THE TORONTO 5
I WAS trying to get back off the ground again with my career,” George Foreman recalls. “I thought it’d be a great way to show everybody how strong I was, and that something was wrong in Africa. I’d been protesting all along. What greater way would be than to box five men at one time?
“That first one, I was actually more exhausted than I thought. Because I had to do a lot of moving, and the guy was trying to get me as well, so I had to get my wits together, and that’s tiring too. I was exhausted after the first one.
“But it didn’t concern me. As a matter of fact, I wanted to know exhaustion, and to keep going. A fresh man would come in after him. How do I adapt to that?
“There wasn’t a lot of pressure. Just, to get one fight under me and think, ‘Boy, I’ve got four more’ – that, you’ve got to sit down and think about. I’d go back to my corner and really try and get myself together, mentally and physically, for the next guy.
“I was rusty. Ordinarily when I got into the ring, it was always Dick Sadler giving me this instruction, that instruction. This night was the first night I got into the ring with total instructions from myself, because after the Muhammad Ali fight I fired
