Who Is The Best Fighter That "Comeback Foreman '', Could Have Possibly Beat?

Let's get some laws of physics in place first.

It is literally impossible, that old Foreman's chin, could have been superior to prime Foreman's chin.

What prime Foreman shipped against Ali, woudl have stopped old Foreman sooner.

So the answer is that Foreman was stopped once, against a guy who is arguably the GOAT.

However, this man had also lost a fight against Frazier, and wasn't in Frazier's zip code as a puncher.

Sending old Foreman in against Frazier, would have been cruelty to children.

Forget that he was called George Forman, and look at what was actually left of him back then!

 

lol I must admit the “laws of physics” made me laugh. Old Foreman was about sixty pounds heavier than young Foreman. What makes you think his ability to take a punch would decrease? To me, the question is whether Frazier could take old Foreman’s punches. I think not. Anyway, have a good evening.

 

As great as Patterson was, I think he would have beat Foreman into the eyes-nearly-closed realm, then eventually taken a series of awful shots that would floor then finally KO him. George in 11 rounds.

Foreman at the end would actually look way worse than him.

 

Possibly David Tua or 95 Tyson but I'm not sure.

 

Mike Tyson.

 

Firstly you'd have been better citing biology than physics. I accept that all other factors being equal, fighters punch resistance typically diminishes at the ages Foreman was during his comeback.

Secondly, Physics would support the argument Foreman had a better chin during his comeback. Considerably more mass overall, bigger legs, bigger core and inparticular a bigger neck, are all typically correlated with improved punch resistance.

I doubt, for instance, that a prime 160lbs Toney could have taken Sam Peters punchers. A much heavier Toney with bigger legs, core and neck did.

 

Trauma is cumulative.

Adding muscle to any part of your body other than your neck, won't make a blind bit of difference to your ability to take a punch.

Neck training exercises are nothing new.

Old Foreman did not have a better chin than prime Foreman period.

 

The thing is though you have to look at Foreman's knockdowns with some context.

Foreman was dropped vs Ali, Young, out of exhaustion more than anything not due to his chin.

And vs Lyle well Foreman had no defence, and just traded punches in a wild brawl with a big puncher.

Foreman in his 2nd career paced himself and relaxed better in the ring, and also altered his defense with the cross arm defence.

So I don't think overall Foreman had a better chin in his 2nd career, he just altered certain aspects of his style.

 

You may or may not be correct on 1st and 2nd career Foreman's chin, but there is no question that there is a correlation between mass and ability to absorb punches, to *almost the same extent there is with punch power (*KO ratios are typically higher at HW than lower weights, but clearly Flyweights aren't going to absorb clean power punchers from a HW).

Do you think a 160lbs James Toney could have successfully absorbed punches from James Toney? A 147lbs Mickey Walker take punches from Jack Sharkey?

For the record, I'm not saying if the answer to those questions is no it proves Foreman's chin was better during his 2nd career, just that it indicates that, all other factors being equal, as a fighter gets bigger there is a positive impact on their punch resistence. In the case of Foreman, whether than extra size wholly or only partially offsets the impact of his age, plus wear and tear, is open to interpretation.

 

Foreman of '89-91 for me beats previous champs, the likes of -
Jeffries
Johnson
Willard
Dempsey
Schmeling
Sharkey
Carnera
Baer
Braddock
Marciano
Patterson
Johannson
L. Spinks
Weaver
Berbick

Contenders from 80s/90s

Mercado
Evangalista
Bey
Golota
Damiani
Mason
and probabley a few more

 

I didn't claim Foreman's chin was better in his 2nd career (I'd guess it was, but not with certainty), just that a physics-orientated argument, as opposed to biology, would support the idea he did.

I agree the stoppage vs Ali was as a result of exhaustation, not deficient punch resistance.

Foreman fought some big puncher's in his 2nd career and was never dropped or stopped. There's no evidence Foreman's punch resistance was worse in his 2nd career, just speculation.

 

Wow George Foreman (comeback version) and Jersey Joe Walcott would be an interesting match up.

 

Well Foreman was visibly hurt a few times in his 2nd career vs Lakusta ? Holyfield, Stewart, Cooney.

I just think overall Foreman's adjusted defense, and learning how to pace himself better. Was the result of him not being floored in his 2nd career rather than having a better chin IMO.

 

Foreman of '89-'91 would beat '96 Riddick Bowe from Golota fights
Foreman of '91 wouldn't beat '91 Bowe.
Foreman of '96 wouldn't beat '96 Bowe.

 

Unless some additional research is presented to me, that I am not aware of at the moment, I will assume that Toney and Walker's chins would have shipped the same sort of punishment, when they were in the lower weight classes.