Did George Foreman duck anyone ?

Schultz mandated rematch ,mandated moorer rematch.

 

No saying I disagree, but Dempsey said similar things about being a bit scared of Willard upon seeing the man, and we all know how he came at him once the fight started.

A bit of fear can motivate a man to attack I suppose. Lol

 

Clearly ducked rematch with Schulz.

 

I agree. Ali himself said he was scared of Liston and without that fear he would’ve lost.

On the other hand, I think Frazier would’ve faired a lot better against Foreman had he been the slightest bit scared.

 

This "Foreman ducked Quarry" theory has always perplexed me.

Yeah let me steer clear of this guy who's 0-3 against two guys I demolished, I'll instead fight the guy who's 3-1 against them, cleaned out the division, beat Quarry himself, and was the previous champion and in fact won that championship against my trainer, who was very similar to me.

Strange duck. Didn't really work out either.

 

That's easy to say all these years later because we know how powerful Foreman was. At that time though he was largely unproven at the top level. At that time Frazier was the undefeated heavyweight who was feared and highly respected. He had wrecked the heavyweight division from 1968 on.
Frazier's sheer love of combat invoked fear in more than a few opponents. Any fighter will tell you that when you hit a guy with everything you have and not only does he take it but appears to be happy about it would unnerve many. Yours arms are getting heavy and this guy's grinning at me. It's a boxers nightmare.

There is also fear of the moment, big stage etc. Foreman believe in himself but until punches are thrown he wasn't certain. George wasn't joking when he said emphatically "I was scared of Joe Frazier". He had no obvious motive all these years later other than he was.

 

The real scary thing about Frazier had to be his stamina. You’re in there with this guy who just keeps coming, keeps landing that nasty left hook no matter how much you’re watching for it, and as you’re growing more tired, he’s just getting warmed up. You’re slowing down, arms feeling heavy, and this guy is just getting faster, stronger, and more active.

 

“This guy was a machine. He would eat you up.”

Foreman seemed plenty sincere about fearing Frazier. I believe him.

 

Foreman tried to age Lewis out but Lennox saw right through his plan.

 

Ducked nobody.

 

He's fought Frazier, Norton, Ali and Holyfield.

 

Don't think he avoided anyone in his first career. Second career was very obvious matchmaking imo

 

First time around, George fought Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier (twice), Ken Norton, George Chuvalo (Quarry was 0-6 against those four), Jimmy Young and Ron Lyle.

Second time around, George stopped Gerry Cooney and signed to fight Larry Holmes (but the money fell out). And he did face Evander Holyfield, Michael Moorer, Tommy Morrison in title fights ... and actively campaigned for years for a shot at Mike Tyson, and even wanted to fight him when Mike got out of jail, but Tyson didn't want Foreman.

Between 1970 and 1995 ... there weren't many higher rated heavyweights than Ali, Frazier, Norton, Young, Lyle, Holmes, Cooney, Tyson, Holyfield, Moorer, Morrison or longtime contenders like Chuvalo. George fought them, signed to fight them or was avoided himself (by Tyson).

Nobody else fought so many top guys at heavyweight over 25 years, except for Evander. And Holyfield missed top rated guys in his era, too. (Like Morrison, Ruddock, McCall, Golota, Tua, Ibeabuchi, Briggs, Witherspoon, Tucker, etc.) But he fought plenty.

Same with George.

If George didn't fight the occasional rematch when he was 46 years old, when most guys are long retired, doesn't matter.

 

Agreed! Foreman executes Quarry

 

You are making lot of excuses for George in his comeback. First off it does matter that he didn’t grant Schulz a rematch when Schulz whipped him and he he was hand picked by George and his team as an opponent. If George chose to retire maybe it would be different but he fought on and instead faced Briggs after being stripped of his belt. That’s a clear Duck.
As for comeback George he missed everyone - Bowe, Tyson, Lewis, Witherspoon, Tua, and so on, he carefully fought small heavies Quawi, Holy, Moorer, Coetzer - and the ultra hyped Morrison.
Even mentioning Cooney as some sort of good win, when he had fought once in 5 years a loss, while George had 19 fights in same time span is grossly misleading as a quality win.