Muhammad Ali vs Bob Foster - The Night Ali Bled

Angelo Dundee wanted to put two plasters on it but Muhammad said that he only wanted one. Bill Cosby,the comedian was in Ali's dressing room teasing him about it saying things like "Muhammad,you ain't pretty no more. Bad man done hurt your face" Muhammad obviously seeing that nobody else was taking it seriously said "Keep talking about me and you go in three"

 

Bob Foster was an elite banger at light heavyweight but just didn't have it against the big(ger) boys and his fights in the 70's against Ali and Frazier, he was just out of his depth.
Joe Frazier was always dismissive of fighter's who weren't true Heavyweights and had started of as light heavies such as Ali or even middles like Jimmy Ellis.
I have Foster in my top 5 light heavies but versus heavies he doesn't compare with Conn, Charles, Moore, Spinks or Jones very well.

 

I wonder how good at heavy Bob would have been had he had the dietary and conditioning resources for weight gain that Spinks and others had. Ali and Frazier would still have been a bridge too far for him but he'd probably have beaten a few lesser names.

I also have Bob as Top 5 Lt.Heavy below Charles,Moore,Spinks and Conn or Jones.

 

That's my top 5 too.
Some talent in that group.

 

I don't have Foster top 5 because I feel like his opposition wasn't that strong, as much as I enjoy his highlight reel KO's. I feel like he gets a tad overrated personally, would of been interesting had he fought Galindez or Conteh.

 

The date was Nov 21 1972, location was Stateline, Nevada.

 

I recall reading that Foster said the only reason he fought at heavyweight was for the money as he couldn't make the big purses at 175. That said there's not a light heavyweight that ever lived who could have survived those versions of Frazier and Ali

 

Another fight I'm going to revisit thx!

I can believe that especially during the time of Alis prominence. A lot of attention at heavyweight at that time I dont blame him for trying to get his hands on that money then.

 

He certainly would have been better than what he was. He only ever made half hearted little trips to heavyweight and struggled putting on any weight.

 

I often wonder how Bob gets on fighting the smaller heavyweight s than he faced.
Maybe as well, for example, the 40 s contender s.
He'd still lose to the very best, Louis, Walcott, Charles, beat him but perhaps hed get a few win s over the second tier.

 

Foster landed some nice straight right hands on Ali. They didn’t just land, they caught Ali cold.

Ali might’ve been showing a bit of disdain - of course he took the shots without blinking, but still not a good look and not good policy to allow same in the overall scheme of your career.

Ali landed some excellent shots but Bob really went Bambi toward the end - likely the effect being a lot to do with the accumulated punishment.

Before he was finally finished, it did appear that Foster didn’t want to stay in there too long to cop more hurt.

Very interesting fight. Ali being cut just looked so WRONG, didn’t it? Superman bleeds?

 

Ali had totally disregarded Foster's power in their fight which shows what a tough man he was.
I know Foster was chasing the money in HW division which is something Light Heavyweights have always done but I get the feeling he would've baulked at fighting George Foreman.
I've always thought Bob Foster vs Jerry Quarry would have been a war while it lasted with Quarry emerging as a ko victor.

 

Billy Conn, Prime Charles and Moore all have plenty fair shots. More so against Ali. Frazier I don’t know.

 

I don’t know how you feel about Patterson vs Foster but I see Bob probably having early round successes and looking very good in the process.

However, the fight will always have the tone that Patterson will close the distance and begin landing his lightning combos.

Ultimately, I don’t see Foster coping with Floyd’s power. That’s YET another fight that I would like to have seen.

Floyd was KD’d a number of times but was rarely KO’d/stopped. Foster could possibly secure a KD during the course of the fight but I actually think Floyd could get through unscathed in that regard - certainly Foster wouldn’t be able to keep Floyd down, imo.

PS - the background on all the pages in this forum have gone white on me - anyone else getting this? It’s a hard read - LOL.