BACK FOR MOORER : FORMER IBF CHAMP FIGHTS SCHULZ TONIGHT.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal Daily News Staff Writer

Michael Moorer. Remember him?

Beat Evander Holyfield in April of 1994 to win the International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship? Was knocked out by George Foreman seven months later to lose the title? Yeah, that's the guy.

He's back.

Moorer will fight Axel Schulz for the now-vacant IBF crown today in Dortmund, Germany, Schulz's native country, after a 13-month hiatus from boxing. The bout will be televised (tape-delayed in L.A.) on ABC's Wide World of Sports, its first heavyweight title fight in 28 years.

Don't blame Moorer for the layoff. He wanted to fight. He simply fell victim to circumstances beyond his control.

A scheduled rematch with Foreman fell through, ostensibly because Foreman was never offered the money he wanted, and it took forever for the courts to sort out a legal mess atop the IBF rankings. In his last fight, in May of last year, he outpointed unknown Melvin Foster.

Moorer is tired of talking about Foreman, the then-45-year-old who turned around a lopsided fight with a single, historic right that put Moorer, then 26, down for the count and gave Foreman the championship 20 years after he lost it to Muhammad Ali.

As Moorer said, ``It happened two years ago, it's not on my mind, it's part of boxing, you lose, you come back. The best have been down.''

At the same time, he wanted the rematch badly. It was his first and only loss (he's 36-1) and it came against an old man, albeit an immensely strong old man. It cost Moorer a lot of money and, to some extent, the loss was embarrassing.

Foreman had said he felt obligated to give Moorer another shot at him, something Ali never game him. However, for Foreman, who doesn't have many fights left in him, the money was never right.

That Moorer never got his rematch hurts. When he was told in January that it probably would never happen, he violated his calm, cool image: He broke down and cried, said his trainer, Teddy Atlas.

``I offered to give him part of my purse and he still wouldn't do it,'' Moorer said. ``For me, it wasn't about money. I wanted to avenge the loss, to get revenge.

``It's something I wanted. It's something my camp wanted. It didn't happen. It's a big letdown.''

Then there were the complicated legal problems.

It goes something like this: Moorer sued when he suddenly was replaced by Francois Botha as the IBF's No. 1 contender. Then, after Foreman was stripped of the title because he refused to give Schulz a rematch, Botha outpointed Schulz in Germany to win the vacant championship. However, Botha then tested positive for steroids, a violation of IBF rules, and it was unclear who would end up on top.

Ultimately, the courts ordered Botha stripped, which set up tonight's fight.

How has the layoff affected Moorer? It hasn't, he said. He took the time to get some rest, spend time with his 4-year-old son, Michael Jr., and then had a productive training camp in New Jersey.

``No problem,'' he said. ``If you come back and do what you're supposed to do, you should be as sharp as ever. That's why I trained so hard, so long.''

Atlas is encouraged by Moorer's uncharacteristic enthusiasm. After all, it wasn't long ago that Moorer talked of retiring and becoming a law-enforcement officer.

There was the reaction to the bad news about the Foreman fight. There have been comments to the media about how ``anxious'' he is to get back into the ring. And there have been comments made to Atlas.

``I think there's been a change in him,'' Atlas said. ``I think he realized what the feeling was like to have the title and I think he liked that feeling.''

Also today: In an unfortunate matchup of has-beens, on pay-per-view television, Hector ``Macho'' Camacho takes on 45-year-old Roberto Duran in a 12-round middleweight bout in Atlantic City.

Buster Douglas, the only fighter to beat Mike Tyson, faces Tony La Rosa on the undercard.

At an unofficial weigh-in Friday, Duran, who had been fighting at super middleweight, checked in at 157 pounds. Douglas weighed in officially at 244 pounds.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Germany's Axel Schulz, left, will take on Michael Mo orer in Dortmund, Germany, for the now-vacant IBF title.

Associated Press