Many many great achievements listed but personally i cant go past Foreman regaining the title. I still get goosebumps watching the KO
At age 40+ he's established himself as a clear number 2 heavyweight and a top 10 p4p boxer. He wins his fights convincingly and controversy free. For a short while he was even considered by a handful to be the best hw on the planet. George had a great comeback but only really had 1 meanigful victory against moorer who was never the number 1 heavyweight by my reckoning.
So let me get this straight (your words not mine) A man who retired at the top of the division, came back after 4 years to establish himself as the second best heavyweight of a weak era better than a man who retired and came back 10 years later in horrible shape to win the Lineal title in one of the strongest eras of heavyweight boxing at the age of 45. Can't see it I'm afraid. It's not like I don't get where your coming from, but it makes no sense to me.
Well basically in this particular instance I rate the wbc belt above the lineal belt. I had bowe v holy 2 a draw and I thought holy edged out moored in the first. I don't think moorer was ever in the top 3 of the world. I guess it depends how you view the lineal championship and it's worth.
Foreman came back in one of the strongest eras but steered his ship clear of the most dangerous fighters (Tyson, Bowe, Lewis, Ruddock...) and lost to the best (Holyfield, Morrison, Stewart (?) Schultz (?)) he fought outside of 10 seconds against the flawed and not considerably intelligent Moorer.
The biggest single achievement IMO was Ali beating Foreman. Particularly using the unorthodox method he employed to wear the human wrecking ball down, and then finally out. Huge buildup to that fight too.
Vitali came back from a long retirement to easily beat a guy who had previously bullied his more talented younger brother. This is a good argunent for Vitali because he looked so damned good aginst Peter. on the other hand, the significance of Foreman's comeback and ko of Mercer can't be denied either. God help Foreman had he faced Kewis that night, but he fought a weak assed fighter in Moorer instead. This can't be held against him nonethe less. There's an argument for both of them really.
George Foreman's comeback is miles better than Vitali's imo. The man was walking around at 300+ pounds for almost 10 years, came back at 38 years old starting with tomato can opponents in carnival tents, training in his basement. It started out as an odd backwater curiosity story, no one predicted it would lead anywhere at all. You can even ignore the Moorer win, or anything past 1991 - going 12 rounds with champion Holyfield was enough to make it an unbelievable story. Like a Rocky film. Vitali had a great comeback, but he spent those four years in shape and getting his shoulder rested and surgically fixed. He had a team around him priming him for a comeback. He had the WBC beckoning him back.