George Foreman wants to come out of retirement looking good.
The 55-year-old former boxer and frequent pitchman looked dapper Wednesday in announcing a new line of clothes and a plan to return to the ring.
He was looking trim and sporting a matching black-on-black ensemble -- one of the items ranging from T-shirts to tuxedos that Casual Male Big & Tall stores will market in his name.
"I feel pretty good, but I'm not going to get into the ring unless I'm 225 pounds [101kg], and I haven't been that weight since 1978," said Foreman, who will be subject to a physical before being allowed to box. "I want to show doctors, `This man is serious. This man is in shape.'"
"I want to be examined like any other 25-year-old."
But Foreman's not like them. By the time those younger fighters were born, Foreman had won an Olympic gold medal, beaten Joe Frazier for his first heavyweight title and retired once, en route to a ministerial career.
Foreman, heavier in body and lighter in spirit, returned to the ring in 1987. He knocked out Michael Moorer in 1994 to become the oldest heavyweight champion at age 45. He again left the sport to concentrate on other enterprises, such as his popular line of miniature grills and a seven-year stint as an analyst for HBO.
A company bought Foreman's grilling brand for US$136 million, some of which went to build part of the pediatric ward of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, his hometown.
"I sold my grilling company, and I could have set the money aside and said, `Let's ride around in the Bentley or the Rolls Royce,'" he said. "I'm not doing that. That's no adventure. You've got to keep functioning, keep producing."
Foreman doesn't have any timetable for when he might return, only saying that he wants one fight in Houston.
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