Almost everyone that was physically present to witness the Holyfield Moorer fight on April 22, 1994, believed that Holyfield was robbed of his title { even fighting with one arm and a dangerous blockage to his left ventrical }
Holyfield lost the fight essentially by JERRY ROTH'S erronious scoring in the 2nd round in which Holyfield LEVELED MOORER . But Roth called the round 10-10 Even because he reasoned that Moorer "landed more blows". UNBELIEVEABLE. The Heavyweight Champion of the World had just knocked down the challenger like a Bowling Pin. And a "judge" decided NOT to give the champ that scored the knockdown the round because the challenger "touched him more times " AS IF IT WERE PING PONG!. Old school boxing purists who watched it considered it a MOCKERY! It was a travesty of scoring in perhaps the single worst scored round in Heavyweight Championship history. EVERYONE from George Foreman to Larry Merchant to Jim Lampley to Harold Ledderman to James Brown ALL believed that Roth had scored the 2nd round neglegently. Larry Merchant stated that at NO TIME in history had a Heavyweight Champion not be awarded the round in which he cleanly knocks a challenger down, without getting knocked down himself. Merchant could not believe that ROTH'S TERRIBLE ROUND 2 SCORING would actually decide the Heavyweight Championship of the World { The other two judges BOTH awarded Evander the second round. IF ROTH HAD EVEN SCORED THE ROUND 10-9, EVANDER WOULD HAVE KEPT HIS TITLE WITH A "MAJORITY DRAW" Foreman actually went as far as to imply that a dirty deal went down saying that "The Duvas had too many pieces of paper in too many pockets".
The Duvas threatened to sue HBO and specifically George! { George discusses the whole terrible incident in his autobiography "By George" } George's post fight comments WERE COMPLETELY EDITED OUT in the rebroadcast to appease the Duvas and Moorer.
Two weeks later at the Lennox Lewis-Phil Jackson fight on May 6, HBO had Moorer on as a guest. Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant were instructed by HBO to apologize to Moorer to avoid the lawsuit.......BUT GEORGE DEFIANTLY AND COURAGEOUSLY STOOD HIS GROUND! { Moorer was seated next to Lampley for about 5 minutes. During that time, Foreman could be seen sitting 3 chairs away with his arms folded in disgust.}
Holyfield had a rematch clause in the contract but the Left Ventrical crises left him in a severe cardiac state. The most distinguished medical center in America, The Mayo Clinic discovered a HOLE in Evander's heart. He was forced to retire because to fight on in their words "could be fatal" { Evander's heart would later be healed by the Lord, although naysayers in denial claimed that the most prestigious clinic in America had made a "misdiagnosis". } Some people NEED a non spiritual explanation. But Evander would proclaim his healing to all in the following months }
SO NOW TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION
Since Moorer HIMSELF HAD BEEN THE NUMBER 1 CONTENDER BY BOTH THE WBA AND THE IBF. THERE WAS NO IMMEDIATELY RANKED NUMBER ONE CONTENDER TO DEAL WITH ONCE HE BECAME THE WBA AND IBF CHAMPION.
Since Moorer wanted NO PART of a unification bout with Lennox Lewis { what Holyfield had been actively pursuing } that left Moorer's options open to face basically ANYONE he wanted to in a "voluntary defense". George called promoter Bob Arum and asked him to pursue a shot at Moorer. Arum had agreed with George that Evander had been robbed. Arum began negotiating with the Duvas for George to get a shot.
The Duvas KNEW that George was a HUGE NAME and that EVERYONE would tune in to see the big guy get one more shot!
They ALSO BELIEVED that Foreman was a shot fighter. He had not fought in a year and a half. And in THAT FIGHT, in June of 93, he had lost to Tommy Morrison . Morrison, then immediately got HIS reputation tarnished badly by suffering a 1 round knockout to an unknown fighter named Michael Bent. So Geoge's loss to Tommy was viewed by SOME as a sign that both George and Tommy were media overrated buffoons.
And essentially in a nutshell, the Duvas and Moorer believed that fighting George would bring in BIG MONEY with VERY LITTLE RISK.
HOW VERY VERY VERY WRONG THEY WERE!!!!!
Dollbaby XO