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

I know that guy, too. But I think I said how many boxers won the heavyweight gold medal at 19, before Foreman or after.

Ali didn't win the heavyweight gold medal.

 

Making **** up again. He was about a year removed from Holmes when Shavers blasted him out and lost to Cooney about 1.5 years after that, but had just beaten Cobb. There’s no evidence that he was shot against Cooney because he was rendered unconscious before anyone could’ve properly assessed that.

 

Yeah. And Ramos. Ramos could punch too.

 

Feather dusters.

 

I remember a quote, someone talking about young George, to the effect that he wasn't pretty, but he loved to hit people and would find a way.

 

Not Ramos. And while Ali wasn't a big puncher he certainly could crack tough chins. Still no one else did anything remotely like what Foreman did to Frazier.

 

So it's not like all you needed to be was at least 6'3 and have a punch or in general being able to crack tough chins.

 

Norton had clearly been declining years when he met Shavers, and especially, Cooney, but that they were able to stop him so quickly does take some of the shine off Foreman's destruction of him, I think.

But in Fraziers case, no one else destroyed him like that. Was it because he never faced Shavers, Lyle etc? Maybe, maybe not. We only know that he could take anything anyone else he met threw at him without being hurt like that.

 

Foreman was taught to fight to his strength, and take advantage of his biggest
asset, overwhelming physicality. It wasn't pretty, but very effective .
What he was taught by Sadler , Saddler and Moore was perfect for his physique .
One of the biggest issues in today's game( My opinion) is every fighter seems to want
to look like everyone else. We don't see the super slick stylist, (Davis Jr, Pep,
Ortiz, Whitaker etc) The aggressive brawlers (Frazier, Tiger, Lomatta, Zale
Graziano, Saad Muhammed etc) Stalkers/Punchers (Liston,Foster,Mugabi,
Lopez, Zamora,etc) the variety of different styles and abilities is almost
lost in today's game with a "sameness" that has regressed the sport.
Today's trainers would train a fighter with the strength and attributes of
Joe Frazier to fight like May Jr.

Foreman didn't have the coordination of Ali. He was a battering ram,
he looked the part, he became an ATG because of his unique style
just like Marciano. What they did, worked for them, see the
results....

 

George Foreman had the most natural punch radar I ever saw. Just naturally knew a punch would land. He could swing and walk in at the same time knowing full well his punches would clamp onto targets like a magnet. Just the strangest thing that cannot be learned. He just had distance down. A Coordinated stride and punch in perfect sequence without needing perfect technique to produce full impact. Just incredible. Quite unique.

Some examples are the Norton and Cooney knockouts. It’s like he lets go a punch while facing the wrong way but he can turn and walk up to the target and have it land on the bullseye. Crazy stuff that he makes work. Everything hard impact. Pinpoint accuracy.

 

But he was Ramos.

I agree that Foreman was the only guy from that era who could’ve done that, but Liston, Tyson, Ruddock etc weren’t around to give it a try.

 

In my opinion, anybody who would go after prime George Foreman, or stand in the pocket with him, was going down, unless his name was Muhammad Ali in the Rope-a-Dope (which is actually a shame, because prime Muhammad Ali would have danced rings around George Foreman). Pressure Fighters and Sluggers beware! If you were either of those kinds of fighters, he was best avoided. Although they looked better in the ring, I would not even favor Sonny Liston or Mike Tyson over a prime George Foreman.

 

They weren't, and we will never know.

What we do know is that Foreman did something that no one else ever did. And it was not only the impact his punches had on Frazier, but also the lack of impact Frazier's had on him.

Clinikill said he was the perfect height for Foreman's uppercuts, but then he was the perfect height for several guys' uppercuts but only Foreman's did that to him. And I never saw anyone else brush of Frazier's hooks like that.

 

Tyson has those single instance knockouts of quality operators several times over. Ruddock has a couple and Liston mopped the floor with Patterson twice.

We don’t know if Foreman would’ve embarrassed Wlad like Sanders, Ko’d Lewis like McCall, or taken out Holmes, Spinks, Thomas, etc like Tyson.

Foreman logged a great singular victory, but was too incomplete to beat all styles or put together a solid reign. His 70s resume actually has lots of similarities to Oliver McCall’s 90s resume.

 

You're not a Foreman fan, I gather.

Undefeated Frazier who had dominated the division for 5 years is a pretty good win in itself, and better than any of the listed above. Add to that Chuvalo, Norton, Lyle and a few other ranked guys and you have a resume that's vastly superior to McCall's.

It isn't very deep, but let's keep a bit of perspective here.