In hind sight, How should Frazier have fought Foreman?

Those would be the right tactics, except Foreman did not swing wildly in the second fight,the majority of his punchers were much shorter and crisper than in the first fight.

 

For one thing, Joe needed to be in better condition. In their first fight, Frazier looked soft and was ten pounds heavier than his best fighting weight. He also lacked the fire and focus that had characterized prime Frazier. Following the FOTC, Ring Magazine had written that "... Joe demonstrated that his title is safe for some time to come." In editorializing the Frazier-Daniels fight in 1972, Nat Fleischer wrote that "... George Foreman is probably not ready to challenge Frazier." The general feeling at the time was that Foreman was a big, slow-moving guy that was Frazier's cup of tea. This feeling carried over to fight time, as Joe was a 3-1 favorite. Frazier came into the fight overconfident, under-trained, and rusty from almost two years of relative inactivity. As other posters above have stated, Frazier tried to roll over Foreman and we all know what happened.

In addition to better conditioning, Frazier needed speed. Noted for being a slow starter, he needed to be smokin' right from the start, as against George there wouldn't be time to take a few rounds to get rolling. He needed the speed and the desire to be 'up' for the fight and be able to bob and weave and duck George's punches, or at least be better able to roll with them and lessen their impact.

As for stragegy, probably that used in their 1976 rematch would be the best. In his autobiography By George Foreman observes that the Frazier camp's strategy was to try to take the fight into the later rounds with the intent of tiring Foreman and taking him out. While Joe may not have been winning rounds as the rematch got under way, the strategy was first to survive the early rounds when George was most dangerous. That Joe survived the first two rounds and did so without being floored was a sort of moral victory that was not lost on the crowd watching. That Frazier lasted into the fifth round spoke well of the strategy even if Joe no longer had enough left to make it work. It would have been interesting to see whether or not George might have started to tire if Joe had been able to last a few more rounds.

All that said, I still doubt that Frazier would be victorious over Foreman. At best I believe that Joe would have done better, but George is all wrong for him. The once-held common belief that Foreman's style was made to order for Frazier turned out to be the other way around.

 

Kenny Norton's plan was a good one. For both Kenny and Joe. It was to come forward, make Foreman load up, make him miss, and then counter with a strong hook.

Sadly Foreman can cut off the ring well, has an iron chin, underrated accuracy and can hurt you with arm punches.

Even the best of plans don't always work. I can't come up with a better one personally.

 

With a pipe.

 

Funny I saw Foreman landing a lot of jabs and some right hands ,25 of them in fact.Where does Frazier land 25 punches of any description in that round?
I cant see any swelling on George's eye either

 

How many you miss doesn't matter it's how many you land.
If you land more correct punches and they are heavier which they surely were, you must have won the round.
If you throw ten punches and land every one, and I throw 30 and land 20,it's my round.


No offence but ,it's a no brainer.

 

Yes basically I do. Both Floyd and Joe may have extended their foes into more protracted fights over a long series , but ultimately I see both of them getting nailed eventually and falling under a fusilade of follow up shots.
By the same token I see Joe as being all wrong for Patterson.

 

no.

 

Incidentally, does anyone have the YouTube link to the first Frazier -Foreman fight with the alt cameras. I forgot to book mark it and fancied watching it again.

 

Liston-Patterson 100 times? You must really hate Patterson.

 

That probably the right reason, though I feel FOTC Frazier beats Foreman, even if I'm in the minority.:good