If Foreman's victory against Briggs had been declared...?

Briggs wasn't even a top ten heavweight. Keep dreaming.

 

I don't think it makes that much difference, because then Briggs becomes a nobody.

But, and there is a but, Briggs wasn't finished there.

He would go on to win the WBO title much later.

If we assume that Briggs career rejoins the real timeline, then the win gets a dramatic and unexpected boost many years later.

In practice I think that Briggs was always going to break through somewhere.

If he loses a close decision to Holyfield, then he likely takes on another contender while he is still dangerous, and something happens.

 

I don’t see it changing his ranking.

I wonder what would’ve happened after that though. Foreman possibly keeps fighting on until he loses. I wonder who he would fight.

 

Foreman was either retiring or fighting Lennox. That deal was already done for the Foreman v Briggs winner. Hard to see him continuing and fighting someone else.

 

I saw that fight on TV.
Always thought that a kind of benign corruption was operating.
The feature before the fight spoke about how his wife wanted him to retire.

Who else suspects that although Foreman deserved the victory, a protective consideration for Foreman, who then could have faced a prime, superb Lewis, consciously or unconsciously had them throw the fight for Briggs?

Does not mean that Briggs was less vulnerable to Lennox, but less loved & younger may have meant the judges tried to save Foreman.

 

I just wish the money had come through to make Old Larry Holmes vs Old Big George.

 

I don't think a win there enhances Foreman. Briggs was and is a heavily overrated fighter and had he rightfully lost he'd be forgotten today. He was the 90s version of Wilder. Looked the part and was steered away from any dangerous fighters. His reputation is made by that he hurt Lennox Lewis in there fight for a moment.

 

Foreman had 3 very debatable decisions prior to the Briggs fight go his way vs Stewart, Schultz, Savarese.

The Schultz one he definitely should've lost I scored it 8-4 in favour of Schultz.

So whilst Foreman deserved the decision vs Briggs.

Schultz definitely deserved the decision vs Foreman.

So it's only fair Foreman had a decision finally go against him. Considering he had a major gift vs Schultz and the 2 other fights vs Stewart, Savarese, were razor thin close aswell.

Plus it was better for the sport that Foreman lost to Briggs anyway.

Foreman was not fighting any top 10 Heavyweights and he was too old at that point to be lineal champion.

He went out on his shield with a solid performance vs Briggs and the division could move on with a new era.

Finally I don't think a win over Briggs really does anything for Foreman's all time Heavyweight ranking.

 

I count it as a win for Foreman anyway.

 

Lucky he didn't fight Lewis...

 

I also count it as a win anyway. An official win would not have changed anything on his legacy.

 

I scored the fight for Foreman, so, I rate Foreman as I saw his fights and having him as as high as three and as low as 10 is all reasonable enough to me (I'd never have him as low as ten though, for me) regardless of Briggs. I also thought he should've lost to Schulz and rate on that too. But if you think Pacman drawing with Barrios is contextually impressive and bolstering to his career, Foreman/Briggs ought to also be, regardless of official verdicts. Briggs and Barrios are both weaker championship material but they have material all the same.

I am reading in this thread that Briggs is heavily overrated. I rarely see him treated as anything anywhere on this forum. If anything, he's underrated from his best, considering he's rarely rated at all. Maybe not enough attention to his best is given, like what a whale of a fight the Lennox match was. That was a classic Pier Six HW fight where Briggs proved he could be all kinds of hell, in defeat, to a top tier HW ATG in his prime. Lennox was genuinely forced into a shootout by a guy who used to get enormous flack for not having it in him. Also, I don't remember the Foreman fight even looking that bad, in relation to now, for further context, for either dino Foreman or dismissed Briggs. Did Foreman or Briggs look worse then, than our currently number-three-rated Fury with Wach? Absolutely not. And allow me a hot take...if 37-year-old Fury showed up for Foreman's Shannon in the same shape as he was for Wach the other day, Fury would have been folded like a lawn chair. As he would've been against Shannon's Foreman. He'd have fidget-feinted and faux-slicked himself right into the ambulance.

 

A lot of people felt he won anyway regardless of the decision . It would have left him with a slightly better record but not much else

 

Fury isn't number 3 though maybe not even top 10

And Briggs isn't folding him