Old George Foreman vs. HW Roy Jones

If we swap Ali with Roy in Zaire I don't see him getting out of the first round, no chance.

 

...The betting odds favored Jones.

 

After this thread, I'm pretty sure that Jones is now officially the most overrated fighter on Classic. And as a footnote, speed is also overrated. There are ways to beat speed. Jones fast hands will not save him against a wall that is closing in. It's as easy as that.

Jones beating prime or old Foreman ain't happnin'.

 

Prime Foreman swarms Jones and Ko's him in one. Old George catch's Jones mid-late when he slows.

 

The version of Foreman I'd give Jones the best chance against is the one who lost to Young. He seemed hesitant, and his more cautios stalking style didn't work well in combination with the lack of precision and timing he still had in his punching. This, and his poor stamina, is something that Jones possibly could exploit enough to win.

 

Any idea by how much, though? I'd be surprised if it was more than 7:5.

And old Foreman isn't?

Let be honest here: he struggled with or should've lost to mediocre opponents (Stewart, Savarese, Schulz), lost by a shutout to Holyfield and Morrison and was on his way to another shutout loss until he caught Moorer.

In other words, impressive for age, but for a normal boxer, nothing to write home about.

Morrison, who has a glass chin if i ever saw one, easily outboxed Foreman to a landslide decision. Jones has more boxing ability in his little pinkie than Morrison has at all. Yes, Morrison is bigger, but he doesn't take a bigger shot and was mostly boxing on speed instead of power. And you can be sure that Jones wouldn't be a fool and start trading with Foreman like Moorer did, either.

You might say that the mediocre fighters who Foreman struggled with at least were heavyweights, but so was Ruiz. He was better than Stewart, Schulz, etc, yet Jones beat him pretty fairly easy.

 

just to get it straight i think Foreman wins but im playing devils advocate with you Stonehands

 

Jones on points or Foreman late. Foreman's going to have a hell of a time landing anything, but he just might late on and if he lands anything near good hes going to ko Jones. I don't believe Jones chin was glass at HW, he took Ruiz best right and that shot kd'ed Holyfield. But Foreman's power is a different league

 

I agree. Old Foreman has become the most overated fighter head to head of all time. There are actually nitwits out there who still think Foreman would have beaten Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe in 1991.atsch

 

9:5

Old Foreman hand-picked his opponents for a reason. He was limited by age and molasses and rust ---but he had a few serious assets: physical strength, power, durability, and a great chin. Those guys you mentioned are big men who could move and they would always have given him problems -he knew that and so did we. He was also near-shot against Shulz. Even his power was disappearing.

Jones is not a big man. He's a small man. Foreman's assets would prove overwhelming to Roy Jones. To win, Roy needs to display effective aggression. And he'd be a fool every second he was aggressive because George would not have to land flush on his chin to end him.

Morrison is a big, strong man. His body is designed to take more punishment than Roy's ever could be. And Morrison did what Jones would have to do -stay out of range. And here's the crux. Morrison could hurt George so George had to exercise caution. Roy is not going to hurt George. Therefore George is going to walk him right down and pound him.

Roy absolutely does not have a better chin that Morrison. You know that. I can't see Morrison sound asleep at the hands of Glen Johnson. No way. And he did take monster shots from none other than Razor Ruddock. Do you see Jones surviving with his head on his neck against Ruddock? I hope not. And that tells that you Morrison has a suspect chin, but it is at the HW level. And it also tells you that Roy would have been a dunce (and possibly a dead dunce) to get into the ring with any heavyweight banger in history. And George is arguably the king of the HW bangers.

Your Ruiz analogy is irrelevant to this argument. Ruiz had neither the power nor the chin nor the overwhelming physical strength and physical presence that Foreman had. Hell, Ruiz may have beaten Foreman. But that doesn't mean that Jones would!

 

Then here's to half-wits like me.

I'm sure that Foreman would not have beaten Bowe in '91, but he would have stopped Tyson.

 

If the Tyson of the Douglas fight showed up I agree.

 

i agree completly

Foreman is all wrong for Tyson and i believe Tyson was scared of Foreman because Cus told him no swarmer would beat Foreman and Tyson being a student of boxing knew this

 

1990s foreman was not all wrong for tyson. that version of foreman had no defense, was slow as molasses, he would have been a sitting punching bag for mike tyson. if tyson can take ruddocks best, he can take old foremans, and i doubt old foreman lands much with his telegraphed wide blows

 

Wrong. His cross armed defense which he and Archie Moore worked to improve was actually very effective. A lot of people commented on how much his defense had actually been shored up in the 90's.

While I would not favor a 40+ year old George Foreman to beat Mike Tyson, the notion that he'd have no chance is just as daft as saying George would blast him out in two like Frazier. Foreman would not just be a sitting duck for Tyson. He would be very hard for a much shorter Tyson to hit in the head, and would cover up most of the time. He also had the size, strength and right technique for Tying up Tyson and often gave a nasty gut check while in the clinches, that over a period of rounds would take effect. You describe Foreman's blows as being " wide and looping ", but in actuality a comeback Foreman had a pretty strait jab and utilized a deadly overhand right that was not so easily dodged.

To take a decision over Foreman, Holyfield had to box wisely and even sustain some very respectable blows - two things that were not always Tyson's forte.

That said, I favor Tyson, but the possibilty that it might have been a good fight, or even resulted in an upset is not an unreasonable conclusion.