George Foreman ruined lineal

Yes, Foreman clearly wanted no part of Bowe or Lewis.

 

Yes, his second reign was pathetic. But he didn't ruin anything. Take a look at the first heavyweight champions and how they behave as "lineal".

 

Agreed. Especially those who drew the disgraceful "Colour Line"

 

The man himself, John L Sullivan, was running around saying he's the champion, while not fighting for 3 years, lol. Dempsey didn't defent for similar stretch as well. So I think fighting bums like Foreman did, is a tad better than not fighting at all. Still disgraceful tho. And Foreman reigned in the time where there was no clear top dog as well, so it was hard to have bigger championship claim than the man who beat the man.

 

Can't blame the guy.

 

Why

 

Pretty obvious I’d say.

No one individual “ruined” lineal. We wouldn’t even be having the silly discussion were it not for a bunch of corrupt, self-serving twits who decided they could make a buck hawking another trinket belt back in the day. Blame them.

 

This is false.

Sullivan was running around saying hes the champion while not fighting for 5 years. Lol.

Yeah people forget the situation in 1994-1997. The reality was Foremans mandatory was Tony Tucker and the biggest fight that could have been made in 1995/1996 was the Moorer rematch. Once Lennox and Holyfield had seperated themselves from the pack Foreman agreed to fight Lennox if he beat Briggs. Foreman was looking for the big fight but there was none to be made so he fought Grimsley. He fought Grimsley because some sanctioning body in their infinite wisdowm ranked Grimsley 9th and gave him a regional belt.

 

Or Tucker.

 

He could have fought Lewis Holyfield Bowe etc. No excuse for not fighting them.

 

It was a WBC FECARBOX belt. I don't even know WTF it is. He was also ranked #9 with WBA.

 

The Grimsley fight was for the EBU and IBA. The big three had already distanced themselves.

 

Nobody said anything different.

 

Ducked Tony Tucker as well.

In an alt history:

Foreman beats Tyson, Tyson beats Tucker, Tucker beats Foreman.