Could anyone out slug young Foreman?

He was chosen to make George look good by his management because he “came right at you” the thing no one is apparently capable of against GF? 7-8 years older then GF just came off two losses to JY / MA with only a win over the very average Shavers… Foreman had been off for a year and two months FFS not unheard of and was in his most productive years? How was he not in his prime? “Mentally fried” is that it? That’s why he was shell shocked by the first right hand?

 

Unironically

 

I made a very compelling case for “Big” James amend your list. Seriously though it’s why GF wouldn’t last if he’d stayed, law of averages a Tate, Weaver, Cooney whoever would take his block off at some point with his defence and style… but keep it there unlike Lyle. He’d be an opponent type there would be no rivalry with Holmes he might not even make it up the ladder after Young lol he retired perfectly.

 

Unironically.

 

I agree, Unironically. look what Lyle did.

 

A year and two to three months if you're counting it from the Zaire fight.

If you include a certain spectacle, April 1975 is when the Toronto 5 exhibition took place. A weird appearance in the ring, but still an appearance in the ring.

Fought Lyle January 1976.

Not even a year.

 

People have crumbled mentally in far less time

 

There you go and that’s Ignoring the obvious sparring etc - so sick of this narrative.

 

You’re right… oh poor millionaire combat athlete who lost to a seasoned HW champ in one fight of like 40… he was just distraught I can imagine. So… 70s GF was just unbelievably mentally weak compared to countless HW’s before and after that’s your stance? FAIR.
A guy named Lyle who had basically the same experience in a calendar year (loss to Young and Ali) against similar versions didn’t see Jesus or become “mentally fried” even after his loss to GF… he actually rematched the nightmare inducing Jimmy “the terror” Young.

 

Sometimes I wonder whether it's like Calvinball. The rules are invented as one goes along, to insulate ATGs from losses and poor performances against non-ATGs. Jimmy Young, Buster Douglas, Lyle, lots of people get this treatment. Especially against heavyweight destroyers who didn't do what was expected of them that night. It's not any one person who I'm accusing here -- I think that's just how the tradition has developed in this sport.

With Foreman and Tyson, it almost seems more like an attack on them than a defense sometimes. They get their carve-outs, but at the cost of being painted as mentally and emotionally fragile.

Sometimes, the less great fighter wins. Or does really well. It happens. At the level we're talking about, even in the 70s, these guys are all elite professional athletes.

 

Yes exactly, he was never the same after losing to Ali

This is quite obvious and has been stated a billion times by him and everyone around him

 

I mean the only FACT is it’s obvious he looked vulnerable in with ranked contenders in his prime? Is it just easier for you call him one of if not the mentally weakest HW champions? Couldn’t handle one loss as a 20 something millionaire? is that easier to absorb for fans instead of it perhaps being the fact he was fighting very good professional fighter's? Believe whoever you want but to me it’s plain cope.

 

I was actually going to make a thread specifically about how stupid and cringe the "Nobody beats Foreman going forward" narrative is, as if the laws of the universe prevent Foreman from losing to boxer punchers, sluggers or swarmers.

It's something that I'd expect people who've literally never seen / don't know anything about Foreman outside of his Ali and Frazier fights would say. I wouldn't expect it on Classic yet see it all the time.

Foreman is the most overrated heavyweight H2H on this forum and I don't think it's close. Tyson, Vitali (and briefly Fury) were by the wider boxing public but only on this forum will you hear people say that Foreman is such a massive, COLOSSAL ***** that everything post Ali wasn't his prime. It's pathetic.

It's an even worse version of the Tokyo Tyson narrative, only rivaled by the Part Time Duran narrative.

 

Win by purely outslugging a prime, young George Foreman? Nobody I ever saw could have done that. Mix in some boxing and I can think of a few.

 

George was a real terror in the ring during his peak years. Not many were equiped to survive the onslaught or had enough firepower to change Foreman's expression. It would have to be a really good finisher. The sooner safer as Jack Dempsey said.

I think Joe Louis had enough of the ingredients to have a chance during his prime years. Most importantly he had the guts to stand and deliver murderous combinations at midrange. His accuracy as well as precsion. Anything could happen with two legendary punchers. He might even have to climb off the canvas to do it but don't dimiss the Brown Bomber.

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