Nice clips! It's funny to see that young Foreman (against Kirkman) fancied himself something of a mover. You can see it in his fight against Chuvalo as well. He has said himself that he wanted to fight like Ali. But what he really does well is to use his physical strength and presence to set up the opponent for his less than accurate punches. Against Roman you can see that he has perfected this art and become a fully fledged destroyer. No fuss, he just walks his opponent down. Cuts the ring down nicely. He's certainly no Joe Louis. His punches are almost comical at times, but in his own way he's certainly formidable.
In a way its almost a shame that he never devoloped some of those techniques ( not that he couldn't live without them. ) There was a lot of good jabbing, crossing, ducking, and moving out of range there, and against a good opponent at that. Foreman's skills have always been underappreciated in my opinion.
You'd think that guys like Moore and Saddler would have tried to polish him more. But maybe they thought that too much polish would curb his natural instincts. By the way, the power in his right uppercut is almost sickening. That's certainly not a crude, clubbing punch. It's lethal, no more no less.
Agreed, Foreman was born to be a natural puncher and I think Moore and Saddler saw this from the start. I do feel however, that he had the makings of a fine boxer/puncher, but who knows. As I watch the Kirkman fight, one of the things that I would have like to see him do is keep his hands a bit higher. It wasn't until much later in his career that he would adopt Moore's cross arm defense and improve his guard. I also agree with your comment about his uppercut. I'm surprised he never killed a man with that thing.
Foreman looked terrible against Jose Roman in '73....... As a champion, Foreman threw the worst shots I had ever seen from a world class fighter..... Foreman fought like a back alley brawler in Tokyo..... MR.BILL
MRBILL why dont you go some place else. Most of your post are simple to say the least. And why do you keep posting MRBILL after your post? If there something wrong with you? Anyway as stated if you tried to force the fight to Foreman he could move, He wasn't some slow footed brawler. His power boosted his ego and he forgot about there things in alot of fights.
Those clips are Foreman at his best. When matched vs a guy with limited power, an average chin or average mobility, Foreman's going to take that boxer out quick. I do not think Foreman was an easy guy to train. Most really big punchers who employ the style of a slugger tend to have selective listening on what their trainers say in camp. However, this changes once the big puncher with the style of the slugger losses his first match. In the mind of an undefeated slugger, its just a matter of time until they land their big shot. When the big shot doesn't land, or they gas out, they wished they would have listened to their trainer/corner for a plan B or C. Regarding the middest of these big punchers not listening as much as they should, Foreman once said its called " The curse of a puncher. " While Foreman isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, every once in a while gold comes out of his mouth. I do think Foreman is pretty honest when he talks about his career. He once said he knees were knocking in the stare down with Joe Frazier.
I believe Archie Moore later stated that he regretted not being able to teach Foreman how to box and defend himself better. He wanted to but Saddler would rather have Foreman be, well, a heavyweight Sandy Saddler. Foreman was still a force though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApkBgIjOaNI
