Foreman vs Rodriguez

I had friends over to watch that double header back in the summer of 1990. It was aired live on HBO and was showcasing both Tyson's first fight after the douglas loss and Foreman's first fight with a ranked contender since the comeback. A lot of focus was placed on Tyson as everyone wanted to see how well he'd perform after the beat down from douglas a few months earlier. Jose Adilson Rodriguez was relatively unknown to a lot of casual boxing fans, but he had actually been around for a while being ranked on and off for the better part of about three years. First time I saw him was the previous summer when he got sparked by Evander. He entered the ring against foreman if I recall being ranked around # 9 by the WBC and like # 12 by the IBF. He also had Angelo Dundee in his corner and from memory did okay in the first round. But as mentioned, George caught him in the second and didn't let him off the hook. It was a good performance for a comeback George and one that I view as being underrated. On a sidenote, Rodriguez never again made an appearance on the world scene. But he fought on for several more years and about another 40 bouts or so, winning the vast majority of them. Seems that he was contempt being the hometown hero in his backyard of São Paulo, Brazil... He wasn't a world beater by any means but a very good contender and one who had a son that took up professional boxing as well.

 

Foreman fought the easiest rated guy he could find. Rodriguez was extremely medicore. And this is the only rated guy Foreman fought to get a shot at Holyfield. Foreman was very carefully matched in his comeback up to the Holyfield fight.

 

As were most contenders at the time, leading into their title shots or rankings. Ruddock fought a string of has beens to earn his #2 rating. Bowe fought a similar string of guys to foreman, then got his title shot by beating Coetzer who earned his rating by beating virtually nobody.

 

Bowe beat Tubbs.
Ruddock beat Dokes, who had given Holyfield a war.

Not the toughest roads, but better than a shot ****ey and never was Rodriguez, who had just similarly been blitzed by Holyfield, no less.

It is wrong to say that all guys have equal weak roads to title shots.

 

They were equally weak.. Tubbs was well past it by the time bowe fought him and to this day fight fans still can't agree on weather or not he even won that fight. Ruddock beating dokes wasn't much better than Foreman's win over Rodriguez as dokes had diminished significantly over the previous year.. He showed up 15 lbs heavier against razor carrying a tire around his waste and had recently been floored In a bout with Lionel Washington.

 

Whilst Tyson fought the legendary Henry Tillman, a fighter that wasn't even in the rankings he was that bad....

 

Whilst Tyson fought the legendary Henry Tillman, Rodriguez was the better opponent out of the two.

 

But you had the amateur angle to add to the comeback it was an OK opponent for Tyson at the time. They even played up post fight that Tillman caught Tyson with a good right hand, sadly for Henry: A good lightish punching Cruiserweight right hand...

 

I don't agree it was a good comeback fight, Tillman was **** poor and had done nothing of note. Still if knocking out bums is your thing then I can see why.

 

So now you see that.

 

I've actually always agreed with you on that. But If I recall we were comparing that version of dokes in our last debate to a 43 year old tony Thompson who was around 260 lbs and arguing who was the better fighter at that stage. In this context I believe he Rodriguez who lost to foreman was at least equal to the dokes who lost to ruddock.

 

Tyson was testing the waters after his first fight back. I was discussing Foreman's opponent because it was the only rated guy he fought before getting a title shot. Tyson then fought the dangerous Ruddock twice. I a not surprised you focused on Tyson though. You flock to any thread that discusses him like white on rice. I can't remember the last time I saw you in a thread where he wasn't discussed.

 

You class Tillman as testing the water??? Yeah funny how you went all quiet on the "fights that got cancelled" thread after I owned you and your heros ass....

 

Tubbs looked very good in the Bowe fight. He showed movement, a great jab and good defense. He came in in good shape. A little over a year before he outboxed Orlin Norris. A year and a half later he beat Bruce Seldon and Jessie Ferguson. Ferguson beat Mercer a few months later. I am confident the Tubbs who narrowly lost to Bowe would beat the Rodriguez who was easily disposed of by Foreman and Holyfield. Rodriguez was the beneficiary of shady ratings by the latin based world bodies. It happened quite frequently in the 80's and 90's.