Is Wladimir Klitschko a favorite over prime George Foreman and Sonny Liston H2H

Wlad ain't bullying George.

 

Liston never knocked out anyone over 230 and mostly feasted on guys who’d be light heavies or cruiserweights. He was slow-footed, and at least with Foreman you can say he was explosive and had the kind of power to maybe catch Wlad but I just don’t see that with Liston at all.

Wlad would have his way with Liston

 

And you think he'd bully Liston of all people..... Got it.

 

Common opponents between Liston and Foreman said Sonny punched harder.Also Sonny's
punches were more accurate.
Given the struggles Wlad had with the likes of Brewster and Samuel Peter it is Sonny who
would have his way in this fight.

 

Wlad could argue with significant justification that he accomplished more than either of them.

For every champion with Wlad's longevity, you could find five who had a brief period of dominance.

Having said that, both of these gentlemen would have been wrong for him, and there might be a window where they beat him.

 

Again, Foreman knew how to parry jabs. Wladmir is not going to have an easy time just spamming jabs from long range.

Foreman was hurt by Lyle because Lyle mixed it up with him and countered Foreman's jab with overhand rights (a cross counter) at close range. That wasn't Wladmir's style, like at all. Wladmir was a long ranged sniper who valued caution and avoided mixing it up close like the plague. Foreman was also trying out a new style against Lyle attempting to be more of a boxer puncher. 72-74 Foreman wouldn't be throwing probing pawing jabs from a traditional stance.

Foreman wouldn't need to try to "bully" Wladmir to throw body shots and uppercuts. He's wide open for those if the ref does his job and penalizes clinches and leaning. Foreman didn't simply attempt to bully and bum rush taller opponents like Jack O Holleran, he had a brain.

 

Knowing how to parry jabs and being able to parry Wlad's jabs are two different things. He was great at timing them and super accurate with them even against opponents that tried to parry them. And Norton nor Young really struggled to land their jabs against Foreman so I don't see why Wlad would either.

Cool but he would be fighting him at range and not letting him get close to land his punches and if he lands a right hand which he almost certainly will don't see Foreman being able to walk through it.

You're assuming that Wlad would just let him in close enough range to throw those shots? Wlad was a master of maintaining distance against smaller opponents using both his footwork and his clinches or pushing opponents away. And the two opponents Foreman fought who used the clinch to stiffle him he really couldn't do much against so what will he be able to do against a bigger stronger man doing the same?

The more I think about it the more I really don't see an avenue for Foreman here he'd have to totally reinvent his style to something he's never done just to have a chance.

 

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Apparently that's what being a master of controling distance looks like ^^ lmao

Fat old shot James Toney did a better job at distance control in the first Peter fight than Wlad did.

Wlad was probably the best example of a guy who sucked at distance control.
If you cant stop the guy making unwanted contact then you simply cannot control distance.
It isn't complicated. It's deception to claim otherwise.

The way he reaches out to grab Peter from MID range would have absolutely disastrous consequences against Foreman.
Nobody with a glass chin who leaps forward attempting to hug a guy with the hardest uppercut known to mankind is seeing past the 3rd round

 

IMO when it comes to younger Kiltschko it depends on how much holding the referee is allowing in these fantasy fights.

Referees tend to be lenient with holding most the time which people should bear in mind when accusing fighters but that Povetkin fight (Pov was very strong and bigger than Liston and similar in size to Foreman) would have not been allowed to go down like that in the US or UK.

Generally I stay away from these but that's my 2 cents.

 

liston yes. foreman no.

 

In what Klitschko fight during his prime (Byrd II to Pulev) did he look vulnerable due to the ref limiting clinching?

I feel like this is one of those arguments that sounds good but isn’t backed by much of anything.

 

I didn't say he looked vulnerable when he did fight I was saying I think how much clinching is allowed matters in case of Wlad in some of these fantasy matchups because it's a big part of his game and helps him avoid close exchanges which wasn't how Kiltschko liked to fight he liked to control from range.

 

Brewster I. The ref went to his corner between rounds and told no more clinching will be allowed. Taking his clinching away allowed for a fair fight.
Shortly after he moved to Germany where he had his own personal ref and his own rules just like Sven Ottkey before him

 

Agreed. It made up the lion’s share of his defense.

 

Ref's being different could have changed the outcome of certain fights in history and we could speculate but ultimately it didn't happen which is most important.