George Foreman (Cooney fight) vs Prime James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith

That could make sense, too. He certainly didn't seem to earn any proper respect until the match with Holyfield.

I do think that Cooney has a chance to be in the top 3 hardest hitters that Foreman's faced, but I think that his chance up there might be somewhat disputed with Moorer and Briggs in the picture. And yeah, Foreman looks very unimpressed with Cooney's power during the course of the match, but I think it's clear that feeling Gerry's power in the first round made George flip a switch in his head and get serious in the second round. Foreman pulverized Cooney after the first, but it's clear that he started to do such because of Gerry's power- There's times where George started up his cross guard and ducked down in preparation for punches that didn't come, and he obviously was coming on much harder then.

 

Top 3 is plausible but there is a significant number of hard hitters Foreman fought......

Frazier, Lyle, Stewart, Briggs, Morrison, Cooney, even Rodrigues had 61 stoppages although his record was mostly padded.

 

Very true, full respect came with the Holyfield fight where he performed quite well.

Cooney absolutely hit harder than Moorer and i'd say harder than Briggs as well. As a matter of fact i'd back him to hit harder than Williams and Foreman - Lyle was a strange sort of once in a lifetime aberration too. It's downright weird, almost like for e.g. LaPorte one punching Lockridge, Nunn - Kalambay and tat's even after accepting it wasn't one punch it was across multiple occurrences.

 

I should add what makes it hard to really pinpoint Cooney's power is his huge lack of top 10 contenders and getting stopped by every top #5 he faced. Guys like Berbick, Snipes, Weaver and co would have really clarified exactly what bracket he lay in. Safe to say Cooney had hue power tho.

 

I think a poster told me before that Cooney vs Bugner at one point was a possibility. That would've been a good test for Cooney to gauge his power against a big durable defensive fighter.

I already know Cooney vs Weaver was also talked about and that would've also been a great test for Cooney.

Infact back to back fights vs Bugner and Weaver would've gave him better preparation and more experience vs Holmes. And funnily enough if Cooney had won those fights and stayed on the straight and narrow waiting a year or two. He would've had a better chance against a more faded version of Holmes.

 

They would have been great tests, absolutely.....not only of power but ability as well. Bugner was quite a reasonable heavyweight. He certainly needed more fights to fight Holmes but taking the money while it was there wasn't so bad. One wonders if they knew something. They may have figured well he's young and has plenty of time to come back better in the event of a loss, which never happened.

 

Well he put Lyle, Cooney and Williams as his top 3 in any event. I’d say to make the top 3 biggest hitters that an ATG who fought in over 60 Fights is pretty good.

 

I think Lyle having foreman hurt and down twice had a lot to do with how that match was fought. Lyle was really winging those shots and trading at point blank. Also it was the first fight George had in 15 months. His balance and timing might have been a bit off too

 

I believe that Moorer's punch is quite underrated. Rattled a roided out Holyfield like Mercer couldn't, sent Foreman tumbling a couple times ahead of the end of their fight, knocked out Stewart in four when Holyfield needed 8... His punch was solid. Briggs is a bit of an unknown, but the Lewis statement is really good for his rep.

 

There was clearly something wrong with Holy that night he fight Moorer for the first time.

 

Note that I'm talking about Holyfield from their second fight. The comeback Evander who was jacked to the teeth, and the same man who fought Mercer, which I referenced- "like Mercer couldn't".

 

Yes I've agreed on that the entire time.

 

Decent points. It still had that added something tho i think.

 

And Foreman was coming off a ko loss. What happens is they do not fight a hitter in that comeback bout. And there were plenty of non hitters for the Foreman camp to consider as opponents instead. Hell--look at the Ali camp > the Foreman fight; Chuck Wepner.

That's how things are normally done and especially true in the heavyweight division.

 

Foreman & his camp were trying to make a statement.