Just giving Foreman vs Holyfield a rewatch and man Foreman really used his feet to throw some quick counters throughout that fight. I'd put that version of George as a favorite over most of the big heavyweights today. I think he would beat the likes of Zhang, Joyce, Wilder, and a few others. I'm sure this has been discussed on here already but its just something that came to mind.
I'd say it was a matter of timing his counters more than speed. George was a lot smarter the second time around
George was always good at throwing punches while moving which helped close the distance and throw his opponents off Here’s a question who’s slower old man Foreman or Joe Joyce
This is largely because Foreman didn't have to plant his feet to still clock you extremely hard. As for slower, Joyce is probably the slowest HW I've ever seen.
Commentators for early comeback fights noted his uncanny swiftness. Some guys ran all over the ring and still couldn't avoid him
George was always a master at cutting off the ring, one of the best ever … particularly among big men. I often chuckle at the ‘so-and-so didn’t want to fight’ comments when a guy uses lateral movement and an opponent follows him around the ring like a puppy dog — seems to me the aggressor ‘didn’t want to fight’ if he didn’t cut off the ring. Cuts both ways. As far as older George’s speed of hand, I don’t think he had fast hands but he did understand the cadence of a combination and punch placement at a very high ring-IQ level. He would sometimes lollypop the right hand in after a jab a few times, sort of get the opponent (looking at you Michael Moorer) or loop it on a slow arc … then once he’d lulled the opponent to sleep a bit he’d start the right hand earlier so the combo went from ‘a one and a two’ to ‘onetwo’ with the right obscured by the jab and landing with suddenness and grenade-like power. Likewise, he’d sometimes throw one punch (say a jab) to manipulate the opponent’s head to a spot (observing which way he leaned or slipped) where he would aim the next and run him into it.
Moorer still claims the right that took him out was a lucky punch whereas Foreman says he planned the punch 1-2 rounds before and was softening up Moorer to the left to set up the right down the pipe
About 15 seconds before the KO Foreman hit Moorer with a right hand that stunned him, i think i've heard in an interview before that Moorer claimed he was out on his feet from that right hand even before the KO. So no i don't think it was a lucky punch Foreman hit Moorer with a left hook to the body to make him circle the other way and line him up with his right hand. Foreman then landed 1 right hand that stunned Moorer which i'm sure Big George see, then Foreman put the finishing touches on it with a perfect right hand and the rest is history.
Okay, Norton was hurt by that stage but those shots Foreman launched to put Ken away...in terms of execution and speed they didn’t look anything special. In fact, they appeared to be the type of big swings you might think were more likely to see a few misses and/or partial connections - but every single one was right on the button. I think there was 5 big shots all up at the end and George even caught a descending Norton with a left hook as Norton was on the way down. Same with the first Frazier vs Foreman fight. Ali had difficulties at times nailing Frazier clean during their series. It wasn’t FOTC Frazier but still...there was Foreman loading up, fully committing and hitting poor Joe absolutely clean, time and again. At least for those two fights, George was an El Radar of sorts in respect of landing punches. He couldn’t seem to miss - in the aforementioned instances, you really have to give it up for his timing and judgment of distance.
Spot on. George was quite good cutting the ring. For some weird reason it is like that George's skill is frequently overlooked.
A lot of guys underestimated him and got caught. His punches were also straighter in his comeback and in many cases well timed.
Hah!, if it was such a lucky unexpected punch, then why Teddy Atlas was just yelling his lungs out asking Moorer to stay the fudge away of George?
I agree. At first you think that he's not moving at all and then eventually the punch does arrive, and some even land.
