When George Foreman learned Tommy Morrison had been diagnosed with HIV in February 1996 and was stripped of his license to fight in the United States, Foreman convinced Morrison to fight on a boxing card in Tokyo that November.

“A lot of people said you shouldn’t let him do it, but I welcomed the opportunity,” Foreman told The Post. “I thought he’d fight himself back into contention for another title shot, but he didn’t.”

Morrison scored a first-round TKO over Marcus Rhode that night in Tokyo, where Foreman defeated Crawford Grimsley for something called the World Boxing Union heavyweight title. Morrison’s victory was more meaningful to Foreman than his own.

The two became friendly during the promotional tour for their pay-per-view heavyweight championship fight in Las Vegas in 1993, and Foreman was familiar with how the public can react to someone diagnosed with a disease.

“My youngest brother out of nowhere, just one day stopped walking,” Foreman said. “When they found out he had polio, all the kids in the neighborhood, their parents just didn’t want them around our house. Everybody thought if you just walked around there you would get polio. But that’s not the way it happens. Having gone through that, I knew sooner or later they would pinpoint the cause of the [HIV] virus and prove you couldn’t give it to people just like that. That’s why I wanted Tommy to fight, get his license back and get back at it. I thought we could fight for the title again.”

Foreman recalled those times after hearing Morrison had died Sunday in a Nebraska hospital at the age of 44. According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ, the cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest due to multiple organ failure. Neither AIDS nor HIV is mentioned on the death certificate, and his body was cremated without an autopsy being performed. It was well-known Morrison had been in poor health for some time. Before his death, Morrison claimed he didn’t have HIV and suffered from other illnesses.

Foreman is only certain he has lost a friend.

“I really became close with him during the press tour for our fight,” Foreman said. “I liked the guy. He was a nice kid, and a really good boxer, too, with a punch.”

Foreman thought Morrison was going to slug with him when they fought for the WBO heavyweight championship in 1993. Instead, the kid from Oklahoma who starred in “Rocky V” came out boxing and earned a 12-round decision. A year later, Foreman stopped Michael Moorer in the 10th round to reclaim the WBA heavyweight title he lost to Muhammad Ali in 1974.

“Tommy didn’t play around with me in the later rounds like Michael Moorer did,” Foreman said. “He was like, ‘Oh no, you’re not going to get me.’ So he was a little smarter on that than Michael Moorer, I can tell you that. I couldn’t rush him with foolish abandonment because I knew he could punch. He was a legitimate good fighter.”

Morrison fought in 2007 in West Virginia and in 2008 in Mexico before leaving the ring for good. He finished was a record of 48-3-1 with 42 KOs. The win over Foreman would be the highlight of his career.

“The guy was a wonderful kid,” Foreman said. “He’s gone too soon.”

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Apparently, Chris Arreola (35-3, 30 KOs) is not impressed with Seth Mitchell (26-1-1, 19 KOs), the former Michigan State football player turned boxer. The two meet in a heavyweight fight Saturday night on Showtime. Former world champion Rafael Marquez (41-8, 37 KOs) of Mexico City meets featherweight Efrain Esquivias (16-2-1, 9 KOs) of Gardena, Calif., in the co-feature.

“I’m a boxer and I’ve been boxing since I was 7 years old,” Arreola said. “I didn’t just start boxing just because I couldn’t cut it in the NFL or couldn’t cut it in football. I’m going to show you that you don’t belong in this sport.”