Did George Foreman's extra weight serve any bennefit in his 2nd career?

Agreed. I think he was actually more like 235-240 outside the ring.

I think he might have actually been stronger in his youth, he reenacted the picking up the calf in 2nd career, but looked like it was easier when he was younger, I think the weight made him harder to move, but not sure he was actually stronger.

I think your right, but he also was still using more of his standard long guard in this fight. He started developing more of a shell as his second career went on, he was still in the midway phase during this fight, of really ironing out his style. He started becoming more defensive as his second career went on. This in turn made it harder for him to counter due to his hand placements with this style, so I think the added weight was to make his shots count more when landed, and also help with absorbing incoming shots, and making him difficult to move. I think this fight kinda open his eyes to the fact he could not get off the way he uses to, and his reflects where not what they had been.

 

I think it helped because he was comfortable around 250lbs. During his 10-year retirement he was up around 320lbs so at 250 he still lost about 70lbs.

 

Extra weight only helps in Sumo and Weightlifting IMO

 

Yes. He blamed his difficulties against Qawi on being too light and never attempted to get that low again.

 

he made it to 76, seemingly in good health until the end (no actual details have been released, but from how healthy he looked in public, I’d guess it was a heart attack or stroke). For a big man who put his body through what he did? And who lived the life he did? While seemingly never suffering any mental degradation from it all? That’s a hell of a run, more than anyone could hope for. What a life.

 

Mass moves mass.

 

I actually think at least 30-40% of that extra weight was muscle. George in his year leading up to this early 1987 comeback trained like a country boy. Chopping trees, pulling tractors lots of jogging.
250-260 lbs heavyweights were a rarity back than. In the mid 80s even 225 lbs Witherspoon, Greg Page and Tony Tubbs received disparaging remarks about their weight.

Was George in any much worse shape than Whyte,Chisora,and Zhang in his comeback.

I think George's jokes about food and eating burgers at press conferences and remarks like ' call me what you like but call me for dinner' exaggerated matters.

I think his extra bulk helped him in his cross guard defence in absorbing hooks on his arms and shoulders....he didn't lose too much of his exceptional balletic like footwork/ pivots...but he was slower of punch which I'd put
down to age rather than bulk. In bursts and when motivated to do damage he remained a sharp concise puncher against anyone other than Holyfield as he showed v Rodriguez and Cooney.

 

He probably gained like 8% body fat for his comeback (13% to 21%). 8% of 260 is about 21 pounds. Add in fifteen or twenty pounds of water weight and it's unlikely that he gained 40% muscle.

 

Regarding that 15 or 20lbs of water weight you speak of. I'd point out muscle is 75-80% water.

 

I think your right, that a fair amount of the added weight was muscle. Yea I think fair number of fans don't realize that being too heavy was really seen as a negative back in the day, and they would basically get clowned by media, announcers etc. Trainers did not want you to be heavy, you were expected to be lean. There were guys who had the frame to be larger, but they were expected to really diet down to 225 or lower. That mentality started to change in late 1980-1990's into modern era.

Yea he def was not, completely agree. I think some fans have this idea guys are so much larger now, but really it just mentality change that being larger can be an advantage, when it was seen as liability in the past. There was plenty of guys who could have been the weight of many of the modern fighters we see today.

Haha, yea he def was doing it as exaggeration, I think in part as mental game to disarm potential opponents.

Yea i agree, the added weight help him with his cross-arm defense. Allowed him to absorb blows better, and much harder to move him. I think he did lose fair amount of his footwork/pivot speed compared to his youth but a lot of that was likely age. He was actually pretty agile and fast in his youth, like deceptively fast. He could explode at people and pivot into angles very fast. He could really corner his opponents, where they could not get away from him. Yea he def was still able to remain sharp and burst at people when he was older. Some of this, i think was that he would not throw his full power/speed at people and would pick his moments. Using his rhythm to lull opponents into to thinking that was his speed and then put it up a few gears. One thing he did not have was the same ability to throw lengthy combination, but I overall agree with your take.

 

I think he saw that Qawi who had gotten finished by Holyfield in the rematch would not be able to withstand him, was able to take harder shots with all of the added weight. Qawi I think was only like 5 months removed from that fight with holyfield if memory serves me right, but he was taking shots that look like previously would have been able to finish him. I think that was teaching moment for Foreman, that being heavier like that can allow you to absorb more punishment. I also think Qawi was trying to bulk up after Holyfield rematch where Holyfield had gotten bigger and bullied him. So he was in processes of getting larger, and took the Foreman fight thinking he could use that as launch for his return to cruiser weight in the future. Though the narrative of the commentators at the time was Qwai had let himself go, but I personally think he was trying to bulk up, after Holyfield added muscle/weight really played a factor in their rematch.

 

Maybe he just started juicing after the Qawi fight.

 

Oh, hell yes it did. He was a super-heavyweight tank. It's a wonder that Holyfield didn't break his hands punching on Foreman.

 

I mean he became champion.

Remember he had to basically start his style new from scratch and had around 23 fights after he returned at 38 before he fought Holyfield for the title. Literally fighting every month, boxers used to be so active man, better times.