One morning with George Foreman in Tokyo
Steve Bunce on the trials and tribulations of a heavyweight motley crew
IT was a morning of true glory in Tokyo when the George Foreman roadshow started at 9am with Tommy Morrison in denial, Mark Gastineau in tears and the most ferocious women’s fight I have ever seen.
The Bay NK Hall, near Tokyo’s Disneyland, had been home to sedate affairs, bonsai tree festivals, Wham, giant gatherings of stamp collectors, but on a Sunday morning in November 1996, Foreman and his carnival arrived. It was bedlam, I loved it.
Morrison was banished from boxing after testing positive for HIV, Gastineau was famous for being the fighter at the centre of Fat Rick Parker’s brutal slaying and somewhere down the bill, the fallen heavyweight, Alex Stewart was on offer as a body. The women, Valerie Wien, a former weather-girl from RTL, and Mary Ann Almager shared a broken jaw, a pint of blood, three closed eyes and the mild applause of a bemused crowd.