Why were many old time boxers so scrawny looking

During Foreman's comeback, Lou Savarese was one of the few fighters who actually stood right with Foreman and punched. Foreman wasn't able to shove Savarese around like a lot of guys; actually, Axel Schultz showed surprising strength against Big George as well.

 

He's also in his mid 60s, so he's not going to be walking around like he used to. I still wouldn't want to fight him, he's probably still stronger than 90% of the people out there and I'm sure he still hits plenty hard.

From what I remember, George was still the man moving forward pretty much the entire fight and still pushed Savarese back.

 

I've always been impressed with how ripped Willie Ritchie looked here (watch the first minute):

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That's purely from traditional training methods - no weight-lifting or roids.

That's also a great fight BTW, for anyone who hasn't seen it (vs. Mexican Joe Rivers).

 

George is literally like a tank. You don't muscle George. Too much size, girth, and gorilla strength. It isn't just, like, strong arms, legs, whatever...He's blessed with straight animal strength in every fiber of his body. Carrying 700 pounds of elk on his back and **** like it's nothing.

His defense is also underrated. Shots bounced off him funny. I liken it to a boulder in a river. He gets plenty wet, but it takes millenia to punch a hole in him. It just slides off.

It's frustrating as hell, actually. You fire combinations, you stick, and NOTHING is pressing. Nothing sticks. Nothing feels like it's landing right. It's HARD to stand your ground when your getting hit with shots so stiff as to feel like spears and telephone poles, cant make anything PLANT on the guy, and, to top it off, he's got ox genes or something. Unbelievable. It's just not gonna happen. Only guy to ever outmuscle me 100% in there.

Lennox is a beast too, but it was the combination of things with George. It's not JUST strength, it's the combination of brute power, juggernaught defense, mindless tanklike aggression, and jabs and rights so stiff, strong, and heavy that the can knock you OFF your base.

 

Bowe and McCall would have been straight bullied. I had no trouble moving both backwards, George would have either had them on their bikes or circling him(Bowe would have beat him up inside, but would have done so going around him, not consistently backing him up.)


Bonecrusher, Bruno, and Ruddock, I have no idea. Razor didn't ever look too strong to me. Mainly a sharp, explosive puncher, generated a lot of power lunging, but he got straight abused in some of his higher level contests.

 

Worked with those two, never fought them. Experienced rounds with Riddick young, Ollie old.

Prime Bowe would have worked George, but not in a war. George wouldn't have made it a war, Riddick would have just stepped off and around. He'd have hit paydirt shifting to the right and popping up the uppercut. But he wouldn't have backed George up with any consistency. He didn't drive with his legs very well, first of all, and he'd have been outjabbed at a distance, which makes it hard to consistently control the center. He'd have won with his own spin on how Holyfield did.

George was much, much stronger than Oliver McCall- He'd have backed him up easily. It's not just about eating shots and smiling, which is pretty much all McCall could do against the absolute best in the division, it's about the shoving, the bumping, the pushing, the moving. George beats the tar out of Oliver in a war, and wins a decisive decision. Probably 8-4.

You go around George, not through him

 

That's what would have made Tyson-Foreman an interesting fight.
Sure, Tyson might out-speed him and get him out of there Dempsey-Willard style ... but it would have to be quick and clean and perfect from Tyson, because if it drags on a few rounds and becomes more attrition-based, Tyson's going to have to show something different to what we had ever seen from him.
Maybe he'd have to show that from the opening bell. I'm talking about lateral footwork, backpedalling even. From Tyson.
Foreman was no joke.

 

Bruno's probably the strongest one there, especially when he got to like 248 pounds ripped.
Bonecrusher too, but Smith was a 'brutal puncher' rather than an outright brute and a bully.
Foreman still probably stronger than them both, almost certainly, he was a freak in the strength department, even for his size.

Shannon Briggs, Alex Stewart and Lou Savarese were no slouches in terms of size and strength. All young men, big guys, none of them looked comfortable challenging Foreman's strength, although they all give him a good argument, mainly boxing on the retreat.

 

You are idiot. You stupido. Ever hear of wear and tear from weight lifting? Much worse. It is one of the worst things to do because of repair chemicals it releases, too much leads to negative speed and stamina because the body is filled with harmful fluid. Speed bag and sparring doesn't cause this.

 

A boxer more protean to the discussion would be Hasim Rahman who supposedly could bench over 400 pounds and was completely ****** strong. Did you ever get in the ring with him? Did that demonstrated strength translate to any benefit boxing-wise?

 

Rahman's certainly got the build of a man with freakish strength. But he didn't seem to apply it at the highest level as Foreman did. I mean, Holyfield just walked straight in to Rahman. Maybe Rahman's no stronger than Holyfield, (in the ring, who knows about the bench). But then Evander's a beast too.

 

Because Evander is a beast