what if Foreman did not retire in 1977?

He would have been worn down and out before his comeback. IMHO the time off allowed him to mature mentally and spared him going through the grinder with his rock em sock em style. I quite enjoyed seeing Old Foreman use his head to win fights.

 

He gets beat by Holmes at some point between 77 and 1980.

 

No one fighter. He would have gotten worn out like most other fighters that like slugging it out through the accumulation of damage of fight after fight. Eventually he'd have looked old and beatable.

 

Hard to see anybody in the late 70s giving him a competitive fights to be honest.

Norton was probably the best of the bunch.

He could have run riot in the 80s as well.

When he regained the lineal title in the 90s, he definitely did it the hard way.

 

Aha, but there's the bone of contention.

I reckon that he aged well because he had a long break from fighting, and when he came back he worked out a rather clever style that allowed him to be effective as an old geezer. His younger version was comparitively reckless and didn't mind taking a couple to land one.

Again, on that list of yours he'd be favourite against pretty much all of them except maybe a Holmes. But run him through the entire gauntlet, and by the time he gets to Thomas and Snipes at the bottom of the list they would do pretty well against a worn-out version of Foreman.

Hey, I could be wrong and Foreman the Slugger becomes Foreman the Boxer as his career evolved, it's happened before.

 

The best of the late 70's was Holmes.....the man who beat Norton. At that time Holmes showed both the jab, movement and boxing ability to beat Foreman. Since 15 round bouts were the status quo at that time and assuming a title fight Holmes would stop Foreman late.

 

You don't know what you're talking about.

Ali fought Foreman past his prime. Holmes of the late 70's is Prime Holmes. Larry would control the pace, take Foreman into the later rounds and then stop him.

Foreman post Ali fought in a different style vs pre Ali. Post Ali he had a new trainer, Gil Clancy, who slowed down his pace. Pre Ali Foreman went all out early which was great when he dominated but did not allow him to do well longer distance. This is what hurt him vs Ali.

 

By your logic, if Ali could not outbox Foreman then neither could Jimmy Young.

Except that he did.

I see Holmes pulling away to win a 15-round decision by a fairly comfortable margin. Nothing suggests that Foreman would not continue to have stamina problems if he had kept going at that time. He learned to relax on his 10-years-after comeback, but I don't think that light bulb would have come on immediately had he kept fighting immediately after Young.