How good was George Foreman?(H2H)

Certainly top 10 but I don't have him H2H as high as guys like Lewis, Holmes and Ali as I don't think he was as versatile as they were.

 

Mike wasn't exactly a pretty fighter, either.

 

Im.not understanding how Foreman is the favorite over Wladimir. People can bring up his losses all they want but he consistently beat guys more formidable then the guys who beat him. He's like a bigger harder hitting more skilled version of Foreman.

Why is Fury an underdog?

 

Calling Wladmir a more skilled version of Foreman is just about the most hilarious thing I've read on this site. The only things they have in common are that they hit hard. They don't look or fight even remotely the same. Whose more skilled is actually debatable. With a strict ref, Wladmir wouldn't be able to get away with his typical jab and grab tactics and that's his primary strategy in like 70% of his fights.

Foreman is significantly better than most of the men who beat or gave Wladmir problems (Brewster, Purrity, Sanders, Peter, Joshua, etc). Foreman has the style, power, and chin, to beat Wladmir doing the same things those guys did. Wladmir has leaky defense and a weak chin, his only means of survival is to just cover up or grab. Wlad's stamina would drain rapidly if Foreman started connecting body shots. He is also open for uppercuts, a punch that Foreman is arguably the best at. I really can't see Wladmir winning unless he lands enough bombs to the jaw to eventually KO Foreman, but the more he opens up the more opportunities he gives Foreman to hit him back. It's a terrible matchup. Foreman is way too strong to simply get tied up over and over and again, he won't just stand there he'll be framing, shoving, or throwing body shots.



Fury's an underdog because his resume is thinner than his hairline. The only serious punchers he beat were the extremely limited Wilder who was a 1-trick pony with not much else aside from a big right hand, and Dillian Whyte whose an obese, glass jawed steroid cheat. Fury doesn't have the power to keep Foreman off of him, cuts easily, doesn't like getting hit to he body, etc. Foreman stops him by the 7th.

 

LOL

 

I'm not sure I can think of two fighters with as diametrically opposed styles as Wlad and Foreman.

 

Here's another one:

"Andy Ruiz is just a bigger, stronger, more skilled version of Ernie Terrel. I can't see Terrel winning".

 

Sure but Wlad beat a number of guys significantly better than the guys that beat him. I'd rate Pulev, Haye, Povetkin, and even Thompson ahead of Purrity, Brewster, and old Sanders. He not only beat these guys but dominated them. David Haye is far more similar to Foreman than Brewster and Purrity in terms of power and handspeed. Based on Wlad's losses these guys should have destroyed him but they didn't. If you want to argue Foreman is better than these guys that's reasonable but they clearly are closer to his level than the guys that beat him aside from Fury and AJ.

Assessing Foreman relative to Wladimir's peers is hard because ducking was rampant and fighters rarely faced each other so you don't have the opportunity to assemble a good resume unless your champion.


How would you say Foreman compares skill wise with say Povetkin, Haye, and Ortiz. Let's give Foreman the edge in power of course.

 

Pulev was not better than Brewster or Sanders. Haye is debatable, he's the most talented fighter Wladmir beat, but he's also a quitter who didn't really put everything he had into their match. Povetkin was a very good boxer, but Wladmir didn't exactly beat him convincingly and got away with tons of egregious fouls and excessive clinching/wrestling.

Haye and Foreman are totally different punchers. Haye is a very fast explosive guy who catches you with sharp punches you don't see coming. Foreman bludgeons you with heavy arm punches and clubbing power. Haye didn't even land that many solid shots on Wladmir and was on his bicycle half the fight and Wladmir was wrestling the other half (even getting a point deducted for it).

Honestly Povetkin and Byrd are the only guys in his resume in Foreman's league in terms of overall boxing ability. Byrd was a small, feather fisted southpaw who used a cautious fighting style, so we can't gather much information from those matches. And Povetkin, again, was dealing with some pretty egregious wrestling in his fight with Wladmir that the ref ignored.

Wladmir didn't fight Ortiz so I don't know why you mentioned him.

 

Absolutely love George and would put him at top 5 hypothetically, but it is notable that he did better against punchers and swarmers than boxers.

 

he was good but not very adjusting. His style was so dominant against most styles, but he could be beaten by fast fighters, yet those fighters had to be special.

 

Tyson is one of the hardest hitters for his size. Foreman is one of the hardest if not the hardest hitter period who could generate KO power with a jab. Hes not just a power hitter. Hes a power hitter who doesn't need to swing. In a game where everything is about looking at your opponents tendancies theres really very little you can do to stop that and puts Foreman on a different level then any other power hitter. Earnie Shavers is a power hitter that most ATGs outbox.

Ali and Jimmy Young are among the most skilled HWs ever. Them outboxing him when he was going through a rough patch does not mean its a weakness. Just how Alis rope or dope doesn't mean thats a viable strategy against Foreman for anyone else. Foreman was going the distance every fight with elite fighters in his late 40s hes as durable as they come. He is not vulnerable to Mike Tysons power. At all. Just like he wasn't vulnerable to Frazier at all. A fight with Tyson would go the same way. Tyson might last a little longer because its hard to call someone getting KO'd in R1 or R2 but thats about it.

 

Wladmir Klitschko doesn't fight like George Foreman at all, so this is an odd comparison.

 

I can’t assign him any specific rating. Prior to the 21st century I think he does better head to head than a lot of ATG’s. As heavyweights have become larger and stronger however I think he’d struggle more given that much of his style relied on being a large physical type of fighter. Sure his power alone is enough to hurt anyone no matter how big. But he also needed to control guys in the clinches, push them back in to mid range, corner them, etc. and that becomes increasingly harder to do when facing a field of men who now have the advantage over you