Any basis for George Foreman's power being overrated?

You can just use Google or other use another search engine for either the thing or question you want to find such as "Who did Henry Clark say hit him the hardest?", & good to enter specific possibilities such as "Did Henry Clark say _____ hit him the hardest?"

Also you can add specific sources you mentioned, like the boxing magazines, & add anything else about the context-if not possibly disqualfying, such as getting the date or year wrong...That way a result that might otherwise be buried under the much more generals searches suggested above would come up-if you chanced upon the correct source or other context-on the first page!

 

I think you misunderstood me. I know how to search but if i enter the words i mentioned, I'll probably get a quote from me on ESB from about 15 years ago! The point I made is, are, for example, the 52-issues per year of Boxing News from the 1970s and 1980s available online for free?

For example, take this 'legendary' issue (currently on sale on ebay)

Boxing News Magazine November 26 1976 mbox3428/f Vol.32 No.48 Ali Accepts Forema 8945050082786 | eBay

Can you locate Don Sauer's piece from this issue for me online? Or would I have to pay?

 

It seemed you could not do searches effectively, but that source may not be free-if so the only other way is if a search reveals the article's information in a secondary source.
I can check later, gotta go now, ttyl!

 

It won't be free, that's my point and why would I pay for something I already have? Yes if it's easily done, and you're a superior "Google searcher aficionado" then, I agree, you should try and locate the article. Ta-ra!

 

Qawi tougher than Frazier...?

How did you type that with a straight face?

 

Post of the week, John! Perfectly put!

 

It is free if you find it indirectly. I did not tell you to pay for it, but you can if important enough to you.
I advised on ways to find it, not calling myself "superior" at Google searches.
If I find it I'll let you know.

 

No.

 

I think Foreman’s physical strength and power are overrated, but his skill is really underrated.

Foreman was a 6’4, 215-225 lbs HW whose opposition was mostly 200 lbs guys that would be LHW / CWs today. He was really strong for his size but he isn’t really a hulking figure by modern standards, and though he clearly had all-time power you are just fooling yourselves if you think somebody like Ruddock, AJ, Dubois etc hit any less than he did.

What really made Foreman so dangerous was the fact that he was probably the best in the sport when it came to fighting as a big guy. He wouldn’t just jab people up at range or spam power-shots like many bigger guys do, he would take full advantage of his physical gifts. He would extend his arms to parry and smother his opponent’s offense. People would come at him with combos only to get pushed back by the shoulders without landing anything. He would miss a shot, then just grab the guy and steer him into another shot. He actively used his strength as a weapon. He was also unique in the sense that he didn’t really have one big punch, everything he threw could KO you.

Ali also ruined his reputation a bit with the whole “mummy” thing, Foreman had a stiff upperbody and an awkward stance but he was very athletic, fast on his feet and had sharp reflexes. He had a really strange sense of timing and distance, he would throw the most naked lead-uppercut you can think of and it would somehow land flush. He swung like a saloon brawler when he hurt you, but before that, he would work behind a well-timed jab, measured power-shots and was a really hard guy to hit without straight punches. Frazier missed so many of his hooks on him.

 

Last time I heard the argument a few seconds late it was followed by "It happened, it happened ."

 

Sports Illustrated did a neat story once with a simple premise: What’s it like to get hit by George Foreman?

They tracked down a lot of opponents from different eras and asked them.

The word that was used the most was ‘numb’ — wherever he would hit you, it turned numb for a bit. Like, ‘he hit me on the arm and my arm went numb, I couldn’t feel it.’

That’s blunt-force power.

With one single shot at 45 years old — one which traveled about 18 inches — he put 36 stitches inside Michael Moorer’s mouth. He ripped apart the inside of a grown-ass lineal heavyweight champion’s mouth with the impact from one short shot.

I remember Evander Holyfield saying George hit him one time and he thought George had knocked all his teeth out. Why? He couldn’t feel them … numb.

Same shot lands flush on the chin or the temple and maybe Evander is being scraped off the canvas. Just because a punch doesn’t put one down or out does not mean it’s not harder than one (well-placed) shot that did … anyone who has ever sparred or boxed knows this.

When a guy punches hard and you taste power (even on a miss or a blocked or parried punch), you tend to want to avoid that experience and try real hard not to let him land clean and flush. So maybe he doesn’t quite get you right and you outwork him or outbox him and beat him … or maybe he has some vulnerabilities (like weak whiskers) and you get him out first (Mike McCallum said he felt Julian’s power and shifted to take-him-out mode and got there first because he knew from feeling that power that he couldn’t stay in the ring catching shots for the entire distance … does that mean Julian didn’t hit hard, lol?)

 

There’s also the difference between a loaded cement truck running over you at 30 mph vs a Ferrari hitting you at 150 mph — both are going to kill you, both are going to hurt … but which, if there’s an afterlife and you had full memory of the experience, would you be able to say hit you ‘harder’?

It’s not as simple a question as people want to make it.

 

No.