would foreman have beaten jimmy young

I don't think Foreman would've ever beaten Young. Young always had that spoiler style that gives big, slow punchers like Foreman hell because they can't get their punches off. People say Foreman was so much better before he suffered his first loss, but he was still wild open with his defence, flawed in any way imaginable and did not pace himself. Maybe Young would've stopped Foreman if he fought the one that fought Ali; certainly Foreman wasn't exactly fresh in the 12th when he fought as conservative as he ever could.

 

People who are big fans of Ali or Frazier tend to think Foreman was far better than he actually was. The truth is Foreman struggled vs quick boxers who were not afraid of him.

 

Personally i like the pre Zaire Foreman to beat Young, but he was so far from beating Ali i'm not keen to dwelve as if he did.

 

Pre-Ali, Foreman would have ko'd Young. Young didn't have great footspeed, and Foreman's aggressiveness would be too much for him. Foreman was not aggresive in their fight.

 

Who doesnt?
Louis v Conn
Dempsey v Gibbons
Liston v Ali
Jefffries v Corbett
Sullivan v Corbett
Dempsey v Tunney
Dempsey v Sharkey
Louis v Pastor
Tyson v Douglas
Schmeling v Sharkey etc etc etc etc.

 

I think he would have.

Foreman looked like he had Young ready to go in round 3. You could almost see him worry that he would punch himself out if he kept it up, then back off to save energy. Young dodged and outboxed him later in the fight, but there, Foreman let him off the hook. The pre-Zaire Foreman didn't have those kind of doubts and would have kept right on punching.

Young survived big punchers when he could avoid getting hit by them -- as he proved against Shavers and Lyle. But he also proved that when he couldn't avoid getting hit by Shavers, he couldn't take the punch. No shame in that, but the result was Shavers KO 3. Foreman was on the brink of the same result, and it sure looked to me that he turned back from that brink because he didn't have the confidence to go for the kayo with Young on the ropes.

 

Dempsey didnt stuggle with Gibbions, I score it about 12 rounds for Dempsey and 3 for Gibbions.

 

Considering how bad Young looked for the first seven rounds. culminating in him almost being knocked out, then it's not difficult to imagine him losing.

Young vs Foreman was extremely close imo.

 

Almost knocked out?? Young was staggered somewhere in the 9th, he swept the first 7 rounds easily in which Foreman hardly got any work done. Not a close fight at all.

 

I strongly disagree.

Foreman was well in front until tiring, then Young came on and pulled away at the very end.

It was no one-sided boxing lesson from Young.

 

Agreed.

 

No doubt that Foreman would have beat Young pre-Ali. After hearing many people on ESB mention lately that Foreman was slow, last night I purposely watched Foreman v Frazier #1 and Foreman v Norton specifically to view Foreman's speed. Although lumbering and throwing some wild shots, he looked pretty damn fast with hands, about as fast as Frazier. I even watched the ref. move to see if the tape was speeded up! I came to the conclusion that Foreman would be competitive with the best of any era.

 

He also looked pretty damn fast pushing Frazier off of him.

The referee should have stopped that stuff.

That was not boxing. You keep someone off with punches or movement.

 

If he could've gotten a brain transplant from the Foreman who came back