Beterbiev vs Foster

Foster obviously has the resume and that should count for quite a bit. I like technical fighters and he had a great jab which I always feel is a very good attribute for a fighter to have.

That said, Beterbiev has been nothing short of an elemental force during his brief but spectacular run. He fought a very good fighter with power and boxing skills in Gvozdyk and nearly ended his career. He fought another fighter with a great jab, Kovalev, in the amateurs twice and beat him both times.

The fight that I think hints that Foster is in trouble is the Dick Tiger fight. Yeah, Foster knocked him out. But Tiger was fairly creaking along in age by then and he always was a plodding fighter with great power. Yet Tiger managed to turn up the heat and land quite a lot on Foster. Beterbiev has much better footwork than Tiger and I suspect that he will not have a problem in closing Foster down and forcing exchanges. Foster himself has big power so let's not count him out. But I rather fancy Beterbiev to win, given the way that he absolutely bludgeons anybody that he can force to fight - ie, everybody he has stepped into the ring with.

 

How did Foster do against guys who were Beterbiev's size?

 

Nope,he did horribly against the best big guys,he did well against a lot of moderate heavies.

 

Its what Danny Wiliams and Kevin McBride did to Tyson.

 

I was there for the Foster-Mike Quarry fight in 1972...Foster left hook was a thing of beauty...BRUTAL. Foster is one of the all time greats...taking Foster all day long!

 

The release of King Arthur against Gvozdyk, as well as the cut against Marcus Browne, implies that I would give Bob Foster a slim chance.

 

If you say green Bob Foster against this Beterbiev? Fine. Foster was a very diferent fighter when he started. You look at his fight with Doug Jones and wonder if that is really the same guy.

 

Bigger men? Beterbiev ain't a heavyweight and Foster fought Ali and Frazier because of big paychecks.
Foster has a 6 inch reach advantage and is 3 inches taller , now you were talking about a big man who can punch?
In this fight his name is Bob Foster

 

i see a lot of talk of Foster doing horribly against big guys,
Foster did horribly against Ali and Frazier ( two of the greatest heavyweights of all time), as well as against Doug Jones (when foster was 9 fights into his pro career as well as being on three days notice) and against Ernie Terrel (who was 6'6 with a 82 inch wingspan, as well as being a future world champion, and this was 17 fights before foster would win the title so not exactly him at his prime)
so while he clearly didn't perform that well against top heavyweights, Beterbiev isn't nearly as big as any of these even Frazier probably weighed more as well as being an all time great in his prime and not having to cut weight.
while on the other hand he absolutely destroyed the 6'1 Vicente Rondon (who was a world champion and would go on to face top heavyweights in Shavers and Lyle)
he also twice beat Pierre Fourie (who is the same size as Beterbiev, though to be fair punched like a flyweight)
KOed the 6'0 experienced Eddie Cotton in three rounds
twice easily beat the very aggressive 5'10 Henry Hank (though he did weigh less than Beterbiev as he often made middleweight)

for reference next time someone mentions Beterbiev's size

 

Like whom?

 

Beterbiev is bigger than Floyd Patterson if not Frazier.

 

As much as I rate Beterbiev's terminator-like attitude, Foster is too much a proven quantity to bet against.

I am neither convinced Beterbiev can avoid Foster's shots nor confident he'd hold up against them when they do inevitably land.

Foster wins by KO.

 

I'm one of those people that think Foster is a bit overrated and his resume is not exactly filled with great names either. He kind of missed out on the great Light Heavyweight era with Muhammad, Johnson, Conteh, Galindez, etc which would've told us alot more about Foster.

But Beterbiev does get hit quite alot and I remember British Light Heavyweight Callum Johnson flooring him and having him on wobbly legs. Yarde recently also hurt Beterbiev a few times and gave him a very hard fight.

One thing Foster does have is that hes an ATG puncher and I'm not sure if Beterbiev could walk forward and take flush punches off Foster.

 

Willie Besmanoff, he also went the distance with Zora Folley.

 

He had gone 1-5-1 heading into the Foster fight.