Foreman’s Lounge Show Is a Hit : After Stopping Trane in Las Vegas, There’s Talk of Bigger Billing

LAS VEGAS —  George Foreman’s comeback continued in Las Vegas Friday night, and after he’d pounded on a short, unranked Italian for five rounds, three things seemed clear:

--He still has, after a 10-year retirement, a left jab that can still deliver a near-nuclear impact.

--His stamina, never a strong area even in his prime, is surprisingly good.

--He’s still somewhat of a box-office attraction. A near-capacity crowd of 3,481 turned out at the Caesars Palace Pavilion to watch Foreman stop Guido Trane in the fifth round for his seventh straight win since he began his comeback last March.

Trane (13-7-4)) was relatively immobile. If Foreman is serious about wanting to be the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of boxing (they’re both 40), he’ll have to stop being taken into the fifth round by unskilled opponents such as Trane, who stayed on his feet throughout the bout.

Nevertheless, this is the entertainment business, folks. If you think Foreman is going nowhere, consider this: Foreman’s management and promoter Bob Arum are close to a deal whereby Foreman will soon be earning upwards of $100,000 per fight. The deal also calls for Foreman to earn at least $3 million should the former champion wind up with a title fight against, presumably, Mike Tyson, in 1989. The deal could be announced Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Foreman earned $25,000 Friday night, and will make $100,000 against a Swede, Anders Eklund, March 19, at Caesars Palace.

After he turned Trane’s face into hot shades of pink with about a hundred left jabs, Foreman waffled in the interview tent between being Mr. Humble and declaring himself fit for Tyson.

“I’m not even a contender yet,” he said first. “I just want to keep what I’m doing, fighting about once a month, improving, staying sharp.”

But a couple of minutes later, he bristled when a reporter questioned how serious all this was.

“Hey,” he snapped, “I’m a former heavyweight champion of the world. I’m automatically a contender. I didn’t die, you know. Are you serious? I still got all the punches I used to have.”

Foreman, who weighed 244, began punishing Trane, 215, with a long, thudding jab at the outset. Midway through the first, Trane seemed to grip his face with his open gloves, in pain.

Trane didn’t look like he would last too long at the outset, but, perhaps responding to several hundred fans who cranked up a “Guido! Guido! . . .” chant, Trane began lashing out with occasional overhand rights, and some of them landed.

Trane started bleeding midway through the second round from a deep cut over his right eyelid and his nose.

And at the end, it was Foreman who decided Trane had had enough, not referee Mills Lane. Foreman had Trane backed up on the ropes and was pummeling him at will. He stepped back, looked at Lane and raised his arms, a gesture that seemed to imply: “Hey, how long are you gonna let this one go?”

At 2:39 of the fifth round, Lane sent Foreman to a neutral corner, walked Trane to his corner, then raised Foreman’s hand.

Throughout, Foreman (52-2-0) was never the wild, raging puncher of the 1970s, the 6-foot 4-inch powerhouse who nearly frightened Joe Frazier to death, then knocked him out in Jamaica in 1973. Nor was he the wild, out-of-control puncher who punched himself out early against Muhammad Ali in Zaire, in 1974.

Instead, George Foreman is a boxer moving to a measured pace. Now, he stalks his opponent with a minimum of motion, launches the big jab only when there is a high probability of it landing and throws the right mostly inside, not from center field.

In a companion main event, Bernard Taylor of Knoxville, Tenn., retained his North American Boxing Federation featherweight championship on a majority draw with Jeff Franklin of Las Vegas.