Foreman never hit Ali with his best shot, right?

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Agreed.

The shot Foreman knocked Roman out with was probably the best shot I can think of that Foreman landed on anybody. An absolute wound up bomb right on the chin. He never landed anything close to that to the head of Ali from what I saw.

 

I thought Carnera had everything

 

I think Muhammad Ali probably had just about the best chin of all time

 

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IMO this question boils down to this: "Did Foreman hit Ali with the same punches he missed Jose Ramon?".
And then my answer is - it is not.

 

Some of the best body shots Foreman laid on Ali were akin to those we’ve seen Foreman hit and cave in the heavy bag with in training. That is frightening.

Also, Foreman was very adept at cutting off the ring anyway, but to be also aided and abetted by a 16 foot ring? Again, frightening.

Ali still had terrific hand speed in 74 - and he definitely needed it against George as well as the enormous courage he displayed.

He was absolutely beating Foreman to the punch but he was very prudent in choosing when to fire also.

Ali slayed a legitimately proven and perceived beast.

Despite the false controversy re the ropes - the lie of the land wasn’t perfect for Ali either - but he adapted himself to the given environment and used what he could to his advantage.

Terrific boxing IQ.

 

Meh I think Foreman landed his hardest ever shots on Frazier.

 

I don't think he landed very many flush bombs to the head. Ali did a brilliant job slipping at the last second, rolling with the punch, blocking, or using head movement to dodge completely. Foreman had an extremely hard time landing to the head. He did have some success with the jab a bit and landed a few grazing or looping shots, but few serious bombs. Ali's defense and counters combined with his usage of the ropes was so good Foreman was way off balance attempting bombs to the head.

That was basically the whole reason Foreman focused on the body. It was the only clear target, and the idea was to drain Ali's stamina so he wouldn't be able to use his legs. Nobody realized Ali had abandoned the idea of using his legs in the first place and wanted to stay on the ropes on purpose to drain Foreman and reduce his power as he had to overextend his shots. It was a brilliant performance, but Ali did have to suffer some serious damage to secure the win. His ability to take a body shot was 2nd to none.

 

He definitely cracked Frazier with several good shots, but his best single shot? I'd still go with Roman, though it's kind of hard to tell. A punch can appear more devastating landing on a guy like Roman as opposed to Frazier.

Maybe it's just my imagination, or something to do with the playback speed of the video, but Foreman's hands looked faster than usual vs. Roman. Definitely faster than what was displayed vs. Ali.

 

Fair enough. I've admittedly not watched the Roman bout in quite some time but I do remember him looking substantially better and faster against Frazier and Norton than he did against Ali, even putting styles aside. He also committed to his jab much more in the aforementioned two bouts.

 

Here's the 4th round. Somebody give me the exact minute/second of the round where this devastating punch landed. I like George, but he talks out of his *** quite a bit.

BTW, I'm one of the posters who's said in the past that George never landed his best punch on Ali, to the head anyway, and there's definitely nothing in that 4th round that changes my mind.

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