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

Agreed. I think he was actually more like 235-240 outside the ring.

I think he might have actually been stronger in his youth, he reenacted the picking up the calf in 2nd career, but looked like it was easier when he was younger, I think the weight made him harder to move, but not sure he was actually stronger.

I think your right, but he also was still using more of his standard long guard in this fight. He started developing more of a shell as his second career went on, he was still in the midway phase during this fight, of really ironing out his style. He started becoming more defensive as his second career went on. This in turn made it harder for him to counter due to his hand placements with this style, so I think the added weight was to make his shots count more when landed, and also help with absorbing incoming shots, and making him difficult to move. I think this fight kinda open his eyes to the fact he could not get off the way he uses to, and his reflects where not what they had been.

 

I think it helped because he was comfortable around 250lbs. During his 10-year retirement he was up around 320lbs so at 250 he still lost about 70lbs.

 

Extra weight only helps in Sumo and Weightlifting IMO

 

Yes. He blamed his difficulties against Qawi on being too light and never attempted to get that low again.

 

he made it to 76, seemingly in good health until the end (no actual details have been released, but from how healthy he looked in public, I’d guess it was a heart attack or stroke). For a big man who put his body through what he did? And who lived the life he did? While seemingly never suffering any mental degradation from it all? That’s a hell of a run, more than anyone could hope for. What a life.

 

Mass moves mass.

 

I actually think at least 30-40% of that extra weight was muscle. George in his year leading up to this early 1987 comeback trained like a country boy. Chopping trees, pulling tractors lots of jogging.
250-260 lbs heavyweights were a rarity back than. In the mid 80s even 225 lbs Witherspoon, Greg Page and Tony Tubbs received disparaging remarks about their weight.

Was George in any much worse shape than Whyte,Chisora,and Zhang in his comeback.

I think George's jokes about food and eating burgers at press conferences and remarks like ' call me what you like but call me for dinner' exaggerated matters.

I think his extra bulk helped him in his cross guard defence in absorbing hooks on his arms and shoulders....he didn't lose too much of his exceptional balletic like footwork/ pivots...but he was slower of punch which I'd put
down to age rather than bulk. In bursts and when motivated to do damage he remained a sharp concise puncher against anyone other than Holyfield as he showed v Rodriguez and Cooney.

 

He probably gained like 8% body fat for his comeback (13% to 21%). 8% of 260 is about 21 pounds. Add in fifteen or twenty pounds of water weight and it's unlikely that he gained 40% muscle.

 

Regarding that 15 or 20lbs of water weight you speak of. I'd point out muscle is 75-80% water.