GEORGE FOREMAN'S planned farewell fight against Michael Moorer, scheduled for February 29th, is off for a second time, according to a newspaper report yesterday.
New York's Newsday said the bout, set for Madison Square Garden, might not come off because of comments made by Foreman and promoter Bob Arum about trying to arrange a fight later this year with Mike Tyson.
The comments undermined the promotion of Foreman-Moorer as the final fight in the career of the 46-year-old former champion, who has been stripped of the titles he won by heating Moorer in 1994.
TVKO, the pay-per-view backer of the Foreman-Moorer fight wants protection against possible financial losses because of those statements, which were hastily retracted once the sponsor's anger was known.
Foreman was set to receive $9.6 million for the fight
Tyson is set to fight Frank Bruno for the World Boxing Council title in Las Vegas on March 16th, with an eye on other crowns held by Bruce Seldon and South African Franz Botha.
A big money fight deal has also been discussed for Tyson this year, but mainly against Riddick Bowe late in 1996. Talks of a Tyson-Foreman bout have come almost totally from Foreman's promoters.
The Foreman-Moorer fight was planned to be the centrepiece of the Garden's 25th anniversary celebration of the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier bout, which took place there on March 8th, 1971.
Ali and Frazier are expected to take part in promotional events, but Arum said he has not finalised anything with Ali. Arena officials said the fight could lose some of its luster and purse without Ali and Frazier as part of the package.
