Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
It’s immeasurable how much boxing has inspired humanity. The positive energy of the film Rocky inspired millions of young athletes and people in general. The genius of Muhammad Ali motivated millions of athletes in all sports. So many champions like Roberto Duran, Mike Tyson, Arturo Gatti were positive examples who helped us all to try to be the best we can be.
I learned of another interesting example from reading a biography about a pro golfer… The Saturday night before Fred Couples won his first major golf title – at 1992 Masters in Augusta, GA – he watched a boxing match on TV… George Foreman vs Alex “The Destroyer” Stewart on HBO from the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
43 year old Foreman won a unanimous but very hard fought decision vs Stewart over ten brutal rounds. Foreman’s face was deformed by all the punches he absorbed from Stewart, both of his eyes and jaw and mouth were swollen. Foreman said after that Stewart’s punches felt “like a brick going against my face.”
“Boom Boom” Couples was 32 at that time and still in search of his first major championship. He rose to the occasion and played the best golf of his life. The Seattle, WA native converted 18 and 20 foot putts on holes 8 and 9 and then made eight pars and one birdie on Augusta’s “treacherous back nine” to win the title, edging Raymond Floyd.
Two years after Foreman beat Stewart, he shocked the world by knocking out Michael Moorer at age 45 to become the oldest man to win the World Heavyweight Championship in November 1994.
