George Foreman's Second Career

So what your saying is Holyfield has to box the near perfect fight to have a 50% chance of winning so in essence Foreman would be the favourite

 

I would dispute that Young beat a prime Foreman, personally. After Gil Clancy came in he really took Foreman apart & changed too much about him in an effort to escape any return of Zaire.

 

He ain't Jimmy Young. Foreman would cut the ring off, and make Holyfield engage. Evander would not survive an exchange with George

 

Gas out then get knocked out, most likely. Holyfield is a terrible matchup for Foreman period, especially the young version of him. Holyfield is a terrible matchup for any slow big-hitter who relies on KO's.

 

He literally did. A whole bunch of them. Then gave way better than he got.

 

Yes. Next to Ali, he's my #1 pick to beat a young Foreman. Skill, speed, stamina, durability, and sheer toughness are ALL in Holyfield's favor here.

 

Holyfield isn't knocking anyone out he couldn't knock out old man Foreman he definitely isn't taking out the younger more ruthless version. Evander's KO ratio is only 51% he just isn't a hard enough hitter

 

Odd comment. Because Holyfield was known for NOT engaging? For being a guy who didn't like a good scrap? For fighting scared/overly cautiously?

 

Uh, we're speaking of a young George Foreman. Not the dinosaur version

 

His comeback obviously has to be seen in the context of his age and time out of the ring. That's inescapable. And his courageous stand against Holyfield and come from far behind win against Moorer for example deserve immense praise. However, I do not think it's unreasonable to look at the calibre of opposition that he had, the suspect nature of some decisions and the overall quality of it especially in comparison to other contenders at the time. Or to say that the high profile fights to some extent cloud the nature of it overall. A lot of his comeback was smoke and mirrors in a way. Short notice opponents, fighters who were massively overmatched and some favourable refereeing and decisions at points. Some of the fights he had were absolutely shocking, and not just at the start of his return. Anyone remember the Jimmy Ellis fight after Holyfield? The fact that Rick Parker was involved in the earliest stage at a point says a lot. But Foreman also had to bring a great deal to the table to do what he did. For a lot of his return it was seen as a joke by a lot of people, probably until Rodrigues and Cooney. Then obviously the Holyfield fight. In one respect it makes sense - fight regularly against lower calibre opposition avoiding any risk, deal with the timing, fitness, ring rust, etc whilst building and marketing his jolly old giant public profile. But a lot of his fights do make me think yes he won but.. It's also the way it's done to give developing fighters time to gain experience and work their way up, how much worse do you feel Foreman's rise was?

A question should also be is how does it measure up against contenders of the day? Are many of the issues that could be seen with Foreman are also there to varying extents with some others? Some of the complaints and cynical nature of his return are unfortunately a feature of boxing. Build an undefeated record rather than the quality of it is all too common. He definitely should have more defeats on it that's for sure.

 

That's a fine, balanced post Freddy.

I agree with you. Was comeback Foreman a great fighter, in isolation? No. Are his achievements following a 10 year hiatus impressive, given the context of his age? Yes.

 

I already said it was impressive for an old man. Old George stylistically had very little in common with 70s Foreman how are you connecting these dots? Walk me through it. what would 70s George have done that Old George showed you?

 

I won’t go that far but I think it’d be a very good fight. Holyfield was a gambling man but if he was being smart about it all and I knew he was going to box he’s who I’d put my marbles on.

 

Old man Foreman was a much slower version who struggled to keep up with this opponents and yet he still landed enough clean shots on Holyfield

The younger Foreman would have no problems cutting off the ring and catching up with Holyfield and putting it on him

 

Expect that Old Foreman fought nothing like 70s Foreman…There are no clues besides how Holyfield might’ve handled GF’s power but we didn’t need that fight to know Evander had whiskers.