is george foreman the least skilled ATG?

No but Frazier was. Ali was. Foreman fought in the best era of HWs in history friend. Both of them actually.

 

Roy Jones maybe?

 

Marciano had less skill than Foreman - and that was after Charlie Goldman worked his magic on the rock - before Goldman he was totally primitive.

 

Marciano also wasn't a terribly high skilled heavyweight.... but Big George wasn't without his ring smarts. He could work off the jab and he placed his punches very well. Look at the Frazier fight for example; Foreman used his height and length by working the jab against the smaller man, pushing Joe off whenever he got close, and dropped well placed uppercuts on the 5'11" Joe Frazier. That's textbook stuff right there!

I think the thing with George is that people often mistake akwardness and a lack of speed with a lack of skill which isn't always the case.

 

Honestly, what about Rocky Marciano? Nothing too skilled and subtle happening there, folks. George had good footwork, a great jab, decent skills. What he didn't have, plain and simple, was speed. And for the most part you're either born with it or not.

 

Didn't he win a gold medal?

Lol.. this is stupid... he was very skilled

 

Foreman didn't have the most aesthetically pleasing style and he wasn't as skilled as some ATG's but to say he is unskilled and just had raw power is naive.

Foreman's jab has always been excellent. He had every punch, hooks, uppercuts and body shots with either hand. He switched his attacks from head to body and would switch from straights to hooks to uppercuts and always went to the body. He was always a varied puncher which is why he was often very accurate. Even against a slick fighter like Ali he was able to land with plenty of punches.

Where he was lacking in his prime was his defence. He all to often would be willing to take an punch to land a punch. In his prime he rarely had a guard at all and just stuck his hands out and looked to parry shots or duck under them. But in his comeback he showed a vastly improved defence adopting a cross arm guard and was much more adept at blocking shots.

Foreman has skills no doubt he just looked crude and awkward. Look at Vitali he looks, slow, robotic and awkward but he clearly has skills.

 

I am taking it that you are new to boxing cos if thats what you really believe then you need some educating on both the sweet science and the fighters.

First thing, George Foreman was a much better fighter in his second career.
Second thing, foreman was a very technical fighter to the educated eye.
The reason why he was so good was because he 'hit and didnt get hit' that was his style

He has a simple yet extremly effective defense with a number of moves in his repertoire. He mainly relied on parrying and blocking...the traditional way and the cross arm defense. he even used a skill which i dont see boxers use these days, trapping punches. see the coetzer fight. a move jack johnson used alot.

he was good at countering of parries. he had great head movement against taller fighters (savarese fight) he also new how to roll with punches...shoulder rolling etc (see qawi fight). he was good at feinting.
his offense was immense, that jab was awesome.

George was very skillful but he just used them same moves floyd mayweathers and calzaghes use but in an aggressive style and many people seem to be totally oblivious to his overall skill.

He was also no fancy dan in the ring, his footwork was simple yet effective. foreman would always purposefully take the best position in the ring - centre ring and those that dared to push him back were destroyed. a very clever fighter.

to fight at the very top level in boxing you have to be a thinking fighter, do you really think foreman just relied on power? a man with his style would get destroyed if he never had the skill he got.

Didn you know sir, that sonny liston was probably just as skilled as floyd mayweather and james toney....he had the same style as them but...he was very aggressive so people forget how good listons skill set was.

one last thing, if you want to see how an old foreman deals with a young pro who relied just on power and size then watch his whoop jimmy ellis. you will then see how a true skillful pro handles amateur fighters with little skill. i didnt say much about his offense cos it speaks volumes for itself, his punching technique was wow...them uppercuts..

 

Foreman was skilled in many ways: cutting off the ring, cross arm defense, jab, etc.

He was not as skilled as Ali or Holmes, or as Lewis o Klitschko, but still he was very skilled.

 

makes me queasy when I hear the name Klitschko in the same breathe as Ali/Holmes

 

OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST AFTER ONLY 25 Amateur fights !!!!!!

the guys an idiot:yep

 

I'm sorry, but you don't win an olympic gold medal and blow out an elite fighter in 2 rounds with just power alone. Foreman had A LOT more to his game than that.

One example would be his footwork, he had some of the best I've seen from a Heavyweight bar none. Big George was second to none at cutting off the ring and anticipating his opponents movements.

 

atsch If the era was so great why in hell did he defend against JOE KING ROMAN . Why was NORTON retreaded and the likes of SPINKS winning titles . the 70s thing is getting old and is rediculous . :hi:

 

:smoke GEORGE was simply to big and strong for JOE . And clubbed him into submission .