What happened to Bob Fosters punching power

Just a guess, but maybe Foster took something off of his punches because he thought/knew the punches coming back would be harder? Or maybe he was trying to move too quick after throwing his punches and wasn't setting down on them the same as he did at Light Heavy? Some people can hit a heavy bag hard but don't punch as hard when sparring or fighting. It's harder to throw a hard punch when you know a hard/harder punch is coming back at you.

All of this is just speculation, I haven't watched Foster at heavyweight other than the Frazier and Ali fights and I haven't watched them in a long time. From memory, Frazier pressured him and he probably couldn't get the range or time to get his punch off, and Ali kept him off balance. Foster was a lanky guy, Frazier's pressure and Ali's size, and weight would probably be enough to keep Foster from getting set to throw. Foster might have done better if he had gone the Michael Spinks route and built up his body before fighting bigger people, or it might not have worked for him...

 

I know he felt no light heavyweight would win the heavyweight title he said something a long the lines of a heavyweight jab felt like a light heavyweight cross.

 

A. When Foster was fighting heavyweights (lets look at his losses) he weighed 180 or barely over 180 three times and 188 vs Frazier. He always returned to light heavyweight or thereabouts quickly, sometimes next fight. After 188 against Frazier he was back to 174 inside of 4 months.

So Foster never ever went to the division with any conviction and he never bulked up properly. Moorer, Charles and Spinks moved up and stayed up. Moore didn't but there are other factors that benefited him which i will come to. He also didn't win the title.

B. His bigger fights up there were against contenders and ATG's, usually durable ones. People that were in excess of 200 pounds. Foster actually stopped a heap of guys that were comfortably above 175 and sometimes 200+. Some of them were ok fighters. These fights aren't readily viewed and are not talked about so he misses out on that front.

C. Moorer was naturally bigger than all these guys. Steward said early on he had to work extremely hard to make 175 and always said he would end up at heavyweight. Once he moved up he carried 215 and sometimes higher very comfortably. As a heavyweight he banged harder than all these guys on your list, probably by some margin with a couple of them.

D. Moore was fighting notably smaller heavyweights on average. So was Charles mostly. Marciano was 188 and Patterson 182 at the top end. Ali was 221 and Frazier 209 in Foster's biggest fights there. Ali and Frazier were also prime with Frazier being at his absolute peak. Ali would have been around his post exile peak.

E. Charles as said was fighting smaller guys, moved up and stayed up and he wasn't that much of a puncher at 175.

F. Spinks moved up scientifically and stayed there. There was a lot put into his move to heavyweight. He also caught Holmes when Holmes was declined. He was also stylistically suited down to the ground against this version. Despite hitting Holmes with numerous flush shots Holmes was never even remotely worried by Spinks "power". Punches that had spectacularly knocked out numerous light heavyweights had little impact on Holmes.

I'll go so far as to claim Spinks didn't hit that hard up there to be honest. Tangstad had previously been stopped by Anders Eklund and wasn't overly durable. The Cooney fight doesn't overly convince me either.

So there's a lot going on imo.

 

Remember though this was the 1970's the average world class heavy was 200 to 215 not a 185 lbs . Fosters power and his durability wasn't effective to men over 200 lbs. But he may have been more effective when the average heavy was 200 and below. But that was the 30's through the early 50's.

 

He still had power but no durability. He cut Ali's eye in their fight, and against Frazier, Joe said he did hurt him with a punch in the first round, I believe it was a left hook.

 

Not to nitpick, but the average heavyweight of Ali's era was 203lbs

Also to those stating for Moore and Charles that they fought smaller guys, the size of the guys in Marciano's era wasn't that different. Also, as we all know, Moore faced Muhammad Ali and many 200+lbs young guys

 

Might as well give my theory on this.

My theory is that Foster's power didn't carry over because of his small bone structure. Alot like Tommy Hearns', when he went up in weight, his body didn't really put on much muscle as going up in a weight class would allow. It also could've been that his wrists/hands couldn't handle the force of hitting someone with the bulk of a heavyweight.

 

Archie fought Marciano and Patterson for the title. They were substantially lighter than Frazier and Ali who Foster fought when he himself was relevant and they were prime. Archie fought Clay in his 219th fight, his second last ever. It was Clay's 16th and he was still a kid tho only a couple of years from the title. Tho they fought they were from totally different era's. Ali was 17 pounds heavier when he fought Foster.

Ali and Frazier average out to about 215. Marciano and Patterson 185. That's 30 pounds in a weight range where it matters a bit imo. More so than say 210/215 vs 240 for mine.

 

Foster said he just could not keep on the weight.
At least without PEDs, I believe his bone structure would not allow much mass.
Also listen to the start of the Frazier/Foster fight-they say the scales were tipped 4-5 lbs. heavier than reality.
They were trying to make Foster more bulky than he was; that is why both weighed more than usual on the fake scale!

 

He hurt Frazier that we know.Foster didn't have the physique to compete with the big guys and you may well be on to something when you speculate about him not committing totally to his power against the bigger guys because of concerns about " incoming."

 

Even then, Patterson and Marciano were already small heavyweights for their time, wheras Ali was actually bigger than the average heavyweight of his time

Also how do they average out to 215? Ali's prime weight was 210lbs, Frazier's prime was 206lbs

 

Good post. It seemed Foster for the most part moved up and down to take the fights he could get .. Frazier and Ali were simply different animals .. the Doug Jones fight is interesting though ..

 

This thread's made for some interesting reading over the simplistic 'he was just too small' argument. I agree in the main with those that speculate that his frame didn't allow him to pack on the mass to cope with the physical presence of his opponents and that may have mentally affected his willingness to sell out on his shots. He was constantly on his toes in the Frazier fight, and often throwing shots without setting his feet properly due to Frazier's relentless forward pressure. Compare that to his KOs at LHW and he's much more the aggressor, setting his feet and digging his punches in with real venom.

Adamek was a similar case. Very hard puncher at LHW and CW, but couldn't crack an egg at HW. He also had quite a smallish frame and looked very much to be fighting above his natural weight, rather than filling out to a more comfortable weight from a weight-drained state. Like Foster he seemed to be reticent to trade toe to toe with his larger opponents, and his power may have suffered as a result.