Deontay Wilder Falls Back Into 1973 while being in a deep sleep.

I'd definitely give Wilder 10/10 for courage and heart, but the flip side of that coin is the overall ineffectiveness of Wilder, in spite of his valor, when up against a world class offense. At times, he did look a little like a rabbit in the headlights against Fury, which might be interpreted as fear - but this is clearly not the actual case.

That said, Wilder is immensely limited, save for his power. Against truly world class players, this will rarely be enough to take the win.

 

I'm not. Lyle was a significantly more capable boxer than Wilder.

 

Actually, from an overall perspective, you're right.

 

Not gonna prevent Lyle from getting KTFO

 

I guess I'm in the minority here in thinking that Wilder would have had a decent chance at beating George. Foreman didn't have particularly great defense. Wilder, who I'm pretty sure had more pop than Lyle, almost certainly would have gotten some right hands in, and we saw what Lyle was able to do to Foreman. Also, for a guy who was no bigger than Monte Barrett in his prime, I didn't think Foreman had blazing hand speed, but could crack with both hands. Looks like a toss-up fight to me. Hard trying to determine what any Fantasy Fight involving Wilder might have looked like. The guy is almost completely devoid of skill. It just comes down to a coin flip on whether or not he could have gotten that right hand in.

BTW, is Ali on video saying that he was hurt or out on his feet against Foreman? I've never heard that directly from him. I've watched Ali-Foreman several times, and never thought Ali was in trouble at any point. He never once looked buzzed or wobbly. Anyone thinks differently, tell me exactly what point in the fight so I can rewatch it (again). I always thought that Frazier damaged Ali (in fights 1 & 3, anyway) FAR more than Foreman did.

 

He wrote in his book The Greatest that George hit him with an uppercut that put him out on his feet. He heard bats, bells...went completely dark. You can see for yourself, I think it's in the 5th or 6th round.

He got hit flush more than once.

 

Thanks. Will take another look.

Foreman hit Ali with a right hand with :58 left in the 3rd round that I always thought was his best punch to the head in that fight. Foreman did land some nasty body shots though...

 

Why?

 

Have a look at this peach of an uppercut in round 7 that straightens Ali's head right up. It's a bomb but he barely reacts, at least to the naked eye. Man he had to have felt that tho.

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That uppercut came with :47 left in round 7. You're right, Ali barely reacted to that. I never would have guessed he was hurt by that punch. If Ali was indeed hurt in that fight, I'm not seeing exactly where. There was no obvious moment where he seemed to be in any trouble at all.

 

There's a fair chance he was in trouble at some point but Ali being Ali it's not obvious. He certainly wasn't ever in any sort of prolonged trouble, like even 4 or 5 seconds of it.

He did take a few huge punches tho, punches that had done bad things to other poor souls so you'd think he had a moment or two somewhere. Perhaps it just didn't sow in his legs. Perhaps he was on the ropes.

 

The punch that you mentioned and the one I mentioned were probably the two best head punches Foreman landed against Ali. Ali didn't appear bothered to me. Looked to me like Ali largely nullified any offense Foreman offered that night.. This video, starting around the 3:35 mark, Ali said that Foreman didn't hit that hard, and wasn't that accurate....or at least I'm assuming he's talking about Foreman. Hard to tell because the video cut out shortly before he said it. He said something similar in the locker room after the fight.

Muhammad Ali Interview Days After beating George Foreman - YouTube

 

Well some sources say he was urinating blood immediately after the bout so there's that as well. The punishment he took to the body was literally insane.

 

No argument there. He did land some nasty punches to the body with both hands, that's for certain.

Don't mean to belabor the point, but I've heard people say that the Foreman fight had a lot to do with Ali's diminished condition later in life. I've always thought that Foreman had very, VERY little to do with that, if anything. Looked to me like Cooper, Bonavena, Norton, Frazier, and Shavers all rocked Ali more than Foreman did. Ali saying he blacked out from a Foreman punch sounds like he's purposely being over dramatic. I'd be real curious which punch did that. What I heard out of Ali's mouth after the fight were things like....he wasn't doin' nothin....he hits like a sissy. The stories I read about that fight usually don't match what I've seen with my own eyes...

 

I agree those others hurt Ali more-well 2 of them fought him 6 times-with the very possible exception of Ringo.
Foreman just did not land that effectively.
But Ali was a Master at disguising being hurt.
You absolutely cannot trust his braggadocio saying Foreman hit like a sissy-any more than Foreman's exaggerated graciousness in his comeback career. Posturing in both cases.

Foreman certainly smashed Ali's body hard, although by the end his punches had lost steam.
Even with Foreman fighting foolishly & Ali so well, it took all of Ali's resources to win.
I have no idea if he could have without the constant pulling behind the head they note he kept getting away with.