Bob Foster. In his prime at LHW...Who beats him?

Very good LHW, actually great....But IMHO not quite the greatest!

I do think he would beat RJJ and take him out in 8 (there was a thread on this about a month ago...search if interested).

I think Spinks would beat him, and likely stop him late.

I would pick: Tommy Loughran, Ezzard Charles, Howard Johnson, Archie Moore, Floyd Patterson, Gene Tunney to beat him just off of the top of my head.

I hope this didn't sound negative as I liked Foster alot, I just don't find him upper tier of the LHW division, perhaps the lower part of the top 10 for me.

 

I rate him very highly, but I never liked how he would often diminish his height and reach advantage by bending down and coming forward the way he did. That would cost him against better fighters.

Still think he beats Jones though.

 

I'd say he ranks much higher in terms of head to head than he does achievements.

The consensus is that Charles is the greatest LHW ever.

H2H he belongs in the top 5-8. He's a monster. I think he could potentially beat anyone at the weight, but there's guys that are just as good and hold stylistic advantages.

 

3 years ago ESB classic did a survey of the LHW division, and the results were:

1. 971 Ezzard Charles (30)
2. 652 Archie Moore (4)
3. 557 Gene Tunney (8 )
4. 452 Sam Langford (4)
5. 328 Michael Spinks (1)
6. 288 Bob Foster
7. 181 Harry Greb
8. 148 Billy Conn
9. 140 Tommy Loughran
10. 81 Bob Fitzsimmons
11. 79 Roy Jones Jr
12. 50 Harold Johnson
13. 15 Jimmy Slattery
14. 10 Saad Muhammad
15. 7 Victor Galindez
16. 6 Jack Dillon
17. 5 Jack O'Brian
17. 5 John Henry Lewis
19. 4 Eddie Mustafa Muhammad
19. 4 Dwight Qawi
21. 3 Jimmy Bivins
21. 3 Tommy Gibbons
21. 3 Maxie Rosenbloom
24. 1 Donny Lalonde
24. 1 George Carpentier
24. 1 Henry Maske

Link to discussion:
http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156260

 

Who voted for Donny Lalonde?

 

His mom...

 

LOL, not sure and I don't feel like wading through all 15 pages or so to find out.

 

Frankenfrank, I'm sure.

 

He was a very good LHW and I think he deserves a spot in the top 10, if not the top 5 of all-time.

However I think Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Gene Tunney and probably Michael Spinks all beat him.

Another LHW who doesn't get the respect he deserves is John Henry Lewis, Archie Moore called him the best LHW of all time. He deserves a spot in the top 10 also.

 

Foster would have pulverized Jones..more so than Tarver and Johnson did.

 

Foster vs Spinks would be great....more competitive than Foster vs Jones, because I think Foster´s power combined with his size and jab would be all wrong to Roy Jones.....