Did George Foreman's extra weight serve any bennefit in his 2nd career?

Def. lots of possibilities there - even a nice Larry McDuck Soup as an entree. A dish not to be avoided.

 

Does anyone hear from ex-fighters of renown that they actually read our ****?

 

I didn't notice that George's punches were weaker in the fight with Dwight Muhammad Qawi, because he was "only" 235 pounds.

 

No. George Foreman's extra weight would have put his physical health at risk, probably has, the human heart was not made to lug around close to 300 lbs in weight, too much stress. Also it slowed Foreman down, sure George could hit harder but he was much slower than he was in 1973 at the height of his peak. Alex Stewart did a number on Foreman's features in their heavyweight bout.

 

I think so. Not many guys could deal with that sort of poundage when he put a good punch together especially his left hook. I always thought even though Mike Tyson was seen as the favorite, George might have beaten him. Just too big and strong. 40 years old for a man that size and weight is not too old.

 

Foreman also used his weight to throttle and rough people up and simply put more mass behind his punches, increasing power on impact so he chose power over speed. Good decision.

 

It kept him from getting knocked out by Alex Stewart.

 

I think 10lbs of it was added muscle -- at his best in his second career, his arms and shoulders were noticeably larger than in his first career. The rest was fat.

I think it helped make him more durable somehow. He was hurtable in his first career; in his second, he was a freaking tank. Also, in his second career where he'd become a skilled grappler in boxing terms, he was effective at using the extra weight to shove guys around and lean on them.

 

If you want to play pretend, lets talk about how Foreman almost finished him in the first round.

 

"Almost" only counts in horseshoes.

 

Old George liked to quip that he’d hit a guy with a 1-2 and then belly bump him.

So there was some strategery behind that physique.

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Foreman was too heavy versus Holyfield, he should have been around 240. It cost him

 

He clearly had fat, but it not as simple has he went from 220 to high 250's etc. He was not really 220 in his prime. He was far closer to 240 during his run in 1970's then 220. He was 240 while ripped during that time. He would diet and lean down to 220 in camp because it was believed during that time that you should not be above 220. A lot of this likely came from the fact they use to fight 15 rounds, and the belief you can't sustain the needed cardio if you were above 220. He talked about the fact he was so angry during the lead up to fights in part because of the extremely strict diet he had to be on. He fought at 220 which is true, but he was always much larger than that while being in tremendous shape. If he fought in the modern era he likely would have been 240 when fighting, but the philosophy during the 1970 era was different.

Like Ali for the Foreman fight was 216 pounds. Ali was in fight shape, but his walk around weight while in shape, is not much different than his actually fight weight. Foreman on the other hand is much heavier when he in shape but not dieting down for his fights. So, it not really that foreman jump from 220 to 250+. He was already well over 220 while in shape, and had maintain a strict diet to fight at 220.

 

Yea I agree. He would have been able to get off faster. I think he thought added weight would help with landing TKO/KO on holyfield (also he loved food lol). I think he also thought HolyField would come at him the entire fight from inside. Though despite alot of most memorable moments being inside, Holyfield spent quite a lot of the fight, fighting Foreman from the outside, picking his moments to exploded into combination. I think Foreman made tactical error underestimating how versatile Holyfield was. Holyfield did earlier in the fight attempt to clinch Foreman, but realized this approach was not good idea. He clearly worked on plan B of using foot work to evade foreman powershot and pick his moments. Holyfield also did great job of using long combination to prevent Foreman from firering back, as crab style shell Foreman used though defensively good leave it hard to counter, if Foreman had been lighter he would have had better chance of countering more often and landing more. I think

 

This is very well put. Basically, perfect description in my opinion. I think your spot on, if anything younger Foreman might have hit harder than old Foreman, and def more potent in combinations but as you well put it old Foreman could maintain his better average punch force for longer.

Yea true. Young Foreman reflexes are also underrated, he was pretty fast in this area. He would deflect shots using his long guard, where even when hit, much of the time he would intercept them stealing power from them. He used very aggressive style, where he relied on a lot of deflecting incoming shots enough to steal power from them. He also was deceptively quick at cutting ankles and cutting the ring off. Old Foreman did not have the speed to cut off the ring the way young foreman could, and relied more on defensive shell to weather storms, and while pressing forward waiting for his moments to unload a big shot. While Young Foreman was the storm, pressing forward deflecting/partial deflecting shots coming in at him.