Bob Foster heavyweight champion?

What peice of evidence is there from the real world to suggest that anybody could KO Foster with the first hook they landed?

Granted he was stopped by a single body shot on two ocasions, but both were after long fights and a lot of punishment.

 

Carpentier wasn't the best LHW of his era though, Tunney, Greb, Norfolk and arguably a few others were better. Foster wasn't proven at HW, but in his prime he was only losing to Frazier and Ali, something most would do. Dempsey did lose to a LHW and have close fights/losses to similar sized men himself. I lean towards Dempsey none the less but picking Foster isn't absurd

 

Before his prime when he was learning on the job

 

182 pound Doug Jones was coached by Foster in the USAF. Bob was 24 years old when Jones stopped him in eight, and Bob had just taken a decision over veteran Whitehurst. Doug floored him in the first round, and not with a flash type of knockdown either. No, Foster did not have the competitive professional experience of Jones, but he had more boxing knowledge and maturity than most with nine professional bouts.

His prime duet with Eddie Vick is disturbing. They went the ten round limit the first time. In the rematch, Vick, who never had a stoppage win, put Foster on the deck in the opening stanza. Granted, Bob came up to return the favor in round six, and became the first to stop him in nine, but Vick was a fighter with a losing record who had made his professional debut over a dozen years earlier.

Granted, he's the only one to ever stop Henry Hank, but why did he fail to repeat that achievement in their 12 round rematch?

I absolutely do not see any version of Bob lasting the championship distance with the Leon Spinks who upset Ali over that limit, or halted Mercado in nine to get his shot at Holmes. Bernardo had just stopped Prater in 12, preceded that with the win over Shavers, decision of Henry Clark, and starching of Berbick (repeating an amateur decision win). Even taking away Leon's upset of Ali, Mercado is a trophy scalp which towers over any heavyweight achievement which Bob can be legitimately suggested as being capable of. The 6'4" 220 pound Mercado would have shattered Bob Foster into splinters, and stamps Leon Spinks as a legitimate world class heavyweight at his best, something Bob never proved for himself.

Corbett proved in the first bout with Jeffries and the draw with Jackson that he would handle the mobility challenged Foster. Yes, I do think Burns would take him out. Tommy had the combination of speed, mobility, power and infighting necessary.

Bob says, "Ali couldn't bust a grape!" What is Foster saying about his own chin when he declares that? Those seven knockdowns were not due to accumulation and fatigue, but as the result of singular punches, each one a self contained event (unlike the last two knockdowns of Bonavena, who had already been ruined by one wrecking ball hook).

We're discussing a tall target with limited mobility and questionable durability. Pierre Fourie proved conclusively that a super middleweight like Fitz could have stood up to his power. He was not elusive. Patterson would have likely done the same thing to Foster's body that he did to London's.

 

I say a tired Carnera score a point victory agaist a dazzler Foster, at the final bell.

 

Saw Bob Foster fight in person in 1969 with a KO win over tough Andy Kendall....
Foster was one of my favs...but against Heavyweights it was a totally different matter...

 

probably foster has a good chance against herbie hide.. i would say at least 50/50

 

Foster's biggest problem here is physical strength and durability, two things he lacked majorly IMO, especially at Heavyweight.

He would have a good chance IMO against the smaller Heavyweight champs like Tommy Burns, Corbett, Braddock etc... (except Fitz who IMO would take him out)

 

corbett and fitz would both be easy for foster.stretchers would be needed

 

On a side note here, it was always so ironic to me that Bonavena could have soaked up everything that Joe Frazier could dish out..in a total of 25 rounds, yet he could be decked by Ellis and Folley..and of course Ali was able to stop him by virtue of landing maybe the single most hardest punch of his career. I'll bet that in a rematch, Ali would have not pulled that trick again..he would have had to decision Oscar.
As for the thread's theme, I believe that Foster was cut out for only one class..his lightheavyweight class, like Monzon and Hagler were cut out only for middleweight. I don't believe that Foster would have ko'ed any heavyweight champion of the past..or the present time for that matter. His great power simply didn't translate into the heavyweight division.

 

Braddock would have plodded to a decision over Foster..maybe Bob would have outpointed Leon Spinks.

 

None of them.Leon would stop Bob probably late.

 

:goodbraddock was a tough geezer all right with a lot of balls.