Jersey Joe Walcott vs Foreman prime for prime

Dude you got to pay attention to the facts and think Logically not just the size and assume

I remember the time I saw the 6"3 215lb Lyle lose his first fight vs the 6" 200 lb Jerry Quarry, Quarry rocked Lyle and put the monster on the defensive to survive in a dominant win by Quarry and from that time leading up to the Foreman fight, I saw many instances where I doubted the fact LYLE was as you say "a big hitter"

Lyle won a decision over the 5'9 16-24-0 Bob Stallings, Bob Stallings was ko'd in previous fights by 202lb Jack Bodell,196lb Al Lewis, Henry Clark,180lb Arnie Brower,7 fight Willie Moore,Larry Middleton and Larry Alexander

Lyle won a SD over Wendell Baily, Baily had just been kO'D BY 204lb LEOTIS MARTIN and 203 lb Oscar Bonavena and a Italian by the name of Franco DePiccli

Lyle won a decision over the 18-37-5 Lou Baily who was stopped 11 times, one stoppage loss Lou Baily had was to the 188lb Doug Jones

Lyle fought a draw with 200lb Gregorio Peralta

Lyle won a UD over the 34 year old Jimmy Ellis who was Ko'd in1 by Earnie Shavers and KO'd by Joe Frazier (2nd fight) in the same time frame

Lyle won MD over Stan Ward, Ward went on to be Ko'd by Greg Page,Mike Weaver and Gerrie Coetzee and Larry Alexander

Lyle won a close SD decision over Scott Ledoux 44-46, 44-45,45-46 and it was Lyle who was dropped in this fight....Ledoux had just been stopped by Duane Bobick a couple of fights before.

When Lyle moved up in class most of his wins were decisions Bugner,Bonavena and these guys were weathered ...the Shavers win was a good one Lyle got off the floor to stop a winded Shavers but that was typical of Earnie to run out of gas

So while I can understand the fascination with size and muscles and Ron Lyle was a specimen...Ron failed to show me any form of elite power, he may have been the best puncher to test Foreman's whiskers up till that point in time but I can not call Lyle "a Big Hitter" based off his KO record against contenders ...average,slightly better than average...not "Big Hitter"

 

Walcott had a very good defense and I agree with the counterpunching notion, certainly one of the greatest at the weight ever. Despite this however, going 15 rounds with Charles doesn't go to show good durability esp. when Young fought Foreman, Lyle, Shavers and Cooney much bigger and harder punching men then the people Walcott faced which includes Marciano. Walcott went 13 with Marciano mainly because he could box effectivley at a longer range than Marciano could handle, tie him up when he chose and had a very good defense.

Then again Foreman fights nothing like anybody Walcott has faced, certainly nothing like Marciano, and would be far and away the strongest, hardest punching man Walcott has faced. The two greatest punchers Walcott faced; Louis and Marciano: out of the 4 encounters Walcott was KO'd 3 times.

 

Jesus...Foreman KO5

 

A few things here:

No.1. George was not past it when he lost to Jimmy Young - he was 28 years old???!! That is one of the most ridiculous suggestions I've ever heard

No.2. Walcott had a good chin he took a lot of bombs from Marciano - don't even bring up the 2nd fight between those 2 either - anybody that does needs to have a serious chat with themselves - I'm certainly not going to waste my time

No. 3 George is outboxed by pretty much every fighter I've ever seen him against - Infact he is made to look amateurish by even the most rudimentary boxers - BUT MAN THAT POWER!

No.4 don't even compare Jimmy Young to Jersey Joe Walcott

No.5 George had terrible (awful) stamina!!?? No way is he getting Wally out of there late never in a million years! If he is doing it at all he's doing it within 3 or not all - and George was definately capable of that!

My guess is Walcott to turn the trick in about 11 rounds

 

Foreman KO - too much power, workrate, reach, height for Walcott and stylistically Walcott's low hands are an accident waiting to happen

 

Low hands, but the most ridiculously good footwork/head movement/body feints we have ever seen. Foreman never saw anything like that either.

 

It doesn't matter, you can't get away with low hands for too long against Foreman while being smaller in every way.

Walcott's record against punchers isn't that great either

 

I wonder what Foreman does should Walcott feet take him past 3 rounds(which I think JJW would be prepared to do) Walcott sometimes gets cocky but not until things are going in his favor...JJW got the legs and quick hands and certainly the pin-point power punch...Foreman can be easy to hit but easier when he is tired, What does he do when JJW catches him with the hook that landed on Charles/Marciano or the right hands that dropped Louis 3x....I am not sure Foreman would react well considering the way he got dropped by Lyle and down and out vs Ali a prime Walcott hit harder than Lyle and could pin-point punch very well....gee even Jimmy Young dropped a tired Foreman and Jimmy was not a puncher in Walcotts league ...nothing is certain vs a puncher like Big George but I like Walcott by a stop over the Younger (per-comeback version...the comeback version would lose a decision to Walcott...the older version learned how to pace himself and survive