How good was George Foreman?(H2H)

I have him @ 6 all time probably higher H2H

 

Top-5

Few could have survived Zaire, as Ali did.

Few, on his best day, could best Foreman.

 

Foreman's career was literally good enough to become a movie. Gold medalist despite a very short amateur career. Tore through the division knocking guys out silly. Beat tough rugged fighters such as Chuvalo, Frazier, Lyle, etc. Became champion in one of the most 1-sided title winning efforts ever. Had a long layoff and came back to win the title again in his 40's, oldest champ we've had. It's pretty hard to have him outside the top 10 for career.


H2H he was a monster. He just might've been the most powerful 2-fisted threat the division has seen. Granite chin. Tremendous body shots. One of the best ramrod jabs of all time (especially his 2nd career). Could party and deflect shots swatting them away. Could cut the ring off. Underrated accuracy able to target the temple, jaw, nose, liver, solar plexus, etc. In his 1st career he didn't pace himself well and was overly eager for the KO, which led to stamina and defensive lapses. In his 2nd career he was slower and less aggressive, but made up for it with improved endurance and ring IQ. He also has to bare minimum be a top 10 threat h2h. A skilled boxer may be able to outbox him, but unless they have good defense, lateral move, and can take a punch, it's going to be a nightmarish experience. Swarming or slugging with him is an easy way to find yourself on the canvas.

 

Agreed. If it's specifically peak Foreman of 72-74, I can't think of many who'd be favored to beat him. That version is top 5 h2h.

 

Same. Off the top of my head, the only guys who deserve to be favorite would be, Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston, and Lennox Lewis. I wouldn't put it past Foreman to beat those guys either (except Ali, he's never winning that one).

 

Foreman is a very capable aggressive fighter , strong with a big punch but very slow.

Real life not Forum gospel after axing a buch of fillers he bounced Frazier who was steered clear of any Puncher til Foreman and then we have Norton who folded every single time he met a puncher.

What do have Frazier/Norton in common? They gave Ali a hard time and won a couple and lost a couple, so because Ali is the greatest automatically those two are some major scalp too...........the problem is both Frazier and Norton did not do a whole lot beside the "Greatest" fights so Foreman waxes those two he is the new Superhero because they gave the "Greatest" a difficulkt time.

So Superman Foreman faces the "Greatest" with no more legs, does not win a round, Superman wings and wings and wings and gets unceremoniously stopped.

So the "Greatest" is even more the "Greatest" now because he stopped Superman who stopped both of his main foes.

So the "Most powerful Heavy that has ever lived" goes life and death with fringe contender Lyle and picks up another loss to a feather fisted spoiler.

Comeback Superman goes life and death with Journeyman Stewart/saverese/Schulz/Grimsley, looses vs glass chinned Fringe contenders Morrison/Briggs and finally hits the jackpot with a feeble minded China packing Ex Light Heavy.............gets stripped afterwards while refusing to fight anybody with a pulse.

Head to Head Foreman will beat some and will get beat by some as witnessed by Reality.

 

Top 1.

 

But he lost to Young

 

Easily top 5,,

 

Here's up there, but there are too many unanswered questions about opponent types, and then there's the tendency of fantasy fight Foreman to have the best traits of both of his incarnations.

How's he deal with a guy with better fundamentals than he has, who is bigger than he is, who has power in at least the same ballpark as him? How's he deal with a guy with the speed of Muhammad Ali and power in at least the same ballpark as himself?

Two easy examples of guys I think he'd have problems with.

 

Laughably false myth that won't die. Frazier didn't avoid punchers. Neither Lyle, Shavers, nor Foster were in any position to fight Frazier at any time during his career, and especially not during his title run. They also lost to the one guy, Frazier beat in Quarry

Norton was only knocked out in his prime against Foreman. He was past prime by the time he met Shavers, and flat out shot against Cooney.

Yeah Frazier was only the undisputed champion, before he fought Ali, and cleaned out the division. No big deal right?

The scores were 70-67, 69-66 and 68-66,

So not only is it untrue that Foreman didn't win a round, but it was a fairly close fight, where Foreman battered Ali's body and had him out on his feet by Ali's own admission

That's not the version of Foreman being discussed here. It's clear as day, Foreman was a different fighter upon his return, less powerful due to a shift in body mechanics, less confident, and had a vastly inferior jab.

You're just trolling at this point. We're talking about a prime Foreman, not the 90s version who was clearly inferior. You even have the audacity to bring up the Briggs "loss" but conveniently leave out, that is universally recognized as a flat out robbery.

 

He might just have been the best natural talent in the history of the sport.

My criticism of him head to head, is that he was not stylistically versatile in his younger incarnation.

There are a lot of of fighters that he woudl underperform against.

 

That's fair, but I'm real close to saying what I did about Tyson ... that on his best, given night, especially if he gets himself together early and is poised as he was against Frazier, he could also potentially beat any heavyweight who ever lived.