Am I the only one who just can't watch George in his prime?

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I just hope law enforcement doesn't see this. I'd be lucky to get off with community service.

 

I hope your area doesn't have the death penalty

 

Lol The death penalty doesn't do justice in this case. They'd have to kill me, bring me back to life, and kill me again.

 

I think a lot of the people replying seem to be missing the post of the original post. Did Foreman have power? Yes. Was there a method to his madness? Yes, his style played to his strengths. What he is saying that for him, Foreman is difficult to watch and as much as it may pain some people here, he's not the only one that feels this way. He's tough for me to watch and I know friends who are boxing fans who feel the same way. They just happen not to be posters here. Shocking, I know.

And let's face it, Foreman's technical (and ultimately mental) issues came to roost against Ali The arms flailing about, the reaching, the wide punching without getting into proper position were taken advantage of by Ali who no doubt saw all of that.

 

You're the one who got triggered by a perfectly reasonable thread and made a shameless attempt at tearing it down. You've been refuted.

 

Foreman's prime was 3 fights...beating a shopworn Joe Frazier....Joe "King" Roman...and "chinney" Ken Norton...not exactly a sparkling title reign...

 

It isn't a fashion show, it's an ass kicking contest. His punches were sophisticated insomuch that he could generate power from weird arm punches that could wing in at any angle at any time from any position. I don't think any fighter I've seen outside of George had that kind of effect where I'm watching a normal clinch for example then they break up and one boxer throws a lazy looking hookercut and all of a sudden somebody is vanquished. Once he added big straight punches to his game, it really brought him up to the next level.

 

You mean beating the undefeated, 28-year-old, future Hall of Fame, World Heavyweight Champion who was making his 10th title defense ... (Frazier)

The ninth-rated, 26-year-old heavyweight contender (Roman)

And the 30-year-old, future Hall of Fame, number-one rated (by the WBC/WBA and Ring) contender (Norton).

And finishing all three of them off in less than five rounds total ... scoring 10 knockdowns in all?

Before wrapping up his run fighting the number-one-rated, 32-year-old, Hall of Fame heavyweight considered the top heavyweight boxer of all time (Ali).

All that (and a Gold Medal) by the age of 25.
Yeah, what a joke reign. Hardly impressive. Happens all the time.

I can't count the number of 25-year-old World Heavyweight Champions in recent years who have made Foreman's 40-1 run up to the end of 1974 look like a complete joke. There was ... um ... uh...

 

Young Foreman is indeed very difficult to watch. His only ability, aside from his killer instinct, was his immense two-fisted power. Frazier is an ATG win but Joe with his height and style was tailor made for Big George. We all know Kenny Norton's weaknesses, so it's no surprise Foreman destroyed him. Ali was the only complete fighter young Foreman fought and Muhammad made Big George look like a complete and utter doofus. George looked like an amateur in Kinshasa -- it's embarrassing to see someone that incompetent get outclassed that severely. Ali probably landed 98% of his punches (young George blocked punches with his face) and dodged most of Foreman's flailing haymakers.

 

I find it asthletically pleasing to watch him bounce Frazier on and off the canvas

 

Joe Frazier was a 3-1 favorite and the dominant heavyweight champion entering that fight. Nobody thought he was "tailor made" for Foreman when they signed to fight. Foreman's win was SHOCKING. Six knockdowns in two rounds. A complete blowout. Unheard of.

And your comment "We all know" Ken Norton's weaknesses .. right ... but you didn't 50 years ago. Nobody was saying Norton had huge weaknesses after most thought he beat Ali over 24 rounds leading up to that title fight. People started saying Ken Norton had a weakness against big punchers AFTER George Foreman knocked him out in two rounds. They weren't saying that before the fight.

And not only did people NOT think George looked "incompetent" against Ali ... Ali's own corner and trainer thought he was fighting the wrong fight against Foreman during the fight and were screaming at him ... and reporters at ringside (George Plimpton being one) thought "the fix" was in because Ali wasn't dancing and was allowing himself to be pummeled. Emphasis on PUMMELED.

When you know how it ends, Foreman seems to be doing the wrong thing. If he also knocked out Ali in two rounds, people would be saying Ali was the dumb one. (Ali's own corner certainly thought he was DURING the actual fight. That wasn't what they trained for.)

Your post reads like someone just regurgitating what they've heard others say over the decades. None of it rings true to the perceptions of people leading up to any of those bouts.

Why don't you tell us how it was OBVIOUS Buster Douglas was going to beat Mike Tyson in Tokyo that night, too.

Better yet, let us know the monster upset this year before it happens. Can't wait to hear. Since everything is so obvious to you guys.

That's why it's so annoying when new fans (like the one who started this thread) join the sport and they go on these "BINGE WATCHING" marathons where they know how everything turns out ... and then they get all snide and go "I'm not impressed."

It would be nice if, when watching old fights, people actually go back and do a little research to know what was happening in the lead up to those fights (read some articles FROM THAT TIME - not articles written 50 years later ) and try to put themselves in that moment in time.

George Foreman took up boxing just after turning 17. In less than two years, he beat the holy hell out of the Soviet Heavyweight in the Olympic Final and won gold at 19. That was amazing. Do you know how many 19-year-old Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medalists there were before that or after?

But someone pops the fight up on Youtube and goes ... "Eh, he looked so sloppy. Not impressed." People were impressed.

A HUGE part of the excitement around a fight is NOT KNOWING how it will unfold. When you know how it ends, and you know how careers ended up afterward, it takes 90 percent of the drama out of it. Some of you seem to forget that.

It's like watching a mystery when you watched the last 10 minutes of the movie and read the book first before sitting down to watch it from the beginning ... and then saying the movie "isn't as good as people who didn't know how it was going to end said it was." It's going to lose some of the drama.

And your descriptions of the Frazier, Norton and Ali fights against Foreman show someone who never experienced any of the drama relating to those matches.

It's kind of maddening. That's all I want to say.