George Foreman Vs Rocky Maricano

Just watched 6 foot 199 lb former MW Levi Forte take Foreman the distance by bobbing and weaving under his wild swings on ESPN. Wasn't aware the fight was filmed, interesting.

 

The Thing is did Dempsey, Louis, Tunney, Johnson, Holmes, Tyson, Lewis or either Klitchko beat a prime heavyweight quite as dangerous as prime Foreman? Does it also rule out those champions from beating the raw, green as the grass George Foreman?

And yet without Marcianos two handed power Peralta and Levi forte managed ok.

Harry Greb is granted a chance against almost any heavyweight in history on account of relentless presure and sheer gameness. Marciano had all that and could punch.

If you throw out Joe Louis as a good win (on account of him being an out and out shot to ****, accident waiting to happen) marciano still has an ATG resume. If you throw out Joe Frazier for being the shell of the man he had been what does it leave Foreman?

I happen to think Joe Louis was still the level of say a Trevor Berbick type fighter when Marciano beat him, and that Frazier was Ernie Shavers level against Foreman so both are still good wins. I just think there was always better fighters around than Foreman when he was active and that Marciano was too seasoned for George.

 

It doesn't say much for Marciano's chances if a 20 year old 11-0 George Foreman has to be brought into the discussion. Pray tell what Rocky was doing at the same point in his career. Should we match that version against the Foreman who demolished Frazier?

Besides that, Foreman won every round on every scorecard against Forte. As a 21 year old he got a dominant decision over Peralta and KO'd him in the rematch, and somehow that's a template for Marciano to follow? At the same point in his career Marciano was going the distance with Don Mogard, who had lost his last seven fights.

I don't see Frazier and Louis as comparable. Louis was 37, finished at the highest level and never fought again. Frazier was 29, the unbeaten heavyweight champ, and still good enough to demolish a very good Quarry, who had just beaten Shavers and Lyle, push Ali close in their rematch and have Ali feeling close to death in Manila.

It doesn't really matter that there were better fighters around than Foreman. He could be beat, but the two men who did it in the 70s did so in a way that I doubt Rocky could/would replicate.

You can argue that Marciano was greater than Foreman in an all-time sense, but a head to head match-up is more about styles and individual strengths and weaknesses. To me a much smaller come forward slugger who didn't have a great defence is just an accident waiting to happen against someone like Foreman.

Most of those listed above do have a track record of beating Foreman-sized sluggers and super-heavies, so you can make a case for them. Marciano doesn't.

 

My 2c...

You've got one guy packing two .357's, and one guy packing two bazookas. The guy with the smaller guns is also the smaller man who needs to get in close to do his damage. The bazooka guy can stand off and deal damage at a longer range.

The bazooka guy already took care of a guy like that in devastating fashion. The .357 guy never fought anyone with the size and power of the bazooka guy and relied on attrition (mainly) to beat his opponents.
His title opponents were all smaller and less powerful than Bazooka guy, as well as older. For the most part, he did not steamroll over them, but beat them through attrition.

Okay, enough with that crap but really, Marciano would be walking a tightrope every minute he would be in there with George, who although wild, sometimes oafish and sometimes amateurish, was also one devastating banger capable of destroying any chin in history if he landed hard and flush with those big uppercuts and hooks.

I'm a big Marciano fan, but when I see him beating the snot out of Charles, Don C. and Moore but taking several rounds to put them away or sometimes not at all, I don't know how he could overcome George even if he was landing often.
It would take several rounds in my opinion for Rocky to wear down George, but perhaps only several booming punches for George to put Marciano away.

The smart money would be on George.

 

A certain individual will post a youtube clip of Foreman at the 11-0 stage and claim that he sees no visible difference between that Foreman and the one who made history in Jamaica. And you'll end up debating with him for about 14 pages over it.

 

I don't think Foreman knocks Marciano out cold, but he can definitely get him cornered and pound away at him the way he did to Chuvalo until the referee stops the fight.

 

Ali thought the fight had merit as Levi Forte was someone he spoke to heading into the Foreman fight.

So much is made of Marciano's size in this match up yet two of the men who went the distance with Foreman were under 200 lbs, one using a similar crouching approach. Its not the end all and never claimed it was, but its a worthy talking point that shouldn't be so easily dismissed.

Really, the flaws Foreman displays against Forte can be seen again years later in Frazier II.

 

An 11-0 Joe Fraizer displayed vulnerabilities against Bonavena that get used against him in fantasy fights and some say even harbinger his struggles against Foreman.

Suggesting an early fight as concrete example is not fair, but it can't be completely tossed out into the trash either.

 

Forte never fought pro inside the middleweight limit ,calling him a middleweight is like calling Foreman a flyweight because he was one when he was 5 years old.
Oh Forte was/is 6'1" .


Foreman was 20 years old, in his first year as a pro when he took on the 42 fight Forte.You really need to try harder.

 

Same amount of fights Foreman had when he fought Levi Forte then.:good

 

a few years later in 1973 Foreman utterly destroyed a man who was 10 times the fighter that forte was and employed bobbing and weaving tactics. I think we can throw that one into the trash in this case.

 

Foreman - the same way he got rid of Norton.

 

Forte had 42 fights when he fought the 11 fight, 20 years old Foreman. Foreman was in his 16th fight when he took on the 90 fight Peralta who was stopped only 3 times, twice on cuts.

Peralta was 197lbs, over 10 lbs more than Marciano weighed in most of his defences.
Peralta was a cagey defensive figher,who even when well past it at 38 went the distance with Ron Lyle to a draw.


Your analogy won't fly.

 

Yes, it's an irrelevant nonsense.

 

And he will try to tell you it has some bearing as to how a match up with Rocky would unfold. TOTAL TWADDLE.