George Foreman 73 Vs Lennox Lewis 95

None of these guys hit like Foreman... Foreman and Shavers unquestionably the two biggest bangers all time. Did you ever see Lyle? He could crack, and on any given night, he could cause problems for many quality heavies. The 70`s heavies had the most depth of ANY era in the bigs.And I forgot, Lewis has such a great chin...

 

The absolute truth is that Lewis chin was reachable, and when he fielded a bomb. There were two times he could not recover. I don`t think Foreman`s power was overated. Ali had his number, Young caught him at the tail end of his first career. Foreman could be outboxed, no suprise there. but I DO NOT believe Lennox could take and survive a clean Foreman shot. This is why when you talk about all time great heavies. Ali (like cream) consistently rises to the top. You gotta be able to take it to be considered upper echelon heavyweight champ. Foreman would definitley have the punchers chance, and Lewis did not posess a granite chin...

 

Why are you comparing Foreman with Shavers for pure power? Personally I think Tyson, Tua and Bruno probably all punch harder than Foreman.

 

Since I remember the Tyson & Ruddock fights well, I will say that neither landed anything substantial on Lewis. It's not like they landed their best shots. They were too occupied getting owned by Lewis. Foreman is a completely different beast than a 2002 Tyson (or any Tyson for that matter) or Ruddock.

C'mon you know full well that styles make fights and that there are a lot of intangibles in boxing. For the same reasons one can't explain why Tyson landed terrific shots on Holy but didn't get a KD whereas Bert Cooper did it in 3 rounds. I can't verify this but Holyfield said that Foreman hit him harder than Tyson and Holy beat both so there's no bias here.

This is true to an extent. Lewis can definitely take Foreman's "shots" but he cannot take Foreman's "best shot".

I'd still have to ponder over this to decide who'd win. One thing for sure Foreman fans - don't count on a one punch KO. That's boxing adage.

 

I don't have a verified source but I think Holyfield disagrees with you.

 

Exactly. There were two times when he couldn't recover, out of something like 700 power punches he took during his career (Damond has the complete stats). And even at that, he was stopped relatively quick on his feet by a Don King referee for the McCall.

He had his number? By laying on the ropes and being able to take a shot? The rope a dope, as dramatic as it was, is a horrible strategy that no other boxer ever pulled of succesfully and wasn't succesful against any other fighter during Ali's late career, either. Foreman looked awfully amateurish in being gassed after as little as 5 rounds in which his opponent forced no pace at all.

What, you mean 3 years after his peak?

Look at the film of Foreman in 73/74... his defence is noexistant, he is constantly off balance and he's wide open. Frazier and Norton are great wins, but they were home made for him style-wise. Young won every round except the 9th and knocked him down; it's not like that was a close contest.

Frazier can only fight one way (take punches early while warming up) and Norton never beat a puncher. Ali takes a good shot and knows how to box, Young, dito. Both embarrassed Foreman. Do you see the pattern? Lewis can box, punch, start fast, is skilled technically and takes a good shot. You'll probably bring up his two KO losses, your sole argument, but at the same time, he survived and beat 10 times more big hitters than Foerman did. Plus, Young had been stopped a couple of times as well.

Foreman definitely has a puncher's chance, no matter who he faces. But i think that is in fact his only chance during this fight... and betting on a puncher's chance is never a wise thing to do. Foreman never was a big one shot hitter; i don't doubt Lewis could take and survive a clean Foreman shot, as he survived shots from Tua, Tyson, Bruno, Briggs, Morrison, etc etc.

 

I didn't include Ruddock because he didn't land anything of note but Tyson certainly did. In round 1 and 2 he hit Lewis with several left hooks flush, one at least moving him visibly backwards. Those were full blooded punches and Lewis took the shots.

There's no doubt that Foreman is a very powerful puncher but his power is often attributed mythical proportions. He's just a man after all and Lewis has taken equally hard shots from big punchers over the years. I think some expect him to collapse as soon as Foreman lands. Lewis has taken 2 powerful right hands and fallen but what about all the full blooded shots he's taken flush and not gone down?

In 14 years how many times was Lewis decked? Twice...

I don't see why he can't. He took full blooded shots from Tyson, Tua, Bruno etc. Is there any evidence that Foreman punched any harder than Frank Bruno? None. Whatever anyone says it's all conjecture and opinion.

 

Damn, everyone is ganging up on me... The difference that I see between the Tua`s, Tysons and Bruno against Lewis. Is that a young brutish Foreman, would look to do the intimidating against Lewis. He was surly, mean and fought to punish his foes. When the ref and corner was stopping his fight with Norton. Look at the tape, you see Foreman coming over looking to give it to Norton again. I don`t feel as though Ruddock, Tua or Tyson came in against Lewis with that level of intensity. Foreman could absolutley be outboxed. But for at least 2 or 3 rds, he would push Lewis around and look to land his bombs. Lewis wasn`t just decked, he was stopped... He was out on his feet when they stopped the McCall fight, look at the tape how he was leaning on on wobbly feet when the ref was talking to him. The bottom line he was stopped, KO TKO whatever. I too think he had all the tools to take Foreman. I just feel as though for 3 rds, its a tossup to see if Lewis could get through those first few.

 

Foreman`s punchers chance, this is what I am saying, a REAL punchers chance...

 

How could you possibly say Foreman and Shavers are unquestionably the two biggest bangers ever?

You might find some of these guys i mentioned are a lot closer to them than you realise

 

not happening. lewis is too arrogant & pompous to be scared of anyone. rofl, this actually helps him. sure foreman is scarier than tyson but tyson tried to do all sorts of crazy stuff to make lewis uneasy. lewis was definitely uneasy with all that drama but 100% focused & 100% unintimidated with great confidence yet reserved caution against tyson.

 

OMG, more Lewis nuthugging...............and it is always coming from the same guys, over and over again.

Lewis is a A caliber fighter, no doubt, but he is very vulnerable in a shoot out and that what Foreman is going to bring for the first 6. Pure agression and non stop punches. If he gets caught like in the VK/Briggs fights and wobbles he ain't gonna get off the hook with young Georg.Period. While Foreman will get tagged too he has shown that he can take some monster shots without going down or if he gets floored he can get up, something Lewis has not been able to do. History has shown that when you knock Lemmie down he stays down. Fact.

Foreman's stamina is always brought up but Lewis was never a conditioning wonder,himself,especially if he could not impose his will/size on to his opponent and was forced to fight the other guys fight.

It makes me laugh when I read that Lewis took full bore shots from Tyson,Tua, Ruddock etc , yeah, maybe you take your rose colored glasses of, they never landed clean , mostly because they were at the tail end of their career , totally washed up or never were's who build their "dangerous" rep on loosing the big fights. LOL.

Full shot means what Tyson landed on Botha..........same punch lands on Lewis and he is counting stars, you can take that to the bank.

Early to mid 90's Lewis relied mainly on a lazy pawing jab follwed by the right, as a matter of fact it was pretty predictable. He also was more agressive and not in the same Stewart protect the chin safe mode. He also did not tie his foes up a lot when up close and his inside game was rather lackluster. Stewart polished all that up later in his career.

Young Foreman most likely will duplicate the McCall performance because Lemmie is drawn into a dog fight similar to years later in LA against VK.

History has also shown that you can get by Lewis jab, even under Stewart with relentless agression and a high punch output which puts him on the defense so he cannot cherry pick his strong right hand. See Mercer or VK fights. Once Lewis is in his rythm the puzzle becomes more complicated see the lame Rahman2 or Golata attempts who sat back and let Lemmie control the tempo.

THe key to beat Lewis is to crowd him, give him no breathing room and make him fight which will expose his achilles heel , the chin.

I believe a young Foreman/Tyson are nightmares style wise for Lewis.

 

Finally some Foreman fans...

 

For christ sakes, Lewis went life and death with Ray Mercer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am no Foreman fan but have issues with this comical constant over rating of Lennox Lewis. Reading some of those posts makes you wonder why on earth did he ever loose a fight or struggled with ham and eggers.

Anyway , in this scenerio , I take a young George over the early nineties Lewis.