rooney.”
Did you and George always get along great, in camp and in the corner? Any arguments at all?
No, sir – we were best of friends. We always got on good. George was strict in camp, all the sparring partners had to be on their best behaviour, no drinking or anything like that. You had to be right or else you’d have to go and do something else, go work with someone else.
I had so many great times with George, so many big fights. Another interesting story about George, is the fact that he knew the Jackson family. Back when he was heavyweight champ the first time, he was friends with them, the older brothers. He lived not very far from them and he would visit quite a bit. He told me that he knew that young Michael was gonna be big one day, as in huge, because he would see him practicing, and dancing all the time in the house, and he could see how special he was.
One time, George paid them a visit with his girlfriend of the time, and she later told George that one of the Jackson brothers asked her for her phone number while he was in the restroom (laughs). One more special one about George, George once told me really believed he’d die at the age of 105. I told him, that would make me 99 for me to be one of his pallbearers (laughs). He and I laughed so much.
