George Foreman: Wladimir will not leave much of a legacy in boxing

In the 70's Foreman was the greatest light-heavyweight fighter boxing has ever seen. I don't think there was one top LHW Foreman didn't fight.
And in the 90s, Foreman became clearly the best cruiserweight fighter around...

 

Which is why I said skill, legacy & head to head. :thumbsup

 

Wlad would've knocked seven shades of **** outta Sonny "phantom punch" Liston.............

 

"""The first dudes to get on TV at the beginning of the modern media era basically cemented their legacies by being the first to hit the worldwide mainstream audience. Some of the most talented boxers of this era would have been legendary superstars if they fought back in the 60s/70s. But like modern musicians, they wont ever be able to compete with those legacies, even with deserving talent.""""

Before TV there were fights everywhere....fighters had more time to develop before moving from prospect to contender....
Boxing sports writers were respected...in they were to tell the truth. They saw enough fights that they were not really biased...they were not paid to be biased, but to report the fight.

Some of the shallow of the last half the '50s was TV ruined a lot of young fighters fighting a class to high...and
There was no place for a fighter to go to recupe...
Paul Gallico has a great boxing book, and he was a very respected boxing rpeorter..about the difference a bit more training an make...the difference between sharp enough to cut your arm and shave your arm.
That the phycological edge can be really blunted when someone is thrown to the wolves by their managers.

TV Money....most main events were for then $12,000...max was $15,000 which Dick Tiger always got. For $15,000 you could buy a house, $20,000 brand new. Good middle class car was $1,700.


You just don't realize how much boxing was on TV...there was four channels and on one channel that folded...lack of advertising money...because the Nielson rating boxes were not in bars where the man use to watch the fights.

TV killed the local fight.
The audience was main stream...boxing was number two sport to baseball.

Football was a distant third and ice hockey was more popular than basketball at least in the east TV...of the early -mid 50's.

Boxing was big in the newspapers and with just 9 Champions and one single line of contenders you had lots of great fights.

I bet the fights as a 10 year old kid with other kids. Every Champion ship fight outside the lighter weights had a big build up....there were the body measurements of Champ and Challenger across from each...so you could make a good bet.

Now...hell I live in Germany....and getting Ring was too much problem when I stopped working for the Americans.
Mexican fella Beria(not the NKVD man) and Tapia was perhaps one of the last times I got one....Picked it up extra expensive at a German Train station, because I was going to watch Wlad KO some one named Sanders in the 8th-9th round.atsch

I read both Articles were one guy took Beria(sp) The other Tapia....that sounded like it would be a good fight....only after the fight did I find out there was a six inch reach difference.atschatsch Of course it was a blow out.


You guys get absolutely no pertinent info on the fighters before a fight...like exact body measurments....

No wonder you hate...you buy hype and they are not even the same size and you don't know it.....the guy's a bum...with a 4 inch reach disadvantage.

No wonder I stopped betting the fights...I couldn't get any info...Who's bigger where, and bigger thighs and calves are more important than bigger biceps. Power comes from the legs.

Hell I don't think most of you have an ieas in the world that stats I'm talking about.

 

Didn't work for Smokin' Joe against Big George Foreman who was only 6'3" and George had a decent jab but certainly not on the level of Wlad's. Watch some of George's early fights & he throw wide punches with little or no defense..................he's still an ATG for other reasons but some of these nostalgic fans are seriously mistaken about his chances against a much bigger, more fluid, harder punching Heavyweight.

 

Imagine a Wladimir right hand or left hook with 8 ounce gloves...............he'd be knocking people out with his jab.

 

Austin & Thompson were just about the same size as Wladimir & he KO'd both in highlight reel video available on YouTube.com

 

Jack Johnson was known as The Galveston Giant and he was only 6 foot 1 inch tall. "Big" George Foreman was 6'3" and would be considered average sized for a Heavyweight today.

 

True. Big Geroge had a bit of an ego too, he named all his kids George didn't he? :yep

 

I love how people always keep argueing "Frazier just has to land a single punch on Wlad then it's over". "He slips the jab and then easily lands his big left hook".

We've heard this BS over and over and over again. Frazier didn't land a single punch on Foreman while being bounced up and down off the floor. Foremans footwork, range control and defense were utterly crude and cave-man like, think a 70s Sam Peter. And still Frazier couldn't land a thing on him.

And people still go around singing the song of Frazier deftly evading all of Wlad's punches while landing big hayemaker hooks with his midget arms. Only on ESB.

Frazier would be brutalized, embarrassed and eventually knocked out by a '11 Wlad. There is absolutely no discussion here.

 

No it isn't only about quality of opponents...........Joe Loius is considered by many, including myself, to be the best Heavyweight ever based almost entirely on the number of wins rather than the quality of that opposition.

You are free to use your own criteria to determine who's the best ever but both are important to most.

 

In fairness the later version of George was the better boxer.

Early Foreman did look a lot like a rock em sock em robot plodding around flat footed..................:rofl

 

I'm really wondering what those idiots calling Wlad's footwork "robotic" would label a early 70s Foreman? :deal

 

There is no dispute here.
Comparing fighters from different eras is exercise in fail.
Fraser Was a legend in 60-70.
Today He couldn't even carry wlads jockstrap.

 

Like a robot stuck in molasses..................