George Foreman , overrated ?

With all respect, I disagree with you, and here's why.

Foreman is a unique boxer, who won Olympic gold medal in 60's, won the HW championsip of the world in 70's AND won the HW championsip of the world in 90's. That's three decades apart.

No one could repeat in at any weight.

But as for list of top-opponents he had defeated, yes, it's short compared to other TOP-10 HWs. Holmes, Holyfield, Lennox, Tyson had more wins over top-ranked opponents than Big George.

Skillwise Big George was very flawed in the 70's, but improved his defense in his 40's.

So I won't call him overrated despite the fact that other ATG HWs had better skills and longer list of top-opponents they defeated.

 

yes i think he's a little overrated.

yes, he is strong and could punch hard.

but people act like he is the ultimate hw slugger and that is impossible to brawl with him, when in reality only two big man he fought in his 1st career had him on canvas (ali, lyle). His chin was bad when he ran out of gas, and his defense was poor.

His skill set was limited and he relied on over powering his opponents which worked cause he was always bigger and stronger, and that would not be the case if he fought some skilled shws that came after.

but in his short peak he was confident, strong, marching foward, agressive, could punch and take a shot... a dangerous fighter for few rounds.

 

No

 

Many posters have said only Ali (of the modern boxing era) could have beaten George. And then George turned into a preacher, grill salesman, and basically a part-time fighter. It was a fun ride for the fan.

 

You're talking an extremist view clearly in my view.

3 fighters put Foreman down (Ali, Lyle, Young) two of which were more through exhaustion than anything and the other was a legitimate big puncher. As a fat 40+ fighter he met and was hit by noted punchers in Cooney, Morrison, Briggs and Stewart and wasn't even staggered, Holyfied bounced combinations off him and he remained upright all fight. Down a total of 4 times in 80 fights. His chin is the last thing questionable about him.

You say Frazier was poor but how many other fighters did that to him? Ali couldn't come close to doing what Foreman did to Frazier. We are talking about one of the great champions in Frazier and George obliterated him. I don't think Tyson or Lewis have a win as good as that over a legit undefeated ATG heavyweight champ. It was hardly Holmes-Ali that's for damn sure. Frazier went on to have good performances after Foreman destroyed him (Bugner, Quarry2, Manilla) so there was still plenty of fight left in Joe but George was simply too much.

And making light of his win over Moorer is unfair completely. Moorer was an undefeated 26 year old two division champion who's just dethroned an ATG in Holyfield. Sure we now know he was flawed but we didn't then and George didn't get side-tracked in his mission to defeat him despite being schooled for 9 rounds, out sped, out landed, being 45 years old and inactive. That he hang tough to defeat an undefeated champion who was 19 years younger show the strength of his will and his heart. It was and remains a remarkable achievement. Compare how Mike Tyson was doing against fighters like Williams and McBride when he was a full decade younger than George was against Moorer to get a picture of just how highly that performance should rank.

I'm awake to your criticisms of Foreman and agree with some to an extent. He did fight a lot of filler (though to be fair if you dissect any heavyweight champs resume you'll find a fair bit of that) and he could look sloppy and slow on occasion. But he was also brutally effective, tough and brave and his achievements after losing his way post Zaire are a credit to him and were fantastic for the sport.

 

Ali
Holmes
Tyson
Holyfield
Lennox
Wlad

All of them had beaten at least 12 top-10 contenders at the time they have fought them.

Foreman's list is shorter, it's certainly less than 10.

I think Big George COULD have had that deep resume too, had he fought better opposition before 73, and had he not retired in 77 for 10 years.

But it is as it is. Foreman's resume isn't deep enough for someone with 81 fights.

 

young griffo sums it up well. A lot of Ali legacy is built on his trilogy with Frazier and Norton.
Foreman massacred these opponents. His second career GF was 40 +. People don't
remember apart from Archie Moore , Hopkins and Foreman which other fighters were
champions at 40 + competitive with fighters more than 10 decade younger.