George Foreman vs. Ray Mercer in 1995

To some degree. But his war with Holyfield puts him above them anyways. Right before the Holy war Mercer was near the end of his rope but was deemed more dangerous than Savarese and wasted talent Briggs. Wasn't he?

I completely agree with your second paragraph. This is 1995. If Mercer had to box he would, buuuuutt he probably wouldn't need to.

And last...after a few hairy moments Tyson tees off on Old George in '91.

 

The "war" with Holyfield took place after when Evander was past it himself and had been off for more than a year. Holy became the first man to put Ray on the deck in that fight, which only ads validity to what I am talking about. Mercer had the chin and fighting heart to still step up and give a world beater fits, but his days of actually "beating" quality fighters was basically over. Savarese was 36-0 and had just sent Buster Mathis Jr. into retirement when he fought Foreman in either 96 or 97. But given how shitty George was looking, Ray would probably out last and out land him. And I agree that 91 Tyson beats 91 Foreman.. Just not as emphatically as Mongolian says he would.

 

- Foreman couldn't finish him in the 2nd round and Stewart was able to brawl his way back into the fight and take control of it. I don't recall the specific details as I may need to revisist this one, what stands out from my memory was Stewart having a surprising amount of success at taking the fight to George after the second knockdown seemingly woke him up. Holyfield had success too when he was aggressive and laying into big George with combos, because he was too slow to counter or get away.

-Briggs and Savarese were prospects that simply did not live up to the hype. Mercer was a decent contender and an even tougher gate keeper. To be fair, Foreman looked more game for Briggs than he did in his previous fights.

-I don't know, I will continue to bring up any fights that are relevant to the discussion.

 

Mercer caught a bit of a second wind in 95-96, though it didn't last very long. He was boxing much smarter than he did during his days as a failed contender. Even as a failed contender, Mercer claimed better wins than Briggs and Savarese by taking out Morison and Damiani.

A prime Briggs gave Lewis a shaky moment or two, but a pot bellied Mercer is the only fighter that could be argued outpointed him over the distance or damn near came close ot it. I don't see a case for Briggs being better, let alone Savarese.

 

"Beating" quality fighters was basically over? Holy just edged him. The knockdown won it for him. Mercer-Lewis could've gone either way. Then he "beat" Witherspoon. Foreman would've gotten Willy Lump Lumped against this Mercer. Quit pretending Foreman was better than he was in 1995.

 

Yeah, kinda weird that Magoo thinks differently. :think

I see Foreman's comeback Part III as less than stellar. Winning the title was magnificent but what he did after let me know he'd been on the shelf too long. Or old age finally caught up. Hanging around for Tyson wasn't cutting it.

Shultz? Grimsley? Savarese? :dead

 

George did look revived in late '97 vrs. Briggs even though the decision went to Briggs.

 

One of the things that gives George a good shot is that Mercer doesn`t have much quickness himself. He is marginally faster than George. Foreman is gonna be able to land his jab consistently and probably a fair share of those sledgehammer right hands.

Remember guys like Morrison and Schulz went the distance but they moved smartly and had good speed at their disposal.

 

Yeah he was definitely robbed against Briggs. THAT fight, where a man two decades past his best against a huge, modern day heavyweight, really gives a nice shine to a 48 year old man. Or was Briggs just that limited?

 

Mercer decision....

 

Foreman was less than two months shy of 49 and looking revived. Briggs even said in an interview that Foreman hit him the hardest.

 

I don't think a granite-chinned fighter like Mercer would automatically come out second best in a firefight with Foreman. I mean, there were moments when Tommy Morrison stood his ground and exchanged with Foreman, and Morrison never came close to going down, and we all know Morrison could be dropped by average punchers.
And later on, Lou Savarese and Crawford Grimsely stood and traded with Foreman and both those guys saw the final bell (Savarese in particular stood up to Foreman). And then Savarese gets knocked out in his fight after Foreman.

Foreman might beat Mercer with his jab, but I don't think he'd bomb Mercer out.

 

If it matters, I thought Foreman looked better in 1997 than he did in 1987. I mean, Foreman looked to regress towards the latter stages of his comeback, but then he came back with two solid performances against Savarese and Briggs. And against Savarese, Foreman looked like he had turned back the clock; he threw a lot of punches and kept up a pretty active pace in that fight. And against Briggs, he looked pretty good as well; and Briggs was more of a mover and a boxer than was Savarese, so he wasn't exactly a statue in front of George, and George still beat him (but not on the judges cards).

So, it's hard to say how much Foreman declined during the course of his comeback. Judging by his last two performances, he didn't decline that much. And it wasn't like Savarese and Briggs were bums like Guido Trane, Ken Lakusta, or Tim "Doc" Anderson, either.

 

But Foreman didn't want to knock over a legit top ten opponent to force a Tyson fight, so we will never know. I personally think Tyson would have creamed him in '91. Holyfield put Foreman on ***** street more than once during their fight; I shudder to think what Tyson would do to a stunned Foreman.

 

First of all, you misread my post, because I've already stated about three times that I gave Mercer the edge to decision Foreman in 1995. But not because Mercer was anything great by that point, but only because Foreman was finished. Both of them were washed up, George was just further down the pike. As for The Witherspoon bout, it was a consensus robbery and Tim was well past it. Facing a 40 year old fighter at the end of his rope and still needing a gift doesn't bode well for the " he was still beating quality fighters" argument. Holyfield was past it as well and returning from a layoff, yet he still won and it wasn't as close you're making it out to be. Mercer was losing fights regularly and some of them were to lesser men. The Lennox Lewis bout was a very good effort on Ray's part which I'll give him, similar to Foreman's last good showing against Moorer. But each of them having ONE last good evening when contrasted to the several lackluster evenings that both of them had had recently only points to the fact these were two shot fighters.