BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Moorer or Less, Atlas Facing a World Full of Detours

They have a contract that says George Foreman must give Michael Moorer a rematch, but they also know this is boxing, where legal promises come with a wink and a so-sue-me smile.

They have gone back to work, but, says Teddy Atlas, Moorer’s trainer, they know what kind of mountain they have given themselves to climb.

“Right now, Michael’s kind of like the guy who gave up home run No. 715 to Hank Aaron,” Atlas said from Tampa, Fla., where Moorer is training for his May 13 comeback bout in Sacramento against Tim Puller. “You know, infamous forever.”

Six months after Foreman, then 45, seized the heavyweight title from Moorer with a shattering right hand to the chin, Atlas and Moorer sat and watched Foreman’s controversial majority-decision victory over Axel Schulz last Saturday with scrambled emotions.

Foreman, who was given his chance to fight Moorer by agreeing to grant him a rematch if he won, haunts them. But he also does them no good as a 46-year-old loser.

“We watched it together down in the lounge of the hotel,” Atlas said. “And I was doing something that I don’t normally--I was cheering for George, really without realizing it. Michael just turned around, looks at me and says, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ So I pulled for George a little more quietly.

“It’s important to me for us to be able to correct things. When we won the title, it was very important to me for things to have a happy ending. And then, all of a sudden, this thing showed up the first defense. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

Schulz, with quick flurries, mostly at the end of rounds, gave Foreman a much better test than anyone could have predicted, and many have loudly criticized the decision--though Foreman landed more punches, dictated the pace and never was hurt.

The International Boxing Federation, reacting to the noise, has said it will review the fight and might order a rematch. Atlas says he can’t believe the fuss.

“I’m probably the only person that thought so, but I swear, I feel very strongly Foreman won,” Atlas said. “I don’t know what the big uproar is. I think people got carried away with thinking that something momentous was happening, the changing of the title. . . .

“When George is out of position, he looks bad. But you know what, unless somebody shows me that the rule book has been changed, you don’t get points taken away for looking bad.

“When it was over, everybody was screaming Schulz won. Michael thought Schulz won. But you know what, I thought for what George could do at age 46, he looked good. In spots, he looked very bad. But his ratio of punches was higher than the other guy, who is 26.

“The guy happened to have a really good chin. If this guy didn’t have a real steady pair of whiskers, he would have been knocked out.”

For Atlas, the controversy is another step in the political maneuvering that might deny Moorer his contracted chance to fight Foreman again. When all the hubbub is over, Atlas says, you will see Don King laughing.

“It’s getting me sick what they’re doing,” Atlas said. “They created the environment for King to do something he wants to do. No one’s really catching this because they’re so proud of this. I think they’re congratulating themselves for making the IBF reconsider the decision.

“But what it did is create an environment for King to come in. If the IBF orders a rematch, there’s a good chance George will say no, the IBF will strip him and there’s Francois Botha, a King fighter, at No. 1, and then maybe they’ll try to move Schulz in to fight Botha instead of a guy named Michael Moorer (currently ranked No. 2 by the IBF).

“That scares me.”

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Moorer, prone to wild swings of emotion and retirement announcements, spent the first months after losing to Foreman in a deep funk, and came to camp more than a month ago out of shape and angry.

Atlas says he made Moorer watch a tape of the defeat, emphasizing that, in the nine rounds before the 10th-round knockout, Moorer dominated Foreman. All he did was make a mistake in the 10th, by forgetting to move to his right, away from the power.

A few days ago, Atlas said he finally got a clear sign that Moorer’s pouting was coming to an end.

“I know the night before Foreman fought Schulz, ESPN replayed Michael’s fight and he called me in my room, said, ‘You have ESPN on? Put it on.’ So I put it on,” Atlas said. “It was about the sixth, seventh round, and he asked me to stay on the phone and watch it with him.

“He says, ‘Look at the way I’m killing this guy. I’m killing him. I should be moving to the right more, though.’ And Michael never said that before. He says, ‘When I fight him again, I’m going to move to the right, you can be sure of that.’

“And at the end, it’s over, he says, ‘Well, he’s got one year to enjoy his title.’ And Michael’s never said that before.”

Boxing Notes

The Forum has two Channel 9 shows scheduled in the next few months. First, a May 19 card at Stateline, Nev., featuring a bout for the vacant World Boxing Organization middleweight title between Lonnie Bradley and David Mendez, and 10-rounders by super-flyweight contender Cecilio Espino and junior-lightweight Carlos (Famous) Hernandez. On June 10 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, WBO junior-welterweight champion Sammy Fuentes is set to fight veteran Hector Lopez, who has been at Big Bear recently sparring with Rafael Ruelas.

Also in the works for the Forum is a July 15 pay-per-view show, site not yet determined, featuring title defenses by IBF and World Boxing Council light-flyweight champion Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez and WBO junior-featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera. World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez is also a possible addition to that card.

Nickname game: A story in Wednesday’s editions misspelled Hernandez’s nickname. It is “Chicanito.”