I'd like to here some opinions on Mac Foster as a fighter... Do you feel this guy was legit contender in his era and other eras?How do you think he stacks up against other knock out punchers throughout history? Were you impressed by Quarry and Ali victories over him?
Mac was a legit contender, problem was Jerry Quarry, and of course, Muhammad Ali were better fighters, and after losses to those two, never recovered.His people should have sought fights against Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, and Earnie Shavers, he had a chance with each of them.
He usually appeared to be in good condition from the few fights and clips I've seen of him. Decent skills but not a technician and loads of power.. Overall a pretty good fighter. Seems like he might have gone a tad further had some things been handled differently.
He never beat any genuine contenders. He feasted on third-raters and a couple of terribly washed-up old names. Jeff Merritt was probably better than Mac Foster.
In the Jerry Quarry book "Hard Luck" it is stated that Fosters greatest problem was lack of quality sparring.
Well, Foster's team may have thought he could beat Lyle, but Foster didn't seem too eager. Mac Foster and Ron Lyle were supposed to fight in August 1972 in Denver, but Foster pulled out on two days notice claiming a bad elbow. Several doctors in Denver examined him and insisted Foster was fine, but he refused to go ahead with the fight. He had his license suspended and Lyle's promoter sued Foster. So, there's that.
I never knew this. Thanks for the info. Here's a newspaper story: http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...I1HAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SX8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=4936,1742060 It's like Foster gave up on his career after losing to Ali.
Ali didn't train hard for Mac and Foster had passed his best days, it was a pretty boring 15 rounds and an easy win for Ali. Mac was at his peak physically and mentally going into the Quarry bout and Jerry was close to his also. Mac showed a hard skilled jab that kept Jerry on the outside until the ko but it was all he showed, eventually Quarry was able to time the only offense Foster came up with, there was no imagination there at all. Still he looked strong and dangerous until Jerry did his thing.
Short arms, bad balance, bad management. Funny you mentioned Lyle, Foster was like Lyle in that he never really had a prime; he went from prospect, straight to washed-up. Foster was supposed to be a puncher, but when Ali fought him, he showed him no respect at all, came right at him from the first round contrary to the way he generally fought guys he thought could hurt him, and walked through his best shots.
Carefully managed, caught a few names on their way down to pad his resume. Must have had a pretty good chin, as only Quarry stopped him I believe.
I thought he has a 81 inch reach, Ali had an 80 in reach I believe. He sure looked like he had long arms vs Quarry.
Yeah there were a lot of guys who would have looked better on his record today if he had fought them instead of those two. I can understand fighting Stander, but Terry Daniels and Manuel Ramos? Ugh....