Your disamine is very detailed and sharable but it cant prove the punches Morrison threw on Foreman werent powerful.
I know. That's why I said they were "fatigue knockdowns." His chin was good but big puncher Ron Lyle dented it. He didn't fight any big punchers that warred with him in his second incarnation. Alex Stewart did but I don't think he hit as hard as Ron Lyle.
Morrison has a naturally aggressive style that is highly effective when moving forward. Morrison fought off the back foot the entire fight and used movement to dart in an out and outbox the older, slower Foreman. I think it would be a fair assumption to say that Tommy Morrison wasn't getting optimal leverage on his punches in the Foreman fight due to his stick and move style.
There are least time times he is hit flush with combinations by Holyfield and takes it .. in addition , taking a punch is not only chin but he'd and temple .. look at how many guys crumble from shots to the head .. your whole point is dicey dude.
Actually I like Foreman, a lot ......when all the Commie US Athletes disrespected the US Flag at the Olympics George carried and waved a small US flag, a American success story thru and thru earned by hard work and not victim handouts...... However, about a week after his fight with Holyfield , at a HBO fight recap, still wearing sunglasses because his face was still black and blue from the hiding he received in the fight, he was asked about Holyfields punching power and he replied, his words not mine, if Evander would have been a real puncher I would have been in big trouble but I do not regard him as a true Heavyweight Puncher .......that is pretty much word for word what he said. One more time Holyfield was never ever a hard hitter, he had great timing, speed and good counter punching abilities but he lacked serious power, full stop, he was the No1 PED abuser bar none at Heavyweight but it did not improve his punching ability at all, the added mass just helped him in the clinches and to absorb shots at the expense of stamina . Foreman carefully hand picked his opponents in his comeback and the only one he faced with a pulse was Holyfield who he did not regard as a puncher................Morrison/Stewart/Saverese/Briggs /Moorer packed nothing but pure glass.
But Foreman isn't taking shots in his temple, mostly the top of his head and cheek bones or he's rolling with them. Those combos aren't exactly flush, because of the way Foreman keeps his arms out and hides his head, Holyfield is having to loop at odd angles that just aren't hitting clean or hard enough in the right places to rock him. And because Foreman isn't attempting to exchange, he's bracing for most of these punches and letting Evander tee off like I already said. Just the anticipation can negate damage in the ring. Foreman's whole strategy against Evander was the same against Moorer, shell up, let them get tired and stupid and wait for an opening. Some punches will defiantly find their mark, but nothing he can't handle. The right hand in Round 9 over Foreman's jab is the cleanest punch in the fight, flush on the jaw. It's because it's the one time he got caught reaching, gave up too much space, and was not expecting something coming back. Foreman lost his legs and needed the ropes to stay on his feet. My whole point goes to what every durable so called iron chinned fighter in the history of this sport has said and what we should note and learn from the unprecedented video access we have, from LaMotta to Chuvalo to McCall...they aren't taking the punishment you think they are. And as already driven into the ground, Evander wasn't the type of puncher that could drop guys with glancing punches or half torqued, he needed full leverage and accuracy. Foreman, Wlad, and Marciano...etc are the heavies I've seen that could do heavy damage to their opponents without landing clean. Evander never hit like that.
Foreman was a better technician in his comeback than he was in his early years. He did not have a bad chin as a young man. Ali stopped him and Jimmy Young knocked him down when he was dead tired. In the 70's, he was gunning for the KO all the time. Later, he was conserving his energy for a long fight if necessary. He wasn't going to be rope-a-doped again!
George was tough, durable,determined and his chin was rock as it was in his first career. Only second time round GF fought more conservatively and understood pacing. No real mystery as to why he wasn't floored in his second career in my view with endurance added to his naturally strong chin.
He was a lot thicker set in his comeback, and that seems to provide padding against certain punches. Shannon Briggs was the same. Got hurt and knocked out by relatively innocuous punches from Darroll Wilson but took a hellacious beating from Vitali. He also was a lot better at smothering or deflecting shots, using his massive arms to prevent fighters getting full leverage on their punches.
For me after reading this post … my questions would be... Who did these guys mentioned above really knock out in their primes who was a top fighter? I agree Tommy had great power. But the others didn't really knock out anyone all that good who was near their prime.
Watching the video once again impressed me with George (though I agree, he was really rocked in the later round). George almost had Holy several times during that fight. You know, I was almost convinced Mike Tyson would have beat 90s Foreman but after watching this video...Holy had a style where he rolled and moved away from punches, yet he still was about ready to go several times. Mike only came in. Sorry, but I think George's second round onslaught would have knocked Mike cold.
Foreman changed his fighting style, I have all his fights on dvd... Old Foreman relied more on his Crab Style blocking punches more with his arms and as said in other reply's he was way more patient not going for broke and then gassing and becoming an easy target like Morrison vs Mercer... Foreman did lots of the now famous Waldo Octopuss Tactics punch your opponent then tie them up before they hit you technique, I'm sure Emanuel "Manny" Steward taught Waldo his Octopuss Survival Technique to protect his Fragile Mandible but his training had not taken full effect yet in the Lamon Brewster fight, since Manny had just taken Waldo under his wing, they shouldn't have jumped right into the Brewster fight since Waldo was still having Flashbacks of what Corrie Sanders did to him!
I have the complete TVKO broadcast of the Morrison vs Foreman fight and they show a long buildup before the fight, like 2 hours of pre-fight hype before the fight and they show Foreman getting KO'd by Ali and Morrison getting KO'd by Mercer and try to connect the two as similar how they both would go for broke to get there opponents KO'd and burn themselves out and become an easy target to get KO'd themselves.
