Five-Minute Massacre

"l am not a violent man."

--George Foreman

For a time last week Ken Norton might almost have believed that. Heavyweight Champion Foreman certainly seemed to be going out of his way to avoid a fight. The scene was Caracas, where Norton and Foreman were supposed to be preparing for a title bout. Foreman, though, was doing a lot more posturing and protesting than preparing.

In the 14 months since he had rendered Joe Frazier defenseless and bereft of the title, Foreman had defended the championship just once--and that was against the obscure Joe Roman of Puerto Rico. Out of the ring Foreman had almost been TKOed himself by a flurry of personal and financial blows. Now, on the eve and even the day of his fight against a serious challenger, Foreman was threatening to be a no-show.

Pinched Nerve. At first his complaint was the selection of a referee. Foreman wanted Jim Rondeau, an experienced American. Norton and the Venezuelan fight officials demanded a local referee. Like a traveling circus, representatives of the two fighters and boxing officials dashed from hotel to hotel in Caracas, holding meetings that did little to resolve the dispute and press conferences that did much to exacerbate it.

When the controversy was still unsettled on the day of the fight, Foreman developed a "pinched nerve" in his knee. He was rushed to the hospital amid increasing rumors that the fight would be canceled. Meanwhile, Foreman's camp was announcing that Rondeau was not the referee it wanted after all. "This is a vicious doublecross against us," Norton's manager first declared. Then he turned the tables himself and insisted that Rondeau be in the ring.

Considering the prefight confusion and the Venezuelan government's insistence that the fight be televised on home screens, it was no surprise that the multimillion-dollar sports palace El Poliedro was only half full by fight time. Nor should it have really been a surprise when Foreman walked in without the slightest trace of a limp. (He attributed his recovery to prayer.) Score Round 1 in the psychological fight to Foreman. Norton seemed to sense that he had been outmaneuvered. As Rondeau briefed the fighters at mid-ring, Norton carefully avoided Foreman's menacing glare by staring at the canvas.

Five minutes after the fight started, Norton was sprawled across that canvas in a daze. Nonviolent George Foreman dispatched Norton just as he had Joe Frazier and 38 other opponents --with brute force. Stalking Norton like a boxing Frankenstein, Foreman tossed aside his opponent's punches as though they were irrelevant and delivered brutal blows to his body and head. Early in the second round he landed one below Norton's heart. "I heard him grunt," said Foreman later, "and I knew I had him." He finished the challenger with a volley of uppercuts and right-left combinations to the head. As Norton collapsed onto the ropes for the third time, Rondeau ended the fight.

For his effort, Foreman will collect at least $700,000 (Norton gets a $200,000 minimum). In a surprise move, the Venezuelan government decided to collect a healthy share of the winnings itself by slapping an 18% tax on the fighters. To insure payment, it barred the fighters from leaving Caracas, stopping Foreman at the airport as he was waiting for a flight. Norton was allowed to leave for the U.S. on Saturday morning. Foreman was still in Caracas trying to satisfy the government's demand.

Despite the unexpected tax bite, the payday should be the first in years that does not plunge Foreman into an immediate squabble with managers, owners and promoters. He has finally begun to extricate himself from a tangle of contractual and marital disputes.

In Houston, he recently reached a divorce settlement with his wife, giving her $235,000 in a lump sum and $400 a month for support of their child. In San Francisco, a federal judge threw out a suit by a Texas promoter who claimed that Foreman had broken a contract giving her exclusive rights to his fights. Finally, Foreman seems close to breaking out of a long-term contract with a Philadelphia group that claims 25% of his earnings in return for having provided Foreman with $250,000 two years ago and guaranteeing him an annual income of $25,000 for ten years.

Foreman would like to be free of all his financial obligations by September, when he is to fight Muhammad Ali in Zaire, the African nation that was once the Belgian Congo. The rumored purse for each boxer: $5 million. It did not take long after last week's fight for Ali to start what promises to be long and loud verbal preliminaries with Foreman. As Foreman scowled down at Ali, doing TV commentary at ringside, Ali responded to the cold stare by taunting back: "If you behave like that, my African friends will put you in a pot."

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