What if George Foreman fought Larry Holmes in early 1978?

he wanted tyson because tyson was who had the title... simple like that,of course that he ignored holmes because he was nobody, when holyfield got the title he wanted holyfield... morrison knocked ruddock the **** out and foreman faced him-... bruno and lewis were chinny... at least foreman was fighting for the title of the world in his 40s and he did it by ko against michael moorer, the same moorer that did beat holyfield and tyson never could not do it even against an older version of evander. tyson in his late 30s was nothing but a pig joke no teven competent against bums sorry for you...

 

Foreman>Moorer>Holyfield triangle theories dont work. Tyson would have demolished Moorer within a couple of rounds.

Tyson in his 30s won 2 belts, beat Bruno, Botha, Golota and Savarese....wait, didnt Savarese go the full 12 with Foreman? while Tyson did the job in about 30 seconds?

Up until his fight with Holyfield, who exactly had Foreman beaten? for Tyson to discard higher ranked fighters like Bruno, Williams, Douglas, Holyfield in favour of fighting Foreman?

From 88-90, Foreman beat nobody of note.

 

:hi:

 

In 1978, Foreman-Holmes would've been interesting.

George was psychologically damaged from the loss to Jimmy Young. But Larry wasn't fighting at his best yet. Except for flashes in the first Shavers fight, Holmes wasn't planting his feet and punching as hard as he did even a couple years later. In 1978, Larry was still a mover. Ken Norton didn't have the best chin in the world, and Norton and Holmes went to war for 15 rounds that year. If Foreman hit Larry as often as Norton did, who knows what would've happened.

Foreman-Holmes in 1977-1978 would've been a classic.

 

Savarese went the distance with Foreman, Tyson stopped him in about 30 seconds, whats so funny?

answer my question, who did Foreman beat between 88-90 to say he was deserving of a fight with Tyson?

James Toney called out the Klistckos numerous times, why didnt they fight him? maybe it was because he was an old, fat joke.....

 

i will ignore it

foreman was the former hw champ and he was destroying every guy that he faced by ko, if you check the early career of tyson you can see that he did not have many different rivals than old foreman... foreman had good names in his curriculum like bert cooper, qawi, gerry cooney, coetzer, adilson rodriguez. and what about larry holmes? he did nothing since 1986 and he lost his 2 last fights vs a lhw, NO ****ING WAY IN THE HELL HE DESERVED THE SHOT AGAINST TYSON!! FOREMAN WAS BY FAR A BIGGER RISK THAN HOLMES

YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A ****ING TROLL, YOU KNOW THAT FOREMAN IN 88-91 WAS BY FAR A BIGGER PROOF THAN THE FAT FORMER MW, FOREMAN FOUGHT 12 ROUNDS WITH A PEAK HOLYFIELD, NO JOKE IS DOING IT, TYSON GOT HIS ****ING ASS STOPPED. FOREMAN WAS A REAL FORCE EVEN IN HIS EARLY 40S

 

Foreman went the distance with a prime Holyfield whereas Tyson was left staggering around like an old drunk by a past it Holyfield.

 

As someone who was following the sport then, Foreman wasn't seen as a real threat to Tyson until he fought Bert Cooper in 1989. (I know that sounds odd, but it's true.) Foreman fought Bert Cooper on USA and Cooper quit after the second round.

Cooper had bounced around between heavyweight and cruiserweight. He was ranked in the top 10 at heavyweight when he lost Carl Williams on CBS. Bert had also been the leading contender for Holyfield's cruiserweight title when he was upset by Bigfoot Martin.

Cooper was hot and cold, but he was respected. Joe Frazier had trained him. He was still very young (like 23) and had a lot of upside.

When he fought Foreman, he was in shape and people thought it would be a good gauge to see how Foreman would match up against a style like Tyson's. Foreman just hammered him.

Foreman said he viewed Tyson the same way he viewed Frazier. He just thought Tyson's size and style were made for him. The Cooper fight lent a lot of support to that.

After that, there was a big push for Tyson-Foreman. Tyson wasn't fighting on PPV. He had one PPV fight against Spinks during his entire first reign as champ. Other than Spinks, all his fights were on HBO.

Holyfield and Carl Williams were seen as Tyson's top contenders, but after the Tyson-Spinks fight, people thought Holyfield would get blown out (since he was a cruiserweight moving up). Holyfield's war with Michael Dokes didn't help people think he had any chance. Nobody was confident that Tyson vs. Holyfield or Williams could pass as a PPV fight.

On the other hand, Tyson-Foreman were two household names and it was seen as a legit PPV fight - a classic matchup between the aging former champ and the new king. Like I said, after the Cooper win, there was a real interest in it.

Then Foreman fought Bigfoot Martin and, though he won every round, failed to knock him out. That took some of the steam out of things. After Tyson blew out Carl Williams, people assumed no one would beat Tyson.

When Foreman-Cooney was announced, people kind of laughed at it. They called it the "Geezers at Caesars." But people were interested because both guys could always slug. When Foreman destroyed Cooney, fans and writers reconsidered Foreman and started the push (again) for Tyson-Foreman.

But, a few weeks later, Tyson got knocked out by Buster Douglas.

What's funny is, in 1990, Tyson AND Foreman AND Holyfield were all viewed in equal terms as the top contenders for Douglas. When Tyson and Foreman shared a double-bill on HBO (Tyson vs. Tillman and Foreman vs. Rodriquez - who was recently the number-two contender), Foreman actually came out of the card being seen as having a better chance of beating Douglas and Tyson than Holyfield.

 

Maybe I need to rewatch that fight, but I personally wouldn't say Foreman hammered Cooper. I remember Coop taking a good crack in the second and simply quitting.
But I do speak from memory, so I'll need to watch that one again to be certain.

The rest of your post I pretty much agree with, although if I recall (and this may more be a matter of interpretation or perception) it was after Cooney that George was suddenly taken more seriously as an opponent to Tyson.

That said, George was saying 'I want Tyson!' as early as his 7th pro fight. I distinctly remember that specific headline in a KO Magazine interview.

 

By hammered I just mean he tee'd off on him. Not that he knocked him out. Cooper did quit. Foreman punched too hard for him.

Cooper: "I didn't wanna get hit with too many of them big shots, you know what I'm saying? Cause he's a big guy."

Sean O'Grady: "Did he hurt you?"

Cooper: "Yeah, he did with a right hook to the head. To the eye. Ya know, he just keeps coming."

 

How is it that every thread on here has Azzer in a fight with people about Michelle Tyson ?
In answer to the question....Holmes was a far more complete boxer than Foreman.Inevitably George has a big chance early...but the percentage call for me is Holmes by points or late-ish stopage.

 

Given the success Norton and Weaver had against Holmes in 1978-79, I don't agree that George's only shot at winning against Holmes was by knockout. In the 70s, George threw a lot of punches in every fight and he hit harder than both Norton and Weaver. If Norton could go 15 and lose by only one point to Holmes, I think Foreman could have done even better.

Physically, I think George would've beaten Holmes at any point in the 1970s.

Coming off the Young loss, though, if Foreman's head wasn't in it, Holmes certainly could have out-boxed him. Since he didn't fight for a decade after the Young fight, we don't know how he would've bounced back.

During their comebacks in the 90s, I think Holmes would've won. Foreman had very little left after the Holyfield fight. He got a lot worse year after year following that fight.

 

The era suddenly becomes a lot more interesting!

 

He fought Morrison 2 years before Morrison fought Ruddock. Truth is after Foreman got the belt from Moorer he carefully handpicked his opponents.

He wanted Tyson because Tyson was a good style match up for him and that would have been the biggest money fight in his entire career.

 

Holmes would have to do his best "jab and move". If Foreman gets to him, it's all over. No way could Holmes stop Foreman.