Bob Foster had a fantastic jab, and his power speaks for itself. Beterbiev doesn't have the body of work to pick him over Foster
Beterbiev would rip Foster in half. I was there for the Joe Smith fight. Beterbiev made Smith look weak and small, and Smith is bigger than Foster was and most light heavyweights.
That guy that beat Hopkins ? Please, would ya ? Beterbiev simply isn´t active or tested enough to be mentioned in the classic forum, yet.
Smith is bigger than foster? Foster is 6'3 with a 79 inch wingspan And foster is a much much better fighter than smith Anyway i would bet on foster to keep beterbiev at range early with the jab and to knock him out when he gets more agressive trying to close the distance
Being pro modern boxers is totally fine and even kinda needed here, but Joe Smith is a journeyman level type of guy, you can´t use this win for nothing.
Smith is a big guy. He weighs more in ring than Foster did. And Foster did horribly against big guys.
Which we only know because Foster had almost 70 fights instead of only 19. Foster had a 79 reach, with a jab and great power, we don´t know how Beterbiev deals with this because he is unproven.
Beterbiev hasn't faced nobodies in his 19 fights though. Gvozdyk was solid, his other competition wasn't on his level but still decent. His professional career certainly doesn't seem to be on the same level as his amateur career was. Still, is Foster's resume really that much better? Outside of Dick Tiger who was nearing 40, I don't see anything that shows Foster is on different level. Maybe I need to research his lhw era more
How good you were as an amateur is another subjetc completely. Vince Shomo was a great amateur but nobody uses a win over him as great. Foster didn´t fight nobodies in his 67 fights either. So, there you go. It is 67 fights against 19, in a much better era. Prime mature Foster had a great snapping jab, and great power. He had more reach and knew how to use it. How would Beterbiev overcome that ? Any examples ?
The Gvozdyk fight is probably a good example of when he had to overcome a good jabber,\technical boxer, not sure if he's met anyone with Foster's power or reach on his level though. Has Foster fought anyone with Beterbiev's combination of power, size and technique?
I´m just looking into and Gvozkyk has nowhere near the reach Foster had. I don´t know how well I should rate Beterbiev´s technique, tough to say so far. Did Foster faced a harder hitter without getting stopped ? I don´t know. He faced good punchers though like Andrés Selpa and Frank DePaula, both had a reputation of being big hitters, even if they were smaller than Beterbiev sure, yeah, in this case we have cases of guys actually smaller than Beterbiev.