Is George Foreman the most overrated fighter in history?

Yes, and so what? Do gimmicks matter more to you than solid measures of success like longevity and quality of opposition?

 

I'm an American who appreciated Foreman for his underrated boxing skills, immense strength and heart, and his ability to reinvent himself. Foreman like most humans is a complex individual and I have no illusions or naivety about his marketing of himself or his grill. You clearly have an agenda which is fine (and it has some validity) but my suggestion is to present it in a more effective manner and avoid the gross overgeneralizations.

 

I'd argue he had longevity the fact he's the oldest heavyweight champion and his pro career spanned 4 decades proves that.

 

Consecutive defences is what I meant with that comment.

 

He was better than Ali so no. Just one of the most overrated thru history.

 

Gimmicks ! Longevity and quality of opposition is there in abundance . Foreman was 1968 Olympic Champion,fought in arguably the Golden era of heavyweights,handed Frazier his first loss,lost for the first time in a controversial fight with Ali after compiling a record of 40-0,had two back to back Ring fights of the year,retired in 1977 with a record of 46-2,made comeback after a 10 year retirement and went 34-3,took Michael Moorers 0 and the IBF and WBA belts at the age of 45 years old ! Eventually retiring for good with a record of 76-5 so that’s 81 fights with only 1 stoppage loss to Ali. There’s a few more gimmicks for you .

 

Better than Ali in what way ? A prime Foreman lost to a faded Muhammad Ali by KO.

 

Ward wasn't average.

He is indeed overrated though. He is not even top 100 all-time.

 

Lol no

He won world titles decades apart in two different golden eras of heavyweight boxing. He's as legit as you can get.

 

Golovkin could have 200 defenses for all I care, nobody with a sense of boxing history is going to historically rank someone whose best wins are Daniel Jacobs, Murata, Daniel Geale and Sergei Chenko. Omar Narvaez has like 26 title defenses across 2 weight classes yet nobody is gonna rank him above someone like Sonny Liston who only has 1 defense, it's ****ing stupid.

2nd point is dumber than the first point so no need for a response.

 

Foreman was the undisputed Heavyweight champion of the world in his first reign, winning some belt at the midget weights doesn't compare to winning the HW champion of the world when it meant something. Koki Kameda is a 3 division world champion with 11 title defenses yet nobody would rank him in the top 1000 of anything, let alone someone like Floyd Patterson who only had 3 defenses. Ricardo Lopez had something like 26 defenses and retired undefeated yet nobody in their right mind would rank him higher than Joe Louis, that's absurd.

Also what in the blue hell are you talking about, Foreman knocked out Fraizer who was the undefeated p4p best boxer in the world at the time having just beaten Ali in the FOTC less than 2 years back. Nothing any fighter you've mentioned comes close, this isn't even talking about Foreman's other achievements in his 2nd career which solidified him as a lock for top 10 ATG in the HW rankings.

 

What’s stupid is that you’re pretending that the Canelo fights never happened. We aren’t talking about Narvaez, Gilligan.

There’s nothing stupid about the Sor point. Estrada is leagues ahead of Norton and Gonzales was likely higher pfp than Frazier ever was. Sor went 3-0 against them back to back to back.

 

I don't really dispute anything he did in his prime. He was a great fighter who picked up some ATG wins and lost to one of the best to ever lace them up.

His second stint as champion was poor and where the majority of fans overrate him terribly. After winning the title off Moorer he went on the anaemic run of defences consisting of Axel Schulz (robbery), Lou Savarese and Crawford Grimsley, before losing to Briggs. During that time he avoided his mandatory Tony Tucker and refused a rematch with Schulz, being stripped of the WBA and IBF titles respectively as a result. Where exactly is the quality there? I don't see it.

 

Well you're ranking GGG ahead of Foreman based on title defenses, Narvaez has more title defenses than Foreman as well, he has more than GGG even. Should we rank Narvaez higher than most fighters in history due to having 26 title defense of his WBO title at Flyweight and Super Flyweight?

I mean, he didn't win the Canelo fights? We're giving fighters unofficial wins then Norton is 3-0 against Ali and Foreman absolutely man handled and destroyed Norton in 2 rounds which makes his win vs him even more better, many people also thought Foreman beat Shannon Briggs too, so we're giving him that win as well. Joe Fraizer was the undefeated, undisputed reigning p4p number 1 HW champion in the world when Foreman destroyed him in 2. Frazier twice, Norton, undefeated Moore, Qawi, Cooney is better than Gonzalez twice, Estrada and a shot Ruenroeng anyway you look at it.

 

^convoluted post of the year. Lol at even bringing in Qawi and Cooney from the dumpster.

Sor had already been a champion with successful defenses before he even fought Gonzalez, who was arguably pfp number 1 at the time. That makes him a 2x champ like Foreman.

GGG officially went 1-1-1 against Jacobs and Canelo to wind down a long title reign. He stepped up while past his peak and proved to be a solid guy. Foreman was incapable of stringing together 10+ defenses. He would’ve gassed out against a random.