FOREMAN VS BIG PUNCHERS....why it didnt happen often

hey

i was reading another thread someone said about foreman being carefully managed.

the one thing that sticks out in my mind is how he almost always managed to avoid the big punchers....

yes in his prime he fought frazier(had to frazier was champ),ron lyle and norton can be considered a puncher too


when he came back he did face a faded cooney and briggs etc


but whats more interesting are the guys heavy hitters that did not find their way on his record book


70's mac foster, quarry,shavers,roy willimas, oscar bonenva, among others


in his comeback, the list is even longer ruddock,bowe,lewis,mercer,mccall,bruno,micheal dokes,tim witherspoon etc


now most people say he is greater then most of the guys mentioned which is true

HOWEVER...

he style has always been to walk guys down and have his way in the ring, but with a big puncher you always walk into something you dont like
like with the case with lyle and later with cooney


like they say never fellow a puncher around, and this was foreman style


so do you guys think he ducked big punchers on purpose

 

So, he fought Lyle but it's mysterious that he did not fight Quarry? What the hell are we talking about here?

 

A lot of men hit hard at heavyweight. I think Foreman fought his fair share.

 

Myth busted.

 

I didn't even know this was a myth. It's like "I've heard they carefully kept Liston away from fast fighters and aside from fighting Patterson and Ali twice a piece he only fought A, B and C and mysteriously no others."

 

Never really heard anyone say Foreman avoided big punchers before. If anything I would say big punchers avoided him. If your best assest is your power the last thing you wanna do is go up against a bigger hitter.

 

I also think except for Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Liston, Patterson, Holmes and a few others, Ali avoided African American fighters. I mean, while he was piddling around with the Bugners, Wepners and the like, he could have been fighting ...Norton again. No wait, that was before Norton...myth busted.

 

Exactly; if you line up his entire era and announce a barroom contest where they sit across a table from George and trade freebies on the chin, with the take-home being double their career purse...you'd get nothing but a lot of gulping, hemming, hawing, and intense scrutiny of the ceiling tiles.

 

You mentioned Dokes as a hard hitter, he wasnt a big puncher maybe average.

You didnt mention Moorer,Morrison,Stewart who all hit harder than Dokes, hell even Holyfield hit harder.

 

He fought quite a few punchers.

In his prime; Frazier and Lyle.

 

Crazy innit? I actually thank that apart from fighting Koki Kameda, that Pongsaklek Wonjongkam actually avoided Koki Kameda.

 

That's a dirty rumor!

 

It is of course why the academics on the general forum call him "duckiao" when they aren't calling him "Pacroid".


PS: Am I the only one that really enjoyed the way this thread turned out?

 

Foreman was a better fighter than Lyle,Mac Foster but I still think he would fall into the category of the slow, open puncher than Quarry excelled against. I think Quarry would be able to survive Foreman's early power and land a few of his own in there. Quarry had a good chance of walking away with a KO here. Foreman had the most padded and built up records of any of the Heavyweight champions. I highly favor durable punchers over a young Foreman and quick defensive fighters. Foreman may have had the ability to overcome his weaknesses earlier if he was exposed to that type of fighter and came back for a loss but he was not mentally ready until his comeback. The older Foreman overcame and defended much better his weaknesses

 

...Hmm...That's...a bold statement, for sure, Bummy. Can't say as I can picture it.