For those who are old enough to remember, was there ever any talk of Foreman fighting Lewis or Bowe in the 90's? Or other contenders/champions like Mercer, McCall, Ruddock. etc.? I like Foreman and the Foreman of the 70's is a head to head all time top 5 heavyweight. But it does seem that he ignored a lot of legitimate challenges in his second career.
I mean Lennox was there if he wanted and he commentated on Lewis's fights saying 'Lennox was the best of all time' IIRC. Pretty obvious he wasn't going to fight him after saying that. 90s George was a bit of a novelty act, with an outside shot against smaller HW Champs
true. Although i think young Foreman beats Lewis. Lewis would beat old Foreman though barring getting careless and getting hit my a big right.
Why would Foreman fight Mercer, Ruddock or McCall and at what point? What stage were these guys rated higher than Morrison who beat Foreman? Was he suppossed to fight one of these guys after losing to Tommy? Where were their careers at by then? Who would have cared, and would they have been big money fights?
If Foreman had gotten the decision against Briggs. He would have more than likely fought fridge contenders like Botha. I would've not have been surprised to see Foreman fight Buster Douglas in 1998. He would've probably have fought Holmes to cap off his career in 1999.
Foreman initially when he came back was very vocal at wanting a shot at Tyson. After Tyson lost to Douglas and then Douglas to Holyfield he then was VERY adamant about fighting Evander, which he of course did. After he lost to Holyfield he continued to shout wanting a rematch with Holyfield. After Bowe won the titles beating Holyfield I don’t ever remember him calling out Bowe. Nor do I remember him calling for another shot at Holyfield after he beat Bowe in the rematch. When Michael Moorer upset Holyfield Foreman was back in business. Now after Foreman beat Moorer I specifically remember Foreman while calling fights for HBO (in a joking manner) saying be like me and avoid Riddick Bowe. I also remember another time where Lampley point blank said do you want to fight Riddick Bowe and Foreman replied NO! Now George always did this in his usual funny jokey charming as hell way, but it’s obviously he didn’t want to fight Bowe. I NEVER once remember him mentioning anything about fighting Lewis. Lewis was always “the other guy” early in his career as WBC champ so he was left out of the Foreman vs conversations. Why fight Lewis, it’d be risky as hell and like I said he was always “the other guy”. That would obviously change later when Lewis became THE GUY. And no I never even once remember George calling out a young contender. Why would he, he could crush journeyman all day long and wait for his next title shot or fight that made business sense. HBO actually let George get away with fighting guys like former football player Jimmy Ellis in stay busy fights. This type of fight was way below HBO quality but George was such a draw they allowed him to do it. Again Foreman fought for titles or fights that made business sense if he wasn’t doing one of those two things he fought guys he thought he’d beat. That’s not to say he couldn’t have beaten many of the higher ranked guys. But why take a risk fighting someone like Ruddock or Mercer or Witherspoon (or whoever you want to insert) when you can fight guys like Ellis or Pierre Coetzer. Stewart ended up being tougher than it looked like it should have been on paper. Props to Foreman though he was a much older man in a younger mans game.
I read that his wife was utterly opposed to him fighting Lennox Lewis. Did she know something we didn't??
To be honest, at some point or another, there seemed to be gossip regarding Foreman fighting EVERYONE! Tyson, Lewis, Bowe, Holmes, them all. Unfortunately just talk.
To me, prime Foreman mows pre-Steward Lewis over in three rounds, max. Now, the post-Steward Lewis would have been way more interesting...Lewis might have even won that fight (by decision). Prime George against: Prime Bowe: Not entirely dissimilar to the Lyle fight, both men going down. But Bowe would get up and not lose gas like Lyle did. However, Bowe unfortunately got hit too much and would be overwhelmed in 8 at the most. TKO Prime Tyson: George gets ROCKED hard a couple of times, gets super pissed, then turns Mike into a rubber ball off the canvas. Twice knocked down, Mike barely gets up for the count on the second and the ref stops it with him staggering into his arms. Maybe three rounds, MAYBE. As far as 1992 George: Lewis: (pre Steward): gets caught with the wrong shot within 4 rounds. Night-nights for LL. Lewis (post-Steward): beats George decisively. Easy UD, and George gets rocked WAY harder than he did against Holy. 1992 Bowe: Bowe would get floored, but the ref would have to stop George from getting hit too much within 8 rounds. Bowe was just too good at this stage, imo better than Holy ever was (and I put Holy at #4 ATG, way above Bowe at #15 and even one above Lewis, two above Foreman). post prison-Tyson: Mike shakes up George and nearly stops him in 2, but takes a bit of a break in the 3rd and George starts landing the jab. He gets caught by a freakily heavy uppercut, goes down, and signals a quit to the ref by the 8th round (latest). 1987-1995 George against prime Mike Tyson: George gets stopped in 6, Mike would have been too much of a Tsunami for such an older man.
I really wish we would’ve gotten Tyson - Foreman after they fought that double header on HBO. The one where Tyson wasted Tillman in 1 round and Foreman slept Rodriguez in 2. I would’ve loved to see how Tyson delt with Foreman’s size and mass, and his constant pushing and huge uppercuts. Very very intriguing matchup, one I’m sad we missed. Tyson was still pretty damn explosive at that point but he was also right there wanting to trade so he would’ve been right in Foreman's wheelhouse.
I think that would have been the perfect time for George. But, 80s Mike I see knocking the living bejesus out of 80s George. For me, watching George get hit with all those unnecessary power rights from Qawi verifies that. Mike hit both significantly harder and faster than Qawi, and had an edge on defense and forward-motion-speed as well. He would have walked all over that George (too early in his comeback imo).
