George floors and nearly stops Joe early on. Joe hangs in there to outwork him and win a UD. By the end of the fight George's face is far more swollen than against Stewart (or anyone else). Joe is hitting him nearly at will in the last rounds.
Even odds. Strength is the last thing to go, so 90s George still carries the firepower to stop Joe cold; and 90s George is way craftier. Thus, I can see Big George laying a trap for Joe to pull a Moorer... However, Big George's speed and reflexes have taken a toll. He won’t be so efficient on blocking Joe’s relentless attacks specially in the late rounds when Joe is smoking. IMO Big George will have the upper hand during the first rounds. However, either Big George stops Joe early or stamina becomes an issue. Sure 90s George has a better stamina management, thus he is not going to gas out ala Rumble in the Jungle, but he will slow down nevertheless. Thus, the longer the fight goes, the better are Joe’s chances.
Frazier's style requires him to stand in front of his man. 90's George is going to catch him with a brutal uppercut at some point, just like 70's George did. I don't think it'll be an early blowout, but at some point, Frazier is going down.
Frazier takes this one without much of a problem. Old George could not handle 1971 Joe. He didn't have the speed or power to stop Frazier's aggression. I believe Frazier would stop Foreman by the 9th round.
I like this outcome. Although if George’s face was any more swollen than it was against Stewart I’m pretty sure it would get stopped in his corner
FOTC Frazier from March 8, 1971....will not be denied. Foreman beat a shopworn Frazier in 1973. Joe left everything he had in the ring that night against Ali...and was never the same again!!! Don't judge the 1973 Frazier performance with the FOTC Frazier...2 totally different animals...
I like the already established line of Old George having some success early but being eventually overrun with a reasonable possibility of Joe stopping him late. 70s Foreman wasn’t necessarily fast or slow but the 90s Foreman in real time could’ve also doubled as the slow motion replay.
I don't think 70s Foreman was slow at all, contrary to Ali's nickname for him the mummy. Rewatching Foreman and reassessing his career, I've moved him up quite a bit on both my ATG and H2H list. I have him at #3 for both (Marciano and Foreman often fight for my #3 in an ATG list, but at the moment I have Foreman ahead).
I agree. George wasn’t slow at all and I’ll add (just imo) he was impressively accurate. In terms of hand speed, less exposed casual fans might accent too much on the well fatigued later round version in Zaire. Just curious Swag, when you reassess, which career do you find that you see even more credit for Foreman? Or is it just in deference to a complete overview of both careers?
I always struggle with where to rate Foreman as an all-time great. He was a great heavyweight but a mediocre champion. He had just four successful defenses during his two reigns and just one of those, Ken Norton, was against a fighter of true quality. While I have him ranked near the top of my H2H rankings it's this lack of championship wins which keeps me from rating him much higher than eight or nine as a heavyweight ATG.
