George Foreman v.s. Bobby Crabtree ?

Have you found the footage??

 

Just imagine a smallish lefthanded blond cruiserweight getting pummeled by a much bigger bald man.

George fought so many cruiserweight/small heavyweights from 1987-1989 it was ludicrous. Talk about cautious.

 

I don't think you know what cruiserweight means. Bobby Crabtree weighed 215 against Foreman. Only 5 pounds lighter than Wladimir Klistchko was when he turned pro.

But here are some of the weights and names of people who fought Foreman from 87 to 89
David Jaco 215
Mark Young 231
Manoel De Almeida 231
Carlos Hernandez 225
Tom Trimm 222
Everett Martin 228

The list goes on. You know there is a thing called the internet. You can find information yourself so you won't look so misinformed.

 

I don't have time to look up Foreman's record but did these crafty little guys flaunt their skills and, without the burden of extra size and pounds, school Old George?

 

You've missed names like JB Williamson, Dwight Qawi and Bert Cooper off that list of heavies.

And Crabtree was a cruiser regardless of what he weighed when he fought George. Tommy Hearns was 175 when he fought Virgil Hill, only 7lbs lighter than the weight Marciano often fought at. Does that make Hearns a heavyweight?

Whatever, I think the point Saad is making is that whether they were genuine heavies or overweight cruisers, George was hardly picking his way through a minefield in those days. Sometimes that 'thing called the internet' doesn't give the whole picture and you can still end up looking 'misinformed'.

 

No. They were clubfighters/journeymen. Cooper and Qawi were names but Dwight was ludicrously out of shape at around 215 lbs, and Bert was on drugs and had been fighting at Cruiserweight in since late 1987.

 

I watched most of those fights live

I'll go by my memory of what transpired, I don't need to look at boxrec.

Crabtree and Hernandez were blown up cruiserweights.
Martin was a blown up light heavyweight
Dave Jaco was a string bean.
Tom Trimm was so obscure I actually cannot recall anything about him.
Young and De Almeida were legitimately heavyweights.

He also fought the smallish HW Rocky Sekorski.

I said Foreman fought many cruiserweights and small heavyweights. I guess I could have said "blown up cruiserweights."

The bottom line is the few actual hwyweights, like Young and De Almeida were horrible. The rest were small heavyweights/blown up cruiserweights.

Qawi and Cooper were the names but Dwight was a blown up rolly polly over 210 lbs. and Cooper was on drugs, having come off two losses at cruiserweight to Nate Miller and the aforementioned Everett Martin.

George did up the level of his competition somewhat in '90, facing a shot Cooney who had fought once since 1986 (the spinks beating) and Adilson Rodriguez, who was obscure but highly rated by the WBA. Rodriguez was chosen likely because George had to fight some rated guy before he could get a title shot, and the limited Rodriguez fit the bill.

 

Never forget...

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A bit like Mike Tyson on his run to the title then........

 

You forget Sam Scaff. Dude was HUGE.

 

........ Mike Jameson was a big boy too!
come to think of it, Foreman and Tyson both fought him.

 

That's what I was hinting at, Tyson and Foreman fought a similar level of opponent in the 80's and a lot of them were relatively light especially by modern standards.

 

"The guy starts boxing me.He didn't come forward at all.He started moving good and he was jabbing.Then about the 4th round I heard his corner start screaming, "his old legs are tired .Get him ",I'm thinking what am I doing here?
This guys hitting me a few times ,getting a little swelling on my head .Why am I doing this?
You go back to your corner and say I quit.
What the heck am I doing? I'm a preacher.I don't really need this in my life.
A few times I tried to talk myself out of boxing,But that night ,for some reason I went back out and tricked him and knocked the guy out. "
George Foreman, talking about the Crabtree fight.

 

Anderson 227
Lakusta 216
Rodrigues 219
Jameson 233
Cooney 231
Martin 228
Williamson200
Almeida 231
Young 231
Jaco 215
Fulilangi 216
Hitz 213
Milagio 206
Hernandez225
Lux 208
Qawi 222
Trane215
Trimm226
Sekorski209
Anderson210
Crabtree215
Hostetter202
Zouski 212

The average weight for Foreman's comeback opponents was 217.8lbs.

The reigning world champion at the time scaled 208lbs when he defended against Foreman.