Big George versus prime W. Klitschko

The Foreman who fought Axel was a full 4 years older though and not the same beast he was when fighting Holyfield.

 

Foreman's knockdowns vs Ali, Young, were due to fatigue. He punched himself out vs Ali it wasn't his chin that let him down, and vs Young he was fighting in ridiculously hot conditions. And basically slipped after punch was landed due to fatigue, again not due to his chin letting him down. And finally against Lyle he was coming off a fairly long lay off after Ali fight, and fought a sloppy fight trading punches with no defence vs a big puncher. It's not so much Foreman's chin was bad in this fight, it's just he fought a sloppy fight against a puncher.

I don't know where this myth comes from that Foreman's chin got better in his 2nd career that's nonsense. It's just that older Foreman paced himself better, and altered his defence using cross arm defence.

 

No. The one from 1989-1991. He faced Schulz in 1995.

 

I don't think I can bring myself to pick him here, but Wlad honestly gets underrated in these types of matchups because of his losses to clearly inferior opposition.

However, the argument that he lost to Purrity, Brewster or Sanders isn't really a good one.
Wlad didn't have much of a chin at all, so of course inferior opponents would spark him from time to time.
But it's a random thing, so he'd have a good shot to use his size and jab / clinch / outbox most historical heavyweights, with the disclaimer that getting KO'ed is also a very possible outcome.

 

So the one who got pummeled by Stewart?

 

Those really aren't great wins to be a measuring stick against Wlad. It's certainly possible, but I'll take Wlads depth over the guy(old George) who lost to Morrison and who's best win was a hail Mary against Moorer.

 

Sure, against the one who got taken out by Puritty.

 

Foreman is tiny compared to Wlad. Yet Wlad has more speed and skill and power and range.
Wlad would likely land his bombs on the plodding, stationary target and KO him.
We know Wlad can take some shots from Foreman, he's taken bombs from more powerful hitters and got up to fight on.
Look would Ali did to Foreman with a single combination. People think Foreman can handle a barrage of Wlad RHs and hooks and just grind him down? This is fantasy world stuff.

 

Fantasy world stuff is believing Wlad would throw barrages of punches, instead of clutching at Foreman while having the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look of terror on his face.

 

Agree, that simple. Against a young Foreman, Wlads head would have landed on the moon before the ref finished the 10 count. Wlad would punish an old Foreman, I would fear for old Georges health in that hypotheticalatch up.

 

"I don't know where this myth comes from that Foreman's chin got better in his 2nd career"

Chins can improve with additional weight and physical/mental maturity and Foreman was 30-40 lbs heavier in his 2nd career. Obviously the fact that he didn't get dropped in his 2nd career despite taking a lot of hard punches (still very easy to hit, bashed up many times) is a major reason why people believe his chin improved.

 

Interesting how there are so many excuses for Foreman being dropped by featherfists ("he gassed", as if young Wlad didn't against Puritty and Brewster 1) and a relatively small Lyle is retconned as a "big puncher" (which he's not by modern standards, and not whatsoever compared to Wlad), with 15 months of inactivity (exaggerated because Foreman was back in the ring doing exhibition fights a few months post-Ali) apparently explaining why young Foreman could barely take Lyle's punches without getting sparked out. Also interesting how you compare Wlad at his lowest point when he wasn't even a titlist to some mythical undetermined Foreman, rather than "prime" 70's Foreman as he actually existed to "prime" Wlad as he actually existed, in his 30's and having had Steward as a trainer for several years.

70's Foreman was incredibly strong against natural 205 lbs heavies like Frazier and Norton but what modern top heavyweight wouldn't be? Find me a heavyweight Foreman overpowered who was 2.5 inches taller and 20-30 lbs heavier, let alone an elite heavyweight with those dimensional advantages: even the slightly smaller Ali was beating him in the clinch. Foreman never felt the need to develop advanced skills in the 70's due to his reliance on superior brute force, so Wlad would have a huge advantage in wrestling technical ability, in addition to considerable advantages in size and yes, strength. Foreman would have never felt strength or power like it, whereas grappling and wearing out a 6'3, 220's heavyweight was run of the mill for prime Wlad.

If prime Foreman is "gassing out" and getting dropped against 19% KO ratio 213 lbs Jimmy Young (who didn't gas himself, despite having to move around far more and deal with the pressure and power of a much bigger man, plus the same weather conditions), he's gassing out earlier and getting KO'd by prime Wlad. The main thing that saved most Wlad opponents who went the distance from being brutally KO'd was their general unwillingness to go out on their shield while way down on the scorecards.

 

Wlad's early losses largely happened because he was viewed as a destroyer and he himself wanted to KO everybody. So he blew his wad trying to get some very tough guys out of there and they basically beat him with their chins. That version of Wlad might very well lose to Foreman. Once Wlad became more defensively minded he became boring but also a H2H nightmare. I don't see Foreman's big looping punches as being terribly hard to deal with for Wlad. Foreman had a hell of a punch but it was relatively slow and relatively easy to see coming. What you want is a hard snapping punch thrown from an unorthodox angle to get to Wlad (like Sanders) and Foreman was not that. If you could give younger Foreman the older version's jab then we might see something but as far as I'm concerned Wlad has the far superior jab to the prime Foreman version and he's do him up a treat with it.

 

Wlad can not defeat any version of Formen. He's been dropped by "Touch of sleep "FFS

 

Big George would be too slow and easy to his for someone like Wlad. Wide UD win for Wlad