Better resume: Joe Frazier or George Foreman

Both guys' wins vs ranked Heavyweights:

Joe Frazier:

Muhammad Ali
Jimmy Ellis x2
Jerry Quarry x2
Joe Bugner
Eddie Machen
Oscar Bonavena x2
Doug Jones
George Chuvalo
Manuel Ramos

George Foreman:

Joe Frazier x2
Ken Norton
Ron Lyle
George Chuvalo
Michael Moorer
Chuck Wepner
Gregorio Peralta x2
Gerry Cooney
Jose Roman
Scott Ledoux

I'm gonna go with Frazier. They happen to be dead even in terms of ranked wins, with 12. But the Ali win > both Frazier wins, Quarry x2 >> Lyle for obvious reasons, and while the Norton and Moorer wins are great, George's resume falls pretty hard after that. Chuvalo aside (who Frazier also beat and even closer to his peak), guys like Wepner, Peralta (really just a blown up LHW, not better than even the Foster win), Roman and Ledoux were either ranked close to the very bottom of the top 10 list or for all of 5 minutes. Guys like Ellis and Bonavena were top contenders, and even Ramos had a brief period where he shined with wins over Machen and Terrell and got a top 5 ranking.

Even Cooney in his prime wasn't that much better than a Joe Bugner, and he had like what, 2 fights in the prior 5 years ? Whereas Foreman already had 20 fights under his belt in his comeback by that point. Like yeah, George was really old, but 1 fight in 3 years vs 20 fights in 3 years isn't something we can just ignore due to age when Foreman was close to his peak comeback form by that point.

Love Foreman but yeah, it's Frazier for me. Best win between the 2, Foreman has the best second and third win, but Frazier's 4-12 is better than Foreman's 4-12.

 

Frazier by default since he had both a real title reign and arguably the best win in heavyweight history. Foreman’s resume is like putting icing on a cake that was never fully baked to begin with.

 

Foreman for sure. Their opponents are relatively even when you exclude their best wins, but dominating Frazier himself 2x and Norton > beating Ali once and losing the next two fights with him.

Foreman also has his 90s career. Cooney is a good win and him regaining the title against a prime Moorer at 45 comfortably bums him up above Frazier imo.

 

If Foreman had beaten Godzilla, King Kong and the Red Army, it still wouldn't be above FOC. Frazier for me.

 

If that’s a reference to Luis Ortiz, Foreman would leave the ring humiliated.

 

It's Foreman.

 

I like Fraziers top wins here