Ali vs. Foreman II: 1976

Ali wouldn't have needed to get back into George's head. He'd never left. Foreman is on record as saying the same. An out of sorts Foreman loses on points.

 

Could have gone either way. Ali had shown marked deterioration but then again Foreman seemed to lose his heart for the game in the late 70s.

 

Ali was still able to fight pretty hard 15 round fights against Spinks 2 years later. I agree with many..... George might win early but rounds 7-15 would be tough for Big Geeorge. This in 76- is not the guy who learned to pace and consolidate his talents such in the 90s

 

Thank you kindly

 

Ali knew he couldn't repeat the magic of Zaire, and thus avoided the clear number one contender. Foreman would have wrecked him.

As for the Jimmy Young loss, watch it without the sound and you will see a different fight.

 

Ali knocks Foreman down early on, basically messes with his mind even worse than the first fight, and wins a kind of boring unanimous decision. Foreman only lands a handful of flush shots, and Ali just holds and mugs them off. Ali lands some sweet jabs, but the early right hand kd is easily his best shot of the fight. He just does what he has to.

1976 wasn't a great year for either fighter, but I just can't see that Foreman even beating that Ali. He wasn't the same.

1991 Foreman would have beat that Ali.

 

Foreman had Perenchio as his promoter in 75 and even he could not get the Ali camp to sign a match with the recent and former champion. And Jerry had put together the biggest fight the sport had ever seen.

Perenchio retired when he could not put the fight together. So George hired Don King. And that guy that put together the Zaire fight could never get the Ali camp to sign for a rematch.

 

All respect but PEAKED? My friend, George peaked when he severely beat two all time greats, Frazier and Norton. NOTHING he did after was as awe-inspiring besides winning the title past 40 (even that...think of what Frazier had accomplished before the Foreman fight).

In 1976 Foreman got floored twice by a guy who got knocked silly by Muhammad Ali and beat by Jerry Quarry. I like you @William Walker, but no that was NOWHERE near what Foreman was three years before. He even got beat shortly after that year by Jimmy Young (who wasn't quite an ATG). And yes folks, Young BEAT Foreman, sound on when watching the fight or not George most certainly lost that fight. Only months into 1977.

The guy who fought Lyle would have looked bad against Ali, even the 76 version.

I mean, this is all opinion, conjecture. I just never heard anyone assert George's peak in 1976. To me, that's a few years off (but, to be fair, not super far).

 

Those of you claiming that Foreman would win because Ali had slipped need to tell us how he wins. By knockout? Very unlikely. Stoppage? Unlikely. So, Foreman is going to outpoint Ali?

Can Foreman throw enough punches to outpoint Ali? Can he do that and pace himself without tiring? Has he psychologically recovered from Zaire?

I would say the odds are in Ali's favour.

 

These are all very good points. I think I might have overreacted when you mentioned 1976 as Big George's peak, and I apologize for that.

I just can't see the Foreman who got knocked down twice against the guy Ali stopped only months earlier beating Muhammad. Even not counting the intimidation/psychological factor (which George still carried with him, he has admitted such), Ali was still good enough to foil whatever George had for him.

Joe was still a viable contender when George beat him a second time...except, it took George noticeably longer to beat him, and to my eyes he didn't look anywhere near as good against Joe that time.

And yes, Lyle was no joke. He came roaring back after Shavers piledrove him (the guy had heart, alright, even forgetting his lion's determination against George), and had a right that probably equaled Tyson's (left wasn't anything to mess with either).