George Foreman Circa 1973 V Mike Tyson Circa 1990

Two of the fastest starters and hardest hitters the sport has seen at HW. Might be over in 1-3 rounds. No real idea which way it would go. Realistically, either could end it real quick if they happened to perfectly land a flush bomb -- both were great finishers.

To the people bringing up Frazier, eh, he was a close-in fighter. Tyson wasn't. He was a mid-range fighter, didn't like close up (and would just clinch when someone tried), and was too short to fight at long range. So I don't know that the pushing would be of use to Foreman. He used it to shove Frazier back to mid-range, but Tyson wouldn't advance closer than mid-range anyway.

Tyson will have to watch the crouching over into the range of Foreman's uppercut. Foreman will have to watch the wide swings that would leave him open to Tyson's far superior speed. If either screws this up, it could be the fight.

Man, all I know is I want to see this fight.

 

The Foreman who was decked by Lyle? Going up against the Tyson who shrugged off the best of a guy who hit every bit as hard as Lyle?

Tyson by murder.

 

The Tyson who had been beat up and knocked out by Buster Douglas. Hard. So he beat by 12 rd decision a guy who Lewis would massacre shortly afterward.

 

It's amazing how people use Tyson's ability to absorb punishment when he was past his prime and apply that to prime Tyson.

But you can't use 90's Foreman's ability to absorb punishment and apply that to 70's Foreman.

To quote your own words "it's the same Foreman".

 

I’m not sure how any of this is relevant or changes anything? You’re going to have to go a bit deeper then that. Are you saying that Tyson got better at absorbing shots as an overweight drug addict and it’s not fair to apply to 90s Tyson?

 

Are you saying Foreman got better at absorbing shots as an overweight burger addict who was coming off 10 years of inactivity?

You can't cherry pick past prime feats for one and not the other.

 

I’m not trying to cherry pick anything. I’m using the only instance of a young Foreman in with a puncher of a similar calibre to Mike. What do you have a problem with exactly? Do you think he was past prime? I don’t think he’s gonna take a shot any better in 74. It’s not meant to say Lyle would do the same to a prime Foreman I’m just using that fight to measure his chin.

 

I thought I was very clear in my post but I guess not.

You can't use Tyson taking bombs from Lewis over a decade past his prime and apply that to prime Tyson's chin but ignore the dozens of examples of Foreman taking bombs in his older age and refusing to apply that to young Foreman.

Either you only stick to fights during the primes for BOTH guys or you attempt to create some hyrbrid version combining the young and old for both guys. Anything else is cherry picking.

Tyson's chin didn't exactly hold up to mediocre punchers like Douglas and Hoylfield either if you want to go down that route. He was stopped 5x to Foremans 1.

 

As much as I respect Iron Mike, it's hard to get away from that fact.

Plus, Mike never came back from a knockdown to win a fight. George did (two kds, actually).

 

Why can't I apply the Lewis fight to Tyson exactly? If anything It would in dictate his chin would be EVEN better in his prime? Am I not understanding? he was a washed up zombie eating flush shots from a monster puncher. Old Foreman taking shots doesn't change the fact Lyle almost handed Foreman his @$$ because he hit so hard. We can't ignore it, Tyson never faltered in his punch resistance he was consistently extremely durable.

We can go down that route, Buster was a big puncher and a big guy who landed flush a ton all night and Mike ate it up till he was exhausted, Evander stopped him after a long, long beat down what's the shame?

If we apply your logic Ali KO'd Foreman in 7 a step below those two in my opinion in regards to power especially Buster who McCall said of "No one had hit me harder" to Mike before the upset. Context matters.

Foreman's only true stoppage loss was because he was tired similar to Tyson's, he wasn't far from being taken out by Lyle though. Another thing to note we never saw Tyson in that kind of desperate saloon brawl because he was hurt.

While it might not be the best version of Foreman, he was hardly washed up like people pretend but one has to wonder what if it was Tyson landing those shots on Foreman? A stockier, tougher, more powerful, WAY faster guy who let his hands go in bunches and could counter him big?

Mike walked through hard shots from guys as powerful as Foreman, Ruddock, BoneCrusher, Lennox etc the only guy “Young” Foreman fought that had the power and the ability to counter those looping punches, he tore his head off just about.

It's not so much Foreman's chin being the issue he displayed a good one till he was near 50, he has a damn good one really. Its just the fact he left himself open in the 70s and would be easy to counter here and it leads me to wonder what happens when he's hurt? Because it’s a fact he is getting hurt at some point.

I use the Lyle fight because it’s all we have of 70s Foreman's style in a real brawl with a good puncher and he was looking very desperate and what he showed was a lot of guts he wanted to keep coming but he left himself open big and Tyson isn’t just gonna get sloppy and stand in front of him like Lyle.

 

The Lyle fight is an anomaly because Foreman was out of the ring for a year and a half and he was rusty. His defense and reactions were all around better in just about any other fight. Even Ali could only land a couple of good shots per round and Ali was 6 foot 3 with the fastest hands in the game and Foreman stood in front of him.

Why are you focusing on just one fight out of 50 for 70s Foreman

 

Ali landed plenty how is that even debatable? Ring rust? So severe? It was just one year and a bit, some fighters today go that long without a fight... lots do similar time without fighting anyone but no hopers to stay relevant. So many excuses.

it doesn’t matter if it was a case of rust he wasn’t taking a shot any better and the point is the threshold for Foreman’s chin being around Lyles level of power that’s undeniable. Re-read my post I did say he wasn’t on his best night it’s just to measure his chin.

 

I have to say that questioning Foreman's chin is one of the most bizzare things I've seen on this forum (excluding everything related to pre-70 fighters).

For all of Foreman's mediocre performance vs Lyle, we can nitpick a lot of horrible performances from Tyson career: Douglas fight, Holyfield fights, all of his old stoppages ones...

I think that Foreman doubters should decide if his defense or chin was worse than Tyson's, because you can't have it both ways.

 

Are you insinuating that I am doubting Foreman’s chin? Because I’m literally just stating facts. Lyle hurt him, so Tyson can. That’s it bud.