George foreman's early comeback opposition!

Well, stating that Foreman's comeback opposition, especially at the start, was nothing special is kinda stating the obvious. Of course, it's easy to see why this is the case: he hadn't had a professional fight in 10 years (almost to the day) and I'd be surprised if he even sparred more than a year before his comeback. He had to relearn a lot of the game, and he had to learn what suited him now, because he sure as **** couldn't fight the same way in '87 that he did around '73. It wouldn't work.

So he brushed the rust off, got himself back to basics, figured out how to fight as a much older and heavier man.

I actually think it's interesting that he faced someone on the level of Qawi just a year into his comeback. Now don't get me wrong, Qawi had every physical disadvantage that a man can have against George, and he was past his best, coming off a 4th round KO to Holyfield in the rematch of their war at cruiser. But as remote as it was, there was a chance that Qawi could make George look foolish, the way he clowned poor Leon just 2 years prior.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbN-mWON6Ug[/ame]

I think George probably said to himself that if that fight went badly, that might be a point to decide it wasn't worth it. But he got Qawi to quit instead, and kept fighting every practically every month, sharpening himself against the bums and trial horses. And then next year he easily beat Bert Cooper. And the year after that, Gerry Cooney. And just like that he had a couple of names among all those same guys that everyone beat in their climb to the top. (Seriously, a bunch of the names in Foreman's early comeback are guys that Tyson beat as a youngun, that Holyfield and Moorer beat after entering the heavyweight ranks, etc.)

 

Foreman did it the right way. Nobody stands out if they are matched tough. George wanted to stand out. Bald head, Old holy guy with the hamburger schtick. who could blame him? George paid his dues first time around.How many sons of old fighters cash in on their dads name? George changed his image, cashed in on his own name.

Foreman always knew (as old as he was) only an exceptional fighter could give away 30lb and still beat him. He did not want to make any mistakes on the way up. This is what was required for his comeback to work. Substance and gimick. Theres no way another guy with no name cherry picks his way along like old foreman did though..

 

Arum guided big Georges comeback and did a great job bringing him along and building him up. You cant expect too much out of a guy like Foreman at his age in an era of pretty good fighters so he fought the right kind of fighter, but he was never going to beat the elite guys like Tyson Bowe, Holyfield and Lewis.

 

...and he knew it.

 

Interesting he was competitive against Holyfield, and
k.o.'ed Holyfield's conqueror with one punch.

So goes boxing.

 

It was a lot more than 1 punch. He landed plenty throughout the fight and beat up on Moorer for that entire round before landing the 1 punch.

 

The odds were against Foreman from the beginning. No heavyweight had been successful at staging such a comeback and Foreman had certainly not kept himself in shape while out of boxing.

Even Foreman admits that he came back for the money and he likely acknowledged early on that the best possible scenario for him was to fight a bunch of "tomato cans" while hoping to have a title shot generously handed out to him due to his past accomplishments and enjoy the payday that would come along with it.

As Foreman started to dispatch his opponents in relatively effortless fashion and his shape began to improve, he probably started feeling more confident in his ability to actually give the title holders a legitimate contest. Foreman was always wary of not picking the wrong kind of opponents for himself, but he did start facing the likes of Bert Cooper, Adilson Rodrigues, Alex Stewart and Pierre Coetzer who were atleast not complete jokes unlike his early opponents.

 

Moorer was conscious and fighting well, and probably wins the fight on points, and suddenly he is on the floor basically paralyzed from one punch.

With the followup ten count applied of course.

 

Anyway, no, Foreman was not as technically sound as Joe Louis. He was one of the least skilled heavyweight champions, but he had the brute strength and power to overshadow the fact.

 

:blood I hope you aren't serious with that.

 

He was essentially being matched up like a brand new fighter, cynically built up against 'name's' only, washed up guys, smaller guys, and washed up smaller guys.

Can't begrudge him that, or deny that he really worked hard to get back into contendership.

 

A good jab though.

 

And he should have used it a lot more in his career....ala his mentor Liston.

 

One of the most powerful jabs I've seen at heavyweight. I would argue that his jab as a punch was better than his use of the jab though.

During his second career he had gotten a bit too slow in reaction speed to utilize it as effectively as he could have when he was younger. Sadly he was not too clever when he was younger and as a result what could have been another "Liston jab" is mostly seen as an under-utilized weapon.

Here is Foreman knocking out poor Bob Hazelton with the jab:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOVM9DiY4KA[/ame]