Axel Schulz is robbed of a big victory against George Foreman. The two boxing icons remain connected, but a meeting never takes place.
“I just didn’t knock him out.” Without bitterness – and in his unmistakably beautiful Brandenburg dialect.
You could tell that Schulz, the former poster boy of German heavyweight boxing, was at peace with himself.
Even though he was cheated out of his well-deserved reward in his duel with the legendary George Foreman on April 22, 1995.
Taxi driver drove Axel Schulz for free
Schulz learned that he was not alone in this opinion shortly after the fight, when he was driven from the venue to his friends from home who had traveled with him to Las Vegas. For free.
“Axel, you’ve just been cheated, you don’t need to pay anything,” the taxi driver told him at the time.
Lost the big fight, won the sympathy: This was often the case later on for Schulz, who became a favorite of the sporting nation that night – his popularity undiminished by the fact that he repeatedly missed out on his big dream of becoming the first German heavyweight world champion after Max Schmeling.
But the lazy victory also had consequences for Foreman, who has since passed away. The IBF ultimately demanded a rematch against Schulz, which Foreman refused to agree to before being stripped of his title on June 29, 1995, 30 years ago today.
George Foreman dreams of mega-fight against Mike Tyson
The then 26-year-old Schulz from the Sauerland boxing stable around the then German top star Henry Maske had obviously been planned by Foreman and his promoter Bob Arum as a warm-up opponent.
“Big George,” whose big fights such as the “Rumble in the Jungle” against Muhammad Ali were already more than 20 years behind him, had returned in 1987 after a ten-year break from the ring and was actually well on his way to becoming a laughing stock as an old-timer in the ring.
However, after two clear losses in world championship fights against Evander Holyfield in 1991 and Tommy Morrison in 1993, he shocked Michael Moorer with a knockout in the 10th round on November 5, 1994, crowning himself the oldest world champion in history at the age of 45.
It was a fantastic story that Foreman and his camp wanted to continue. Foreman flirted with the idea of a mega fight of the generations against superstar Mike Tyson – after his imminent release from prison, where “Iron Mike” was serving a sentence for rape.
Bribes were paid before the fight
The fight against Schulz was only supposed to be an interlude. And even the scheduling was preceded by questionable backroom deals.
Schulz was not ranked by the WBA and IBF, whose titles were held by Foreman. Because the WBA did not accept that Foreman had ignored mandatory challenger Tony Tucker in favor of Schulz, it stripped him of his title.
The IBF, on the other hand, approved the fight with Schulz – for which a total of $350,000 in bribes were paid, as Arum later admitted in court.
Foreman camp considered Schulz harmless
Foreman openly admitted at the time that he had never heard of Axel Schulz.
The man from Bad Saarow was not really well known internationally, had never fought in a world championship fight and had failed in two attempts to win the European title from Britain’s Henry Akinwande.
Arum considered Schulz harmless and made little effort to hide it. When asked why the title fight would be exciting, he said things like, “Axel Schulz comes from Germany, one of the world’s leading industrial nations.”
However, the challenger proved that there was more to him than meets the eye.
Scorecards: 115:113, 114:114, 115:113
The former champion failed to put Schulz, who had been well prepared by trainer Manfred Wolke, under decisive pressure at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Schulz dodged his punches, scored himself from mid-range, was the more active man over 12 rounds, and even threatened to knock Foreman down in the last round with a four-punch combination.
But he didn’t knock him down.
To the annoyance of many spectators at the venue, Foreman was declared the winner, with two of the three judges scoring 115:113 in favor of the old master and the third scoring 114:114.
Harold Lederman, the long-time analyst for the US broadcaster HBO, saw Schulz ahead, clearly with 117:111. But it was all to no avail.
Millions of dollars were at stake
“Abroad, you have to knock your opponent out,”
He is convinced that behind the dubious, even scandalous decision were interests that he simply did not fit into.
“I got 500,000 marks for the fight, he got 10 million. The next time, it would probably have been 20 million,” Schulz explained: “And the association takes three to five percent, so of course they’re interested in driving up the purse. Would I ever have got there? I don’t know.”
Schulz also lost to Botha and Moorer
On June 29, 1995, Arum announced that George Foreman was relinquishing his heavyweight title. The Texan declined a rematch with Schulz.
In 1997, after losing to Shannon Briggs, Foreman retired for good to pursue his second career as a grill salesman.
Schulz got his second title shot instead against Francois Botha and lost that scandal-ridden fight on December 9, 1995. He lost his third and final world championship fight the following year to Moorer, who had been defeated by Foreman.
“I always did everything I could,” Schulz looks back: “I just couldn’t do any more.”
Last fights against Klitschko and Minto
Schulz looks back with satisfaction on his career, which ended in 1999 with a defeat against the young Wladimir Klitschko.
Although he was denied sporting glory, his performance against the legendary Foreman made him a crowd favorite in Germany.
His cheerful, likeable charisma – which he had over his rather gruff stablemate Maske – helped him become a sought-after TV celebrity and advertising figure.
Schulz remained close to his opponent Foreman, seeing him time and again during joint expert appearances for fights in the US.
No reunion between Foreman and Schulz
There was no reunion in recent years, although one had actually been planned for the 25th anniversary. “The flights were booked,” Schulz reports, “but then Corona got in the way.”
Foreman passed away on March 21, 2025, at the age of 76. “It’s very sad, we were just in the process of organizing a reunion for television, as April marks the 30th anniversary of our fight,” he said after learning of Foreman’s death.
“Everything was already set in stone, but we hadn’t heard anything from America for some time. Now we know why. It’s very sad,” said Schulz.
Foreman was a special person, even back then. “When I think back to the press conferences before our fight, he always had a smile on his face, was always respectful, never used nasty words like ‘I’m going to kill you’ and so on,” recalls the German.
“We all know the story.”
The machinations surrounding the famous fight and its controversial outcome are no longer an issue for the 56-year-old Schulz.
Before his death, Foreman said to him: “You should have knocked me out.”
