175 lb 1st Round-Tommy Loughran vs Bob Foster

Which brings to mind the memory that Ali made Jimmy Young look like a better puncher than Mike Tyson in an exhibition a few years before their title match. (Ali probably could have made Rosenbloom look deadlier than Tyson.)

 

I wasnt trying to argue that Foster beats Baer..I was questioning whether Tommy's ability and style would have seen him do better against the slower, less skilled Baer then with Foster.

Baer would very likely chop down Bob...but it has little relevance in this argument IMO.

Not sure what you are getting at there D.

I dont think Ali or Frazier have much relevance as their style and physical attributes obviously are very different to Loughran.

Therefore I dont see how Foster would approach Tommy like he did these guys.

Tommy most definitely has Foster for foot speed...no doubt about that here. Not one of Bob's best attributes.

But he was a very good ring general...His long legs meant a few educated steps or shuffles would put him anywhere in the ring he wanted to be.
This combined with great timing quite often has been shown to be a foil for fleet footed and cagey fighters in the mould of Tommy.

I think the fact Bob wasnt particularly fast of foot doesnt mean he couldnt be effective applying the style he used..Slow and laggin can be spun into methodical and efficient depending on which way you looking at it.
I tend to think that its probably a bit of both..whilst perhaps being a constaint of Bob's, its something that he still made work for him.

I also think Bob's torso movement has to be looked at here for this fight. He wasnt just a straight up fighter and had a few tricks up his sleeve himself.
He could maximise the reach of his punches with a slight lean forward and put a few more inches of distance between his head and his opponants fist with a subtle lean backwards.
This is defo going to give Tommy something more to think about.

As I said before its not like we are talking about two guys who are stylistic clones..Just because Tommy does one think better doesnt mean he automatically has Bob's number. They do things differently and I think as much as Tommy's movement with give Bob the fits, Bob's ring generalship is going to make this very interesting.

I dont believe Bob would try to outmanourve Tommy and thus I dont think just because Tommy is superior in this regard means its all one way traffic. As Bob I dont feel will be looking to outdo him with his footspeed here, he will try to outdo him with the advantages he has.

And Bob has beaten guys who werent always stationary..Once they felt his power many guys got on their bike, not as effectively as Tommy could of course but the lateral movement Quarry was using was pretty constant for instance.

 

Foster stood at 6''3, with a 78-inch reach, Foster had size advantges over all his LHW Opponents, and facing Loughran would be no different.

Foster's had a long, hard, accurate Jab. One of the finest ever, and he had scary paralyzing power in his left hook and had a great right cross to.

Although his competition faced at LHW wasn't the strongest ever, he held onto the Title for 6 years and made 14 defences. Of his 56 wins, 46 came by KO. You cound't ask for much more from him.

And people tend to forget that Foster was also a fine defensive boxer, whose record against quick moving, elusive men was exemplary-Mark Tessman, Mike Quarry, and Chris Finegan were all knocked out, while Foster out pointed Ray Anderson and Pierre Fourie twice.

Watching Tommy Loughran on film is dazziling. He was a master boxer, held a perfect stance, was extremely quick on his feet and possessed excellent ring savy and ring craft.

His left Jab could be the best ever, sharp, accurate and crisp. Loughrans resume speaks for it's self. Wins over the likes of Harry Greb, Micky Walker, Georges Carpentier, Jim Braddock to name a few.

Fosters weakness's wouldn't play into Tommy's hands a great deal. Foster's chin had a question mark over it, but at LHW was pretty sound.

And Tommy wasnt a huge puncher. I could imagine Loughran would use his speed and footwork to pick up the points in the early rounds, while dancing out of trouble. Although Foster is landing his fare share, and I wound't count out Foster hurting Loughran along the way, altough Loughran was tough but never had a iron chin.

I could see this fight going two ways, after being outboxed for periods, Foster lands a left hook on Tommy's jaw which puts him out for the 10 count.

The other being Loughran using his speed, footwork, and dancing out of trouble and coming though some sticky patches to gain a decision.

Don't ask me to pick which one.......:good

 

Is my vote that important?.........

 

Still dont think the Fourie fights are fair on Bob for evidence in H2H matchups. He was getting on and it was after his last foray into the heavyweight division which ended brutally for him.

Pierre even said that Bob's age would work against him for their fight and his trainer said that his age combined with the layoff he had after the Ali fight meant he was ripe for the picking.

 

How about the Ray Anderson fight then?
Or ,to a lesser extent,Mark Tessman?

 

They probably be better examples.

Ive only seen highlights of the Anderson fight and he looked to be well and truly in survival mode though.

Tommy wasnt afraid to mix it up...probably gives Bob a better shot at doing his thing.

 

Bob was a sharper puncher with better skill, so he would have been able to make Loughran box with greater caution.

True. My thought processes are a little tenuous from fatigue at the moment.

Again, my apologies for poor articulation. I simply don't think that Bob would be able to match Tommy's ring smarts.

Especially with respect to Frazier, I don't think Bob used a very good strategy. (Then again, he didn't belong in the ring with Joe at all.) Or was it just a matter of Foster simply not being able to change his approach regardless of the situation? Bob couldn't maintain effective use of his height and reach advantage, couldn't tie Joe up, and couldn't get away from him when in trouble. (Loughran was proficient at clinching, something that would be very useful with Foster. Jab, clinch, jab, clinch.) Loughran would never have Foster in trouble, of course, but if Bob's height and reach meant little against Frazier, then it might be chancy to assume it would be of any great advantage with Tommy. (As good as Frazier was, Bob should have been able to survive a few more rounds if he'd been smarter.)

Ring generalship is an area where I don't think Foster would be able to compete. The more I look at Loughran's resume, particularly of wins, the more anemic Bob's appears to be.

If I was in Foster's corner for Loughran, I'd obviously be counseling him to try hammering the hook to Tommy's body. (It's worth remembering than Loughran himself was competent at scoring points downstairs, so Bob would need to protect his own body effectively, something he had to do well to have the successful career he had.)

When I'm more alert and thinking more clearly, I may try to return to this. (The quality of my last few posts has fallen off alarmingly. I need some rest.)

 

Cheers for the reply Duodenum.

After all that Ill go with Tommy by close, perhaps controversial decision.

I honestly believe if they fought 10 times it would be just about 5 a piece...with Bob even getting a stoppage at least once.

But for the reasons that have been gone over ad nauseam in this thread Id go for Tommy on SD...He is to quick and tricky for Bob to set himself consistently but Bob is to rangey and good himself for Tommy to really have his way.

 

Foster was a beast of a puncher and could box pretty well when he was chasing an opponent. Remember this guy KO"D Vincente Rondon and Heavyweight"Legend" Earnie Shvers went 10 with Vincente Rondon. He also KO'd a lot of lightheavys with both the right and left hook. Still the pick of the draw was a tough one for him Tommy was a rugged boxer with fast hands and feet. Closer fight I think a squeeker with Loughran taking it home SD 15

 

loughran takes a jabbing fight with neither fighter able to hurt the other loughran's better footwork help him win the battle of the jab's