Who did Foreman say hit him hardest?

The tax man.....

 

Larry Holmes is not a reliable source for anything because he lets jealousy and bitterness get in his way. Larry hates Foreman and Iron Mike.Lets us not forget that Larry said Butterbean was the hardest hitter. Oh Larry!

 

Also,in George's Centerstage interview from 2002(I think) he said Ron Lyle hit him the hardest but he also said Cooney had a tremendous left hook on a different occasion.

 

Lyle and Cooney.

 

Ken Lakusta, he once said, also.

 

When George has been pressed to compare between several different opponents like Cooney, Morrison, Holyfield and Lyle, he always seems to settle on Ron according to everything I've read, and it is a fact that Lyle decked him twice at a time when Foreman would have been at his athletic peak, and did it without the aid of fatigue as a factor.

I've also read that he rated Ali fifth in terms of power, and Muhammad hit George with the hardest shots he ever loaded up on. (That final right hand is supposed to have been the single biggest bomb of Ali's career, surpassing the ones which initially knocked Lyle from mid ring to the ropes in round 11, and the one which staggered Frazier into a neutral corner near the end of round two in their middle fight. Nobody disputes that Bonavena was shelled by the hardest left hook of the GOAT's career, "a wrecking ball" as Norman Mailer put it.)

 

Great post. :good

 

Foreman has always referred to Lyle as the hardest puncher he ever faced .. he mentioned that in the first round Cooney hit him and it reminded him of Lyle ... Lyle has always been his reference point ...

 

I've noticed a tendency amongst prideful fighters to proclaim that the hardest puncher or the toughest or whatever was SOMEONE THAT THEY BEAT, because it then makes them look like they overcame hell to win. Whereas if it's someone who beat them, they tend to be dismissive and either imply or outright claim that it was a fluke or the result of some circumstance beyond their control. Holmes, for example, will always say Shavers hit him harder, because then he can discredit Tyson and also play up his own victory over Earnie.

 

i'm not familiar with that quote but he may have been referencing the second golota fight

 

and the Cooney punch didn't land with Cooney having full leverage.

 

George said after his fight with Cooney that Gerry hit him the hardest. Big George may have just been trying to talk Gerry up after demolishing him.

 

This is often true, but only Lyle had Foreman down twice.

Regarding Shavers, we can see that the face plant knockdown he inflicted on Tillis (the only other common opponent of Tyson and Shavers besides Larry) was far more devastating than the flash KD Tyson scored on him, which merely evoked a reassuring wink from James to his corner when he got up.

Jimmy Young never defeated Shavers, but rated Earnie a clearly harder puncher than George, and Shavers did drop Jimmy in both their bouts, the only times Young ever hit the floor (aside from a referee ruled knockdown against Ali when Young ducked through the ropes and got hung up on them).

All five common opponents of Shavers and Foreman rated Earnie as the harder puncher. Lyle and Ali have rated Shavers supreme in this area on clips widely seen on youtube, while Leroy Caldwell made the following astounding comments in an interview.

"Foreman could punch about the same as Lyle."

Then, about Shavers:

"He was the hardest hitting human being I ever met. He hit harder than Foreman and Lyle combined.":scaredas:

Considering the fact that Caldwell also squared off with Cleveland Williams, Coetzee, Bonavena, John Tate, Bey, Pinklon Thomas, Joe Alexander (who decked Jerry Quarry, knocking him silly), Bugner, Coetzer, Berbick, ect... this is a rather staggering endorsement.

Here's the article about Leroy:

http://www.thesweetscience.com/news/articles/4760-leroy-caldwell-subtle-and-quite-dignity

I had the pleasure of viewing some of his televised late career wins from Las Vegas in 1981, where fans chanted his name when he got on a roll. A shrewd and gifted operator with an educated left who was much better than his overall record suggests. Drew with Urtain in Spain, Berbick in Canada, and actually clowned Tate a bit in what may have been the final nationally televised appearance for both. Again, he had plenty to measure Earnie's power against;

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=403&cat=boxer


There are multiple angles of the knockdown punch Shavers landed Holmes with, and Earnie has indicated that may have been the hardest single blow he ever landed. It really clobbered Larry, and I don't think Tyson connected on Holmes with anything quite like it.

Too bad George and Earnie never squared off. While I believe Foreman would have prevailed, I don't think he would have suggested even for an instant that any subsequent opponent hit as hard.

An aside to all these discussions about who hit the hardest concerns the matter of toughest opponents, the opinion of one man in particular. After his final successful title defense, Saad Muhammad was asked if a specific challenger was his most difficult adversary. To his everlasting credit, Matt replied, "I'm not going to lie," then explicitly identified Marvin Johnson as the man who gave him the most hell, over Conteh, Yaqui, Kates, Billy Douglas, Camel, Parlov, Vonzell Johnson, Sutherland and Jerry Martin. I've always been impressed with that candor and consistency of praise for Marvin by Matthew, who certainly had plenty to compare the pride of Indianapolis to. (Marvin might be able to get himself elected Mayor of Indy for all we know.)

 

Great , interesting post ... Pretty much everyone said Shavers hit the hardest ... Foreman was a monster as well, more likely the strongest and a brutal puncher ... slightly underestimated is Liston who I feel was second only to Shavers .. he was a faster, straighter puncher than George and his KO's were devastating ...

 

Great post to show just how hard Earnie hit.