George Foremans Close Decisions In The 90s

Stewart - I had Foreman by like a point, Stewart dominated most of the fight and really beat Foreman up but those knockdowns just put Stewart into too big of a hole to dig out

Schulz - I had it a clear Schultz victory and couldn't believe Foreman got the decision, it left a bad taste in my mouth when there was no rematch

Savarese - close but I thought Savarese won the fight. Once again, I thought a rematch would of been nice, but not as necessary as Schulz.

Briggs - now going the other way I thought it was a clear Foreman win and Briggs was very lucky to get his hand raised.


On another note I thought Foreman should have tried to beat Lewis as his last fight. He would of been a big underdog and he was moving like a mummy but I thought it should of been his last hurrah.

 

When Tommy Morrison faced George Foreman in 1993 it was after losing to Ray Mercer via brutal KO, going life and death with journeyman Joe Hipp who broke Tommy's jaw in the 2nd round and almost had him out in the 8th and after surviving 2 knockdowns and a near KO loss to a faded Carl "The Truth" Williams. By the time he faced George Foreman, he decided to switch up his tactics.

Old Foreman was slow but very strong. Tommy deliberately fought in a manner to reduce unnecessary engagement based on his previous fights.

 

This is the fight I always go to as to why the top guys need to fight each other more often. If this fight never happened everyone would of assumed Foreman would of eventually KOd Morrison.

 

Why is Morrison getting **** on for that fight? He was a glass cannon up against a tank. Zero chance he could have survived trading with Foreman.

He handled it the only way he could have to pull off a win. It was impressive. Old George was basically a nightmare for a glass cannon. The best you can do is make his face puffy, you're not knocking him down, oh and he can bang at least as hard as your best.

 

He'd just have got hurt fighting Lewis. I'm kind of glad he didn't. He was to old and too easy to hit to go up against a guy as skilled and as hard hitting as Lewis.

I'm sure it would have gone the distance, but that fight might have messed him up.

 

Had the Stewart fight a draw after the second viewing.

He definitely beat Briggs idk what those judges were smoking. At worst you could say a draw.

Morrison beat him fair and square, but it was quite the letdown and not how it was advertised. But hey, Morrison did what he was supposed to do.

 

George's jab was just a marvel to behold during the Briggs fight imo. It never was so effective, and he leaned on it for damn good reason.

I've had George ahead at least 3 points all eleven times I watched that fight. And yeah I consider it a really good fight to watch precisely for the jabbing mentioned above. It was fantastic imo.

 

Bumping this thread after watching all of these fights recently these were my scorecards.


George Foreman vs Shannon Briggs

1 Briggs
2 Foreman
3 Foreman
4 Foreman
5 Foreman
6 Briggs
7 Briggs
8 Foreman
9 Foreman
10 Briggs
11 Briggs
12 Foreman

115-113 Foreman

I just rewatched this fight i thought it was a fairly close fight personally, Foreman won most of the early rounds being the effective aggressor working behind his jab. Briggs comeback and won some of the middle rounds out punching Foreman who seemed to take rounds 6 and 7 off.

Foreman responded well in rounds 8 and 9 with his effective aggression out punching Briggs, the 8th round especially Foreman landed alot of hard punches and it was by far his best round. But Briggs also responded well in rounds 10 and 11 outpunching Foreman on the inside. The 12th round i thought was competitive Foreman started off the round very well, maybe sensing the fight was kind of close that he needed a strong 12th round, but Briggs comeback fairly well in the last minute or so but i don't think it was enough.

Overall i think at a stretch this fight could of been scored a draw, but i don't think there's anyway you could have Briggs winning. Especially not by the scores of 117-113, 116-112, like the 2 judges had it. I think they gave the younger man a gift decision, as they couldn't see Foreman fighting any of the other belt holders, so probably thought just best to get him out of the sport and let Briggs fight Lewis. So there could be a unification because no way Foreman would fight Lewis lets be honest.


George Foreman vs Lou Savarese

1 Savarese
2 Foreman
3 Savarese
4 Foreman
5 Savarese
6 Savarese
7 Savarese
8 Savarese
9 Foreman
10 Foreman
11 Foreman 10-8 point deduction
12 Foreman

114-113 Foreman

Very good fight and an underrated slugfest this one, i scored the fight exactly the same as Lederman except we differed on rounds 2 and 3. 2 of the judges had reasonable scores but 118-110 is a joke, like come on how can you possibly have 10-2 for Foreman without being biased.

I felt like Savarese outworked and outpunched Foreman for the most part between rounds 1-8, although Foreman did have his moments landing solid jabs and hard punches, i just liked Savarese's workrate and the way he put his punches together and they were effective punches aswell.

But the tide started to turned after the 8th round as Savarese started to tire. And i'm not going to lie seeing Foreman full of energy in 12th round, running after Savarese at his age after tough battle was inspiring.

The point deduction in the 11th round was nonsense, i think that was Savarese's first real low blow and it wasn't malicious. Yes Savarese had been warned a few times about other stuff, but i felt like at that point in the fight the referee didn't need to get himself involved.

Overall though as i said very good fight worth watching, and Savarese for certain has a better claim to beating Foreman than Briggs did. But i felt like with the point deduction and Foreman's late rally was just enough for Foreman to edge it.


George Foreman vs Axel Schulz

1 Schulz
2 Foreman
3 Schulz
4 Schulz
5 Schulz
6 Foreman
7 Foreman
8 Schulz
9 Schulz
10 Schulz
11 Foreman
12 Schulz

116-112 Schulz

Rewatching this fight again i thought Schulz clearly won this fight hands down, the punchstats seemed to have Foreman landing more punches overall. But i have to say that's certainly not what i see, Schulz controlled the fight boxing on the outside, hitting Foreman at will with the right hand and at times outfighting him on the inside. Foreman was never really able to sustain any attack, as Schulz landed combinations and solid right hands all night landing all the clean effective punches. For me this fight was a clear robbery and whilst Foreman was unlucky vs Briggs, i think Foreman was even more lucky vs Schulz.


George Foreman vs Alex Stewart

1 Foreman
2 Foreman 10-7 2 knockdowns
3 Foreman
4 Stewart
5 Foreman
6 Stewart
7 Stewart
8 Foreman
9 Stewart
10 Stewart 10-8 point deduction

94-93 Foreman

I had the exact same scorecard as Harold Lederman, and the judges all got the fight spot on aswell IMO. I thought it was a very easy fight to score with no debatable rounds, simply the 2 knockdowns hurt Stewart in a 10 round fight. And he didn't have enough rounds to comeback. Had this fight been 12 rounds Stewart may of completed the comeback but we'll never know.

Just a final few thoughts on this fight, Foreman has accused Stewart in the past of possibly using loaded gloves. Now i don't want to accuse anyone, but Foreman's face did seem to swell up very quickly. And Foreman's face never looked like that in any other fight. Whether or not that means anything i don't know, there's no evidence so i can't accuse Stewart and he was a noted big puncher.

Also why in the world did Foreman not sit down on his stool, and allow his corner to use enswell earlier ? i know it was part of Foreman's comeback that he wouldn't sit down on the stool, but with your face breaking apart and the fight getting closer and closer, it seems crazy to me that he wouldn't sit down, and allow his corner to work on his eyes earlier.

Overall a good little slugfest but IMO but very easy fight to score, the 2 knockdowns simply won the fight for Foreman.

 

I had Foreman beating Stewart 94-93 thanks to the 10-7 round, and Foreman beating Briggs 116-112.

I don’t remember how I had the other fights

 

I'll have to watch some of the full fights and score them, but I'm definitely giving Morrison a default 9 on every round he turns tail and runs

 

If George had beaten Briggs, wonder who then?

 

I had George beating Briggs.

 

Foreman beat Stewart. The facial damage he sustained made it look closer in many people's eyes than it was I think.

He also beat Savarese, but his much vaunted power took a hit.

He beat Briggs, narrowly.

He straight up lost to Schulz, the worst gift decision in his career.

 

I am no Master at scoring, so I will report the sad news that No Neck has been indisposed for a while so has not commented yet upon this thread.
You see, when he read the title he immediately entered a fugue state of indefinite length---> due to ecstatic, anticipatory delight.

So much oxytocin & serotonin was released into his system that he experienced a state of semi-permanent arousal that resulted in near continual climaxes-by the next morning he had nothing left to lose save precious plasma so was attached to an IV to spare precious spinal fluids...
All treatments for [url]priapism[/url] had failed, including direct injections & round the clock videos of national disasters to counter-punch & de-escalate the over-stimulation...

Placed in a medically induced coma to dewire automatic orgasmic reactions so he would not exhaust all his bodies resources, his brain waves have been returning to normal.
While as yet unresponsive to external stimuli, he is heard to be gleefully muttering phrases related to this boxing forum.
Something about proving Foreman won only a single round in 4 fights: against Briggs, Savarese, Stewart & Morrison.
And being ready to irrefutably establish how George would have lost to everyone of the Golden Girls, although Sophie would admittedly have been a close fight...

Please send condolences, gift cards & experimental antidotes c/o The Fisticuffs Institute for the Temporarily Insane.

 

I watched the Briggs Foreman fight recently had George up 7-5 and that was closer than I had remembered the fight.

Schulz fight I watched numerous times. Complete robbery. No way Foreman won or even deserved a draw.

I’ll have to watch the Stewart and Savarese fights again.

Foreman’s comeback was the product of careful matchmaking.