Corbett vs Foreman. 1893, 45 rounds

Foreman in a one-sided beating and an early stoppage.

 

Or...another possibility: With 10 seconds left in round 45, Foreman knocks Corbett down. Jim rises at the count of 9. Then with Jim Corbett ahead on points, and one second left in the fight, Richard Steele stops it and awards Foreman the victory by TKO. The after fight interviews last hours, and the controversy threads on BF24 lasts for years and years and years and years!

 

I among the few who think Corbett has a chance to score the upset here, not because I think he is a better fighter than George, but because of the style matchup. He had the tools to do it. First, Corbett had great legs and knew how to move. Second, Corbett knew how to clinch very well. Third, Corbett had very fast hands. Fourth, an in-shape Corbett knew how to go rounds with a puncher and carry him into deep waters, as shown with Joe Choynski, Peter Jackson, and John L. Sullivan. He was a survivor. Combine that with the fact that George tended to gas badly as fights progressed, with the fact that Corbett essentially would fight purely to survive for the first 10-15 rounds, utterly ignoring the booing crowd, and only sharpshoot a punch now and then when he saw an opening - and he would hit George for sure, then his odds of getting George badly fatigued from rounds 15 on go up exponentially. Do I think Foreman could last 2 or 3 hours like Corbett did against Jackson? Absolutely not.

 

In fairness to Jim, many men the size of Foreman have been stopped by that 157 pound man in the past. And even then Corbett lasted pretty long, even Jeffries appeared to need to prolong his beating and wear Corbett down before finishing him off.

That being said, I certainly don’t think Jim should look to trade punches in this one. In fact, minimalism would probably be ideal here.

 

I think Choynski was green, and a super middle.Sullivan was a washed up shell.Was Jackson's ankle healed? The first edition of Foreman gassed because he hadn't learned to pace himself.The older version had no difficulty going the distance,and did so without ever taking his stool.Corbett was clever for his time. but his resume is distinctly underwhelming to me.

 

'73-'74 Foreman vs. '92 Corbett? George could cut a ring very well, I have to favor him. Corbett might surprise me, though.

If one came along in (born into) the others day and developed in ratio to how they'd developed to the opportunities/environment/boxing-evolution of their own day, I think it's a pretty close odds fight. Put it this way, Corbett has to be the both 'quite' and 'more' near-perfect; if he is, I'd favor him. If he's more near-perfect, but only so-so near perfect, I'd favor George.

 

Totally agree Mac. I’ll add if I may that whenever Johnson did elect to give ground, it was only when Jeffries was fully tilted into Johnson, applying his greater weight (I think Jeff had near 20 lbs on Jack).

Otherwise, in terms of sheer, arm to arm strength, there are numerous examples of Johnson easily overpowering Jeffries - and early in the fight too, before any excuses re depleted stamina can be considered on Jeffries’ behalf.

 

Without resorting to Adam Pollack's excellent bio of Fitz I can find 3
Ed Dunkhorst 260lbs, a fat pudding used as a sparring partner by some.
Millard Zender 300lbs , having his one and only fight.
Charles Puff 230lbs ,having his one and only fight.
That's rather different to a 220lbs fit and muscled championship level fighter who probably hit as hard as anyone ever has .
imo.Jeffries was an attrition puncher who was prepared to take punishment from smaller man to come on later and wear them out.
Foreman was an ATG puncher, I don't see anyone scaling 185lbs taking flush shots from him and surviving.
Corbett never beat a 200lbs plus fighter who was anywhere near prime.
Tom Sharkey 5'8 1.2"" 178lbs walked through Corbett in their 2nd fight.and drew with him in their 1st, Foreman would annihilate him imo.

 

The threads live on forever, getting more and more off base the further it goes.

 

Funny stuff - but this is a more likely scenario, imo:

George Foreman vs José Roman | KNOCKOUT Boxing Fight Highlights | 4K Ultra HD (youtube.com)

 

Despite George’s knees quivering during instructions (his legs out of evidential camera shot frame of course) I think he can pull this one off.

After being obliterated, Corbett offers his trunks to Foreman as a “keepsake”.

Foreman politely declines the offer.

With that, Party Boy Jim rips off the trunks, pirouettes and then throws them out to the spectators - all of whom recoil in horror and duck for cover.

 

I feel people have this impression 45 rounders were a common thing when they were not. 4 rounders were much more common. Corbett himself went 61 rounds with Peter Jackson but that was not a normal thing.

Also I think the 45 round distance was a brief experiment from the early 20th century.

The matchup itself doesn't warrant discussion.

 

The distance would be irrelevant.

 

Corbett went 27 with Choynski, 61 with Jackson, 21 with Sullivan, and lost in the 23rd to Jeffries. He knew how to go rounds. The longest Foreman ever went was 12, and he was utterly gassed against the 5 and almost out from fatigue against Young.

 

Sure, but how on earth would Corbett be able to make it out of the first couple of rounds, against a big, aggressive, hard punching champion - who also happened to be one of the best at cutting off the ring?

If Foreman was told, that he would get a one-million-dollar bonus, if he got rid of Corbett inside the first two round... I would be surprised, if a prime Foreman couldn't do just that!