Had George Foreman beaten Ali and not retired, how would things have gone?

Foreman fought Wepner in 1969,in his (Foreman's) 4th pro fight.
Foreman beat him in 3 rounds.

Wepner was a club fighter.

 

You have a point. Foreman's defence is very weak and i do think that could cost him against hard punchers. As you pointed out, it nearly did against Lyle and i'm not very impressed by Lyle's power.

However, the difference here is that Shavers can dish it out but can't take it. Lyle could take quite a bit. Shavers has a punchers chance, but he's no magician in terms of getting his punches in, either. So i think it's a pretty safe bet that in case Foreman gets tagged, he gets up and finished the job, but more likely he takes Shavers out early, Quarry-style.

 

Not impressed by Lyle's power?

He was an extremely solid puncher.

 

For an extremely solid puncher, he had a very small amount of knockouts. He KO'd Earnie Shavers (glass jaw) and all other good opponents either went the distance with him or knocked him out.

 

Holmes actually pitched a shutout on two out of three cards in their original fight.

 

You left out Frazier? His input?

 

Good point, i'll bet Stone has Liston beating him given Ali would not have taken what he did from Sonny.

 

There would be far less Muhammad Ali threads, and a lot more George Foreman threads on eastside.

If George Foreman had a twin brother, with a 3rd nipple, that fought Ken Norton the night George did; would anyone notice the nipple and expose the truth? And all kinds of stuff such as that would be posted over and over.

 

Frazier could have fought Liston in the late sixties, and wisely chose not to. Did he duck him? Nah. He had good management. Had 1971 Frazier got at an early forties Liston, Liston would probably not have held up. His lifestyle ensured that his decline was assured by then. Or, perhaps his lifestyle would have improved and he would have enough to deal with Tasmanian Frazier. Power is the last thing to go, and Liston, like Foreman, knew how to keep you on the end of his shots.

So, either Frazier would have been vanquished, or it would be he who finally toppled the now-grizzled King Liston. But then Foreman would have inevitably laid Smokin' Joe to waste. He'd be Footnote Frazier... and after Foreman turned back the challenge that was Frazier and then took out Liston, Sports Illustrated would have a cover entitled "The King is Dead. Long Live the King."

Either way, Frazier would have the misfortune of rising up between two monsters -and as we all both were his stylistic nightmares.

 

KO records are sometimes misleading. I think that's well enough known.

He always floored Foreman, hard, as well.

 

After beating Ali George could easily have got so overconfident that he signed to fight a fit well prepared Quarry or turned up fat against Bugner in Malaysia. Either of these guys could have beaten George on an off night. Later in the seventies Young or Holmes could have outboxed George. The big difficulty with pure punchers is keeping them motivated once they win the title. After beating Ali, I don't think George would have had the motivation to carry on for long.