Prime Sam Langford vs Prime George Foreman

A prime Foreman would be tailormade for Langford. Foreman in the 70's didn't have the patience or timing to beat a boxing master like Langford. I think people give Foreman too much credit for beating an out of shape Frazier twice. Frazier in 1971 for his Ali fight was running 6 miles daily and ready to go to war while in 1973 Frazier hardly trained or did roadwork unless Futch forced him to and it showed in how poor his conditioning was and how much his speed suffered.

Foreman from the late 80's would have a much better chance at beating Langford, since he had the experience and patience to where I can see him maybe timing Langford late and getting the stoppage, but not the same Foreman, who both Ali and Young toyed with.

Foreman struggled with both Levi Forte and Gregorio Peralta, who were both under 200 lbs and neither was as skilled or as good a puncher as Langford.

Also, Foreman's size and power would be a non factor for Langford, since he beat many fighters much bigger than big George and faced many punchers. Godfrey was just as big as George, but a more complete boxer than Foreman was in his prime.

Langford 5'7" 165 lbs vs. Bill Lang 6'1" 197

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Foreman 6'3" 213 vs. Gregorio Peralta 6'0" 197

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Prime Foreman in 6 rds by TKO. As Joe Frazier said after 2 fights with Foreman: "George hits a ton".

 

Unless otherwise stated matchups are between boxers in their prime.
Foreman was not prime for either Forte or Peralta.
Foreman was 20 years old and having his 11th fight when he fought Forte who was a ringwise veteran with 43 fights under his belt.
Against Peralta, ranked no 10 Foreman was 21 years old with 14 fights to his name, Peralta had engaged in 90 and been stopped just twice ,once against the fearsome Mauro Mina,the other a cut eye stoppage against Willie Pastrano . Foreman would later be the only man to stop Peralta at heavyweight .Peralta had over a 100 fights and fought punchers like Bonavena,Urtain,and Lyle without being floored.

To ensure a level playing field
Let's compare George to Sam at the same age and fistic development
20 years old Langford in his 11 th fight,[1903,] drew twice with welterweight nobody Andy Watson.
At 21,[ 1904] Langford had 11 decision fights winning 5 and losing 1 the others being draws.
Godfrey wasn't a boxer, he was a puncher and for his 3 fights with Langford a novice.
Neither Ali or Young toyed with Foreman.
Ali took some fearful punches to exhaust George and Young was out on his feet at one point,"if George had sneezed I would have gone down."
Langford had a good chin, but he was floored over 20 times and he was never hit by Foreman.

 

Unless otherwise stated matchups are between boxers in their prime.
Foreman was not prime for either Forte or Peralta.
Here are the score cards of the Foreman v Peralta 1st fight.
ps I think Peralta had better boxing skills than Langford.

• Referee: Mark Conn 9-1

• Judge: Jack Gibbons 7-3

• Judge: Tony Castellano 5-4

• Unofficial AP scorecard: 6-2-2
• Unofficial UPI scorecard: 9-1
• I don't call that struggling!

How many rounds did Forte win against the 20 years old green Foreman?

 

Did you actually watch Foreman fight against both Forte and Peralta?

If Foreman wasn't the gold medalist with all the financial backing behind him he would've had two losses early in his career. Besides an early knockdown Forte schooled Foreman, but didn't have the power to end the show, so he got robbed on the cards. Forte even instructed Ali on how easy it would be to beat Foreman, since Foreman was slow, one dimensional, and didn't pick his punches well enough.

At the end of the 1969 fight against Foreman, when the decision was not yet announced, Foreman muttered to Forte “I’m never fighting you again”. And he didn’t. But Levi Forte later gave some advice to Mohammad Ali before The Rumble in the Jungle: “He doesn’t have stamina, keep him punching and he’ll get tired”. Ali replied, “Heh, I’ll keep on the rope… and he’ll be the dope”.

Forte attended the Rumble in the Jungle and at one point during the fight, Ali looked at him and said “Now?”. Levi nodded and Ali kicked it in and knocked Foreman out.
https://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/meet-levi-forte-the-boxer-george-foreman-feared/

Also, Peralta in the first fight also should've got the decision, but Peralta was old and didn't have the push that a young Gold medalist like Foreman had going for him. In the second fight Foreman got the stoppage, but Peralta was also 36 and with 96 matches under his belt. Despite Peralta's age and being worn out from having as many fights that he had he was still more competition than either Norton or a fat Frazier was. In comparison Foreman started looking terrible when he had his 77th fight against Schulz

Also, Ali was clearly toying with Foreman. Ali proved that Foreman during his prime wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Moore, who both worked with and fought Ali before warned Foreman that Ali was just as durable as he was and not to let Ali stay on the ropes, but Foreman ignored both instructions. Ali stayed on the ropes letting Foreman throw punches that were mostly landing on Ali's arms and when Foreman would stop punching Ali kept lighting him up with clean 1-2's. Later in the fight Ali started sitting down on his punches and knocked Foreman out. I didn't have Foreman winning a single round. He landed a handful of good punches on Ali, but other than that Ali worked over Foreman even easier than he later would Ron Lyle.

In the Jimmy Young fight Foreman did rock Young once when Young got lazy, but other than that it was a complete schooling by Young. The uppercuts that destroyed a fat Frazier were hitting air against Young, who was countering and hitting Foreman at will and even dropped Foreman late. Foreman was schooled so badly by Young that he retired from boxing for 10 years.

 

Neither Forte nor Peralta were robbed against Foreman.
Peralta was 34 years old hardly ancient. He went on for another 3 years having25 more fights and losing only3, 3 years after losing to Foreman he still had enough left to draw with Lyle in his farewell fight. You grossly overstate your case.
Ali didn't work over Lyle either one judge had Lyle in front another had them level.

• Judge: Bill Kipp 43-49

• Judge: Art Lurie 45-46

• Judge: John Mangriciana 46-46

 

I would actually give Langford a chance here.

That's how good he was!

 

I am convinced that if Sam Langford had been 6' tall with a 75'' reach, he would have beaten every heavyweight that ever lived!

Not even scaling him up, just elongating him!

 

This. From what I remember the Frazier win went to Foreman's head and he stopped listening to Moore. Frazier in the first Ali fight showed that if you want to apply effective pressure on Ali that you can't let him stay in the ropes. Frazier was constantly pulling Ali off the ropes, so he could keep applying his pressure.

At 2:15 Moore mentions Foreman taking advice from his brother.

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Foreman in his prime had all of the physical tools, but could be beaten or even stopped by a clever fighter. In his comeback Foreman didn't have the same punch output, but the patience he had in his comeback more than made up for it, which is why Tyson wanted no part of Foreman in the late 80's - 90's. Foreman's only shortcoming in his comeback was that he often came in too heavy.

Even Foreman himself admitted that when he decided to make a comeback to boxing that he was going to take his time and get used to fighting again before challenging for the title.

Foreman insisted he didn't want to be another Joe Louis, Larry Holmes, etc., who because of their age decided they had to immediately fight only the champ and get a quick payday, since Louis got completely embarrassed by Charles in his desperate comeback and Larry was flattened by Tyson.

Foreman's change in mindset in his late 30's to early 40's made him a lot more dangerous than he ever was in his prime.

 

Do we have another Troll Session right here?

Jacko or Janitor, who´s the greater one?

What about Foreman giving a **** about Langfords punches and setting him in trouble on the backfoot with the first heavy blow he´s landing? /Case closed.

 

All of you saying the size argument sound stupid. Langford took on men way bigger and men with skills just as big as Foreman.

Foreman wins due to superior bonecrushing power and chin. Langford and him brawl, and Foreman comes out on top

 

I don´t know. Brawling? From watching Langford, I think he might craft out a decision over George by using his jab.

Now come on, that´s overexaggerated. Do you think there really are boxing fans who would come up with such a absurdity?