If Foreman Had Beaten Holyfield....

I'm not sure there would be too much of a difference. Moorer had beaten Holy before George cracked him.

That said, I think the Holmes Foreman fight would have been on had that happened. Can't see George passing up that kind of payday.

 

But Holy wasn´t the upcoming undefeated top dog at this time.
Another thing is, you can´t take Holyfield apart with a single punch. The acceptance of miracles rise inversely with their probability.
A defense against Larry would´ve gone through the roof also. Too bizarre to think about the lineal wandering like that....

 

if George would have one they would have said he beat up a blown up cruiser. While he would have made history and would have upped his ranking in the atg scale it wouldn’t have been as significant as if he’d beaten Mike Tyson. At the time Evander was just coming into his own as a heavyweight and hadn’t really solidified his place yet in the division. He was looked at as a small heavyweight who beat up an out of shape Buster who beat up an out of shape and unfocused Tyson. But historically it still would have been an amazing accomplishment especially with the size of the event at that time.

 

I think that in such a scenario, George Foreman's "second career" would be more successful.
He would have a better resume (Foreman resume is really contested), because he would beat the undefeated, undisputed Holyfield.
He would have 2 fewer defeats in his career and would end his career as a lineal champion (he would be joined by Rocky Marciano, Gene Tunney and Lennox Lewis).
He would move one place higher on ATG HW.

 

Am I missing something? Holyfield vs Foreman was years before Holyfield Moorer 1. It was before even Holyfield Bowe 1. Holy was undefeated and in prime when he fought foreman. A win by Foreman there, assuming Holyfield came back and went on to have essentially the same career then Foreman would have to be up there with Ali. If Holyfiend had just beaten Buster Douglas, gotten Ko'd by Foreman and retired, then it wouldn't mean much for Foreman's legacy. Just that he beat the former undisputed cw champ.

 

Thought provoking post. I guess it comes down to when you feel Holyfield's prime began. To me it started with the first Bowe fight.

 

Foreman would still have a pretty thin resume, even if Hoylfield managed to have more or less the same stellar career he has now after losing.

If we're just looking at his comeback career, crushing an old Cooney, ramming Rodriguez, then beating the hell out of Holyfield would put him in the same company as other one off champs with limited resumes like Max Baer, Ingo, Bowe, Ruiz, etc. The Hoylfield win, in particular the prime version, is a hell of a name to have but you can only get so much mileage out of just 1 huge win. It wouldn't elevate him significantly higher than beating Moorer.

So whatever place you have Foreman on your ATG list, such a win probably only bumps him up maybe 2-3 notches at best. For example, if you don't have him in your top 5 I don't think this win would put him there even if you factor his gold medal and 70's career. He'd need to stick around a bit longer and get a few more defenses and at least one more big name to greatly improve his standing.

 

As proven with their actual fight. Foreman landed the perfect fight ending punch. Didn't work.

If that shot Foreman landed on Holyfield had KO'd him, I could see a world in which he defends against Holmes and loses. What a bizarro world wandering of the title that would have been.

 

Fair enough. I honestly thing of his physical peak as Tillman to Bowe 1. I think after Bowe 1 he started to slow down esp his footspeed. Of course he gained more experience so yeah it's debatable when he was truly his best.

 

I have to admit, Holyfield had a freaky great work rate early on. I think it really was impressive against Dokes, Thomas, et al. He did slow down some, but I think it's more like he matured during the Holmes and Foreman fights. He learned during Foreman that sometimes throwing 30 punches without really sitting into any of them doesn't always work, for instance.

 

I agree and I love Holyfield, I’m a fan myself. But at that moment in time he hadn’t faced Bowe yet or the other big names and become the fighter we now know.

 

First of all, if George had managed to find a way to win against Holyfield, I'm certain he wouldn't have retired then. As George, himself, said: "When the cat catches the mouse he wants to play with it for a while." If he had defended against Holmes next, I think there would have been a good chance that his 2nd title reign would have ended right there. If not that, a rematch with Holyfield would have also cut his reign short, IMHO, of course.

 

I am not very interested in if's, unless they are plausible if's.

Is it worth having debates like, "what if Joe Grim had beaten Jack Johnson?"