91 Foreman Tyson bout

Cus knew that Foreman would kill any short swarmer because he did. Prime Bert Cooper beaten in 2 rounds. Prime Frazier beaten in 2 rounds.
Dont get me wrong I absolutely love Mike Tyson and we're even from the same borough,but I honestly think Foreman would beat Mike. I know Mike was a fast and ferocious bad ass but he just would have everything going against him facing Foreman.
Foreman barely beat Stewart but he did beat him and scored 2 knockdowns. Foreman was old as **** and slow but he survived. Tommy Morrison fought his best fight against an Old Foreman and he ran the entire fight. Tommy even turned his back on him. Old Foreman wasnt the best ever but he was a hard hitter,with a great chin,good stamina and no mental problems. Mike believed Cus D'amato,he was susceptible to an uppercut,he was only dangerous until around round 5. Mike had a good chin but he was stopped by an old Holyfield and Buster Douglas,Danny Williams etc
Just my opinion. I love Foreman and Tyson and I wish they were around now.
The "midget lisp" remark is just a joke by the way.

 

Still clinging to the "Cus said this..." and the Frank Lotierzo bull****? Ironchamp just gave you 4 links to 4 different sources stating Foreman turned King down 4 times to sign and fight Tyson.

Anyways...

 

Clinging to what Cus said and to the very reason Tyson never fought Foreman.
Tyson believed Cus. End of story.

 

Actually Tyson and his camp pursued that fight 4 times (1990, 1991, 1995, 1999) and each time Foreman turned them down. Yet somehow the fight not happening is Tyson's fault?

The moment Holyfield became Champion Foreman didn't want Mike and he was not going to fight him unless he had a belt around his waist. This is evidenced in 1991 when he turned down $20,000,000 from Tyson's camp in order to pursue a Holyfield rematch.

You know I find it incredibly amusing that one would point out Tyson's similarities to Frazier's as examples of why Tyson couldn't beat Foreman but when it comes to Ali suddenly Tyson and Frazier are nothing alike. Tyson's quality head movement as opposed to Frazier's who goes for quantity is the main difference. Tyson's one punch power is a significant deterrent and given his delivery system it makes me hard to believe that George would be able to stay out of harm's way and still be effective. You don't beat Mike without using lateral movement. Foreman wasn't going to land combinations it would be one big shot at a time which Tyson clearly demonstrated he can handle in spades.

Ruddock, Bruno, Lewis, Smith pretty big punchers and with the exception of Lewis who played "keep away" with Mike and won; Tyson handled the rest of them relatively easily despite getting tagged by all them at some point in their respective fights. Tyson's got a stellar chin and so does George. The difference here is who is going to hit who first? More often? Who is more likely to sustain more damage? Tyson would be the biggest puncher that Foreman faced in both careers and somehow everyone picking Foreman is ignoring that. Foreman at that advanced age would essentially stand in front of Mike Tyson because he can't fight any other way and give him every opportunity in the world. I have a hard time believing that Tyson doesn't knock him out brutally.

Cus Told Mike a lot of things some of which he neglected later in his career and in his personal life. Why is it that of all the things he was taught by Cus D'mato would he retain that bit of information about George Foreman especially since he had grown into an uber confident fighter who had every reason to believe in his press clippings.

What's more is that there was an interview in which he was asked about how he would fare against previous heavyweights; he tried to be coy but the name he did mentioned was Sonny Liston, not George Foreman as the man who would have given him the most trouble.

 

Tyson and Frazier comparisons

They share very little in common aside from a lack of height. Frazier was a true inside fighter, Tyson was really more of a mid-range puncher. Frazier had better inside skills, higher workrate and stamina. Tyson was bigger, stronger, much more powerful, significantly faster, significantly better combination puncher, counterpuncher, superior finisher and had dynamite one-punch KO power in either fist.

 

Why are people jacking Foreman Hook's slang? He's the only one to use "Midget Lisp" and still has the sense to put Mike in his top ten heavyweights. I even got him to buy a career set. :bart

 

it is hard to say. The style favors Foreman completely. It is hard to say. I really would have to see them in the ring together because if Mike were much quicker then he could land the body punches and then tie up George. George was so much bigger than Mike and probably stronger, he could push off and hit Mike, but I do think Mike would have weaved when he was prime and then tied up George. I agree with someone who said it might be a Bonecrusher kind of fight, since that is how it would probably turn out.

 

Yes, and Foreman didn't. Foreman was his own boss and a hard-nosed businessman. He wasn't going to sell his future to Don King just to get a fight with Tyson.
That's not hard to understand.

 

And the "boss" was all bark and no bite. Tyson and King were the package deal. You needed to sign with King to face Tyson. No? So calling Tyson out and not signing with King shows you that Foreman was a great businessman who side stepped the same man he was calling out for all those years. Holyfield made more money than Foreman did, AND he had the balls to step to the plate, signing with King TWICE for a Tyson fight. He wanted to prove what he was made of and set out to do it. Foreman didn't need Tyson, and thank God because he would have gotten the utter living **** beat out of him.

 

Maybe, but most of those offers were made when Tyson had no title, and most of Foreman's "calling out" of Tyson happened when Tyson was champion.

Those 4 offers ironchamp showed, only the first offer ($5 million in late '89) was when Tyson was champion. Only $5million.

It's a business. Turning away contracts doesn't prove anything.

You didn't need to sign King's options clauses to fight Tyson, there was no law written in stone. I don't think Tyson-Holyfield set for June 1990 would have been made along those lines, I doubt Butch Lewis signed Spinks over to King in 1988 either. If you can bring enough to the table you can negotiate your way out of that bull****.

Business is business. Fair enough saying Foreman would have been KO'd, but what happens on the business side of it doesn't prove that one way or another.

 

1991 Tyson by UD. Too busy for George. Prime Foreman knocks tyson out.

 

So, Conn/Unforgiven/Legend X... what happened? Why did it fall through? You're saying Foreman wanted the title, which is all fine and dandy and I'd agree with you, and I'm guessing you're not one to say Tyson ducked Foreman?

 

Yeah, but Cooper just quit. He took one farily hard crack and that was it. Coop could be like that on his bad days...

 

Ironchamp has done a great job with this thread.

 

Great job!