George Foreman vs Lennox Lewis

ref stops the fight in the 6th due to foreman beating on lewis' arms so much that lewis cant lift to protect or throw any punches with jalopeno juice in them.foreman tko6

 

atsch

 

This is definitely one of the toughest fights to call so far in this forum but I'll wing it anyway. By a slight margin I'll go with Lewis against the 70's Foreman. That George did'nt know how to properly pace himself and was only concerned about KOing his opponent. This would be the wrong strategy against Lewis. It might work if he caught Lewis napping but Lennox would be very aware of George's power and on guard. If you could combine the youth and physicality of the 70's Foreman with the patience and pacing of the 90's Foreman, then George takes it. He has the chin to take whatever Lennox dishes out and his jab would disconcert Lewis and possibly set him up for something a lot heavier. Look at what Cooney hit George with. Those were bombs. But by staying patient while constantly moving forward and landing some heavy shots, Cooney beagan to unravel. He ran out of room and seemed to panic when his power shots did'nt stop George. Now Lewis is quite a few notches up from Cooney no question but I think it's possible that George could do the same to Lennox IF he fights a patient fight and does'nt swing for the fences from the get-go and exhausts himself like he often did when he was young. If he does then Lennox wins. If he does'nt then I think Big George takes it. Sound reasonable to anyone out there?

 

On the other hand McCall cast doubt on Lewis' ability to take a punch. I don't really think Lewis had the legs to stay back on Foreman and jab.

 

WELL TYHERES NO WAY LENNOX IS GONNA KNOCK FOREMAN OUT....NO WAY.......BEST CHIN IN HEAVYWEIGHT HISTORY.....LENNOX PEAKED AROUND WHEN HE FOUGHT TUA.....LET ME TELL U FOREMAN OF 73 OR 74 WOULD HAVE KNOCKED TUA OUT.....ANYWAY BACK TO LEWIS/FOREMAN.....FOREMANS JAB WOULD REALLY BOTHER LEWIS.......THIS WOULD BE THE HARDEST LEWIS WOULD EVER GET HIT......I THINK FOREMAN KNOCKS LEWIS OUT.MENTALLY STRONGER THAN LEWIS ALSO....FOREMAN WAS A THUG BACK THEN.:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke

 

i have a fight of foreman against boone kirkman.....foreman hit him so hard that boone kirkman lifted off the canvass....boone kirkman was 250 lbs...im not sayin he was great....but he was big.....and foreman lifted him off the canvass.

 

Greatest chin, where the hell does that comment come from. Hell he was down as many times in the Lyle fight as Lewis was in his entire career, and he's been down more times in his career than Lewis. I'm not saying his chin isn't better than Lewis' it probably is, but he doesn't have close to the best chin in history.

 

Kirkman was fairly big, but his weight was 203 lbs for Foreman.

 

SORRY I MEANT JACK O HALLORAN......HE WAS 235 LBS AND THAT WAS BIG FOR 1970...........lets just say zelko mavorich would never go 12 rds with foreman of 73/74:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke:smoke

 

LYLE WAS A POWER PUNCHER..........FOREMAN GOES DOWN BUT GETS BACK UP.....WHEN DID U EVER SEE LEWIS GO DOWN......GET UP DIG DOWN DEEP AND KO HIS OPPONENT.....NEVER HAPPENED....

 

he definetly has the best chin in heavyweight history.:smoke:smoke:smoke

 

Now we're talking about getting back up, seems to me the less you go down, the less times you have to get back up. Also seems to me that Foreman didn't get up against Ali. So it a great chin defined as someone who goes down 4 times and gets up 3 or is a great chin someone like Chavulo who just doesn't go down. I'm a huge Foreman fan but you're way over rating his chin. If Lewis' chin is a 6.5-7.0, Forman's is a 7.5-8.0 certainly better than Lewis' but I'd rate Ali's, Holyfield's, McCall's, Chuvalo's, as better. Upper eshlon's? yes, best ever? nope. As I re-read I keep wondering why did I even bother replying..too many kids on this site.

 

Other than flooring Foreman, Lyle didn't do much to prove he was a power puncher. Went the distance (losing) with Quarry, went the distance with Ellis (former middleweight), went the distance with Bonevena, went the distance with Young (losing), went the distance with Joe Bugner. The only fighter that was good who he knocked out was Shavers, and needless to say, Shavers had a glass jaw; guys like Bob Stallings (who also went the distance with Lyle, by the way) , Mercado and Cobb also did it.
Lightheavyweight Peralta went the distance with him twice and even held him to a draw.

His punching power is highly overrated to lift Ali's and Foreman's historical standing, but realistically, he only scored a knockout against in one fight against 6 or 7 good fighters. If he floors Foreman twice (and Foreman argubly saved by the bell), then Lewis, who is in a different world when it comes to power punching, will surely be able to put Foreman away.


By the way - i never saw Lewis getting hurt and dropped by one of the most light hitting fighters of the past decade (Young) either. You can say he was tired and all that, but do you think Foreman will somehow be impervious to getting tired against Lewis who is a lot bigger and therefore more tiring to fight than Young?

 

With all due respect Chris, I think that you sometimes have the tendency to over simplify things a bit, and take them for pure face value, rather than looking at things a bit more subjectively. That said, I agree with most of what you said, and would also favor Lewis in a head to head matchup against Foreman.

 

FOTEMANS CHIN WAS DEFINETLY BETTER THAN 7.5......ON HIS COMEBACK NOBODY COULS PUT HIM DOWN...ALEX STEWART/TOMMY MORRISON/HOLYFIELD/COETZER/COONEY/BRIGGS/..........ALL THOSE GUYS HIT HARD.....BUT I AGREE CHUVALOS CHIN IS BETTER THAN GEORGES.....AS FOR MCCALL GREAT CHIN BUT HE DIDNT FACE THE GUYS FOREMAN FACED.