¿Who was physically stronger between George Foreman and Jack Johnson?

He was more 260-280 lbs in his better performances.

I mean yeah but the way he is, it's quite clear that he would bully young Foreman. Not saying he beats Foreman but just purely-physically speaking.

I'm not sure honestly, 90s Foreman out-weighed everyone he fought. Like he had 50 lbs on Holyfield. Jared Anderson was exactly as big as Foreman at 6'4 and 250+ lbs while also being younger and in better shape, and Bakole treated him like Foreman treated Frazier. Just no-selling everything and running over him like a truck.

 

That isn't a big enough size difference to say that he was definitely stronger though, especially when you are talking about a man who trained for strength.

 

A 213 pound Michael Hunter beat up and stopped Bakole.

 

And based on what they've done so far, a 217 pound Foreman would beat Bakole, too. But that doesn't prevent Bakole from being very likely stronger than a 217 pound Foreman.

I mean, Young Foreman would beat Eddie Hall and Hafthor Bjornsson, too. But I have no doubt those men are much, much stronger than Young Foreman.

 

The person above is stating Bakole is stronger based on being heavier that is not a good gauge of strength. For example a 220 pound Usyk was easily able to push of Fury in the clinches who outweighs him by 50 pounds.

1. Bakole is incredibly overweight as I said size is not always a gauge of functional strength.

2. Foreman has impressive feats of strength from a young age.

I've not seen any evidence of Bakole's apparent amazing strength. He got beat up and bullied by Michael Hunter and his only real notable performance is beating a prospect in Jared Anderson.

 

Usyk trains MMA, that's why he can handle people bigger than him in the clinch. Fury IS stronger than him, as was AJ.

It usually is, and being overweight is a problem for speed and cardio, its not an issue for strength and power.

Yeah against people significantly smaller than him and hilariously smaller than Bakole.

Hunter didn't "bully" him, he boxed his head off. And you classify Anderson as a mere prospect but that guy was 6'4, 250 lbs and he literally looked like a kid strength-wise against Bakole. Got bullied the same way Frazier did agaisnt Foreman.

 

I met Jared Anderson. In fact, my brother used to spar with him.

He's not as big or as strong as Foreman. Height and weight don't tell the whole story.

 

If Foreman was in the modern era he would be 230+ he had to cut down from 235 as its different era and fighters trained more for conditioning as fights were 15 rounds.

Being overweight and beating 1 notable opponent in Anderson who was a prospect don't seem like a strong argument to me.

 

So why did you choose to minimize the difference in their size in your post ? 218 to 192 is about 12% body weight difference say a middleweight to a light heavyweight or a welter to a mid-super middleweight ... I'd say the lager weight matters ..

Where is all this now taken as gospel of Johnson training for strength coming from ? I'm a serious Johnson fan and have read a ton on the man and never read any of this ... I see photos when he was in his physical prime , say for Burns he was a ripped 192, thin legs but an well muscled guy ... the footage of him is interesting and he was no doubt strong but what else am I missing ?

The heavyweight I've read the most that incorporated wrestling into his training other than Sullivan (when he actually trained) was Dempsey who wrestled all the time in his training camps ..

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Size is a better indicator than most, along with visibly manhandling people who are very large, and testimony by people who encountered these guys.

That said, I'll toss something out that undermines both of our posts, since I think it ought to be said. Trying to measure the strength of strong boxers against each other, especially across eras, is probably a fool's errand. It's hard enough to tell who's stronger between two guys who are actually in the ring against each other. The technical skill being demonstrated a masking variable, and fighters might also be following different strategies than going all-in on manhandling each other. And lest we forget, boxing isn't primarily a grappling sport.

I once tried, as an experiment, an old strength-development contest with a former high school wrestler a little bigger than me, IIRC. You stood chest to chest, hands clasped outward, and shoved each other. Very little technique, but it still had some, as I discovered when I started figuring out how to push him back despite his apparently being the stronger man when we both had equal leverage.

And all that said, could I tell you after that experience which one of us lifted more weight? No. Despite having an almost purified strength vs strength game with minimal technique, I still don't know which of us was stronger. Probably him, but could I say for sure? No. We didn't lift anything against each other, and he had a far better feel for grappling than I did. Now compare that to boxing, where the grappling is far less directly tied to strength, and isn't the sport's primary focus.

 

I'm 6'1 200 pounds I do lift weights and go to gym regularly I wouldn't say I'm overly strong but definitely stronger than the average guy.

I remember I tried some friendly MMA sparring with my friend he's got alot more experience than me although he's about the same size as me give or take.

I remember in the clinch I felt he was stronger than me and once he pinned me to the mat I felt helpless honestly and I couldn't move.

So even though I've got reasonable strength in lifting weights it didn't help me much there because he's got better technique and knows how to use his bodyweight better than I do.

 

Yep. And if we, who literally experienced grappling those guys first hand, could not say with any certainty whether they were stronger or weaker than us in a lifting sense, it's silly to ask for fine-grained judgments of, say, Tyson vs Jeffries vs Foreman in the strength department.

We can make some educated guesses with weight trained gym rats like AJ compared to dehydrated guys 30 pounds lighter who don't lift, but beyond that...

 

Idk man, scales don't lie. When did Foreman ever overpower a guy that big? He wasn't even at that size himself when he wasn't obese and though prime Foreman was in better shape he was about 30 lbs lighter than Jared. I think you people need to stop overcomplicating it so much.

 

Well if my momma had a beard she'd be my dad. We can't really judge things on how they COULD be. Only from what they ARE.

What part of absolutely manhandling a 6'4 252 lbs guy is not strong enough to convince you that Bakole is stronger than a 217 lbs man? Foreman would look like a power-punching Ali against Bakole and KO him but strength edge absolutely goes to the 60 lbs heavier man and its not really close.

 

Because weight doesn't determine how strong a fighter is or isn't as @Glass City Cobra has already told you numerous times.