Mac Foster could hit, but had only four good wins over Thad Spencer, Cleveland Williams (twice), and Zora Folley. Good paper wins, but Williams and Folley were washed up. Spencer was really not as good either Williams or Folley, but was relatively prime (he had just lost to Quarry, but beat Terrell b4 that) when Mac knocked him out.
Yes, Foster vs. anybody big. I do wish he had gotten some more good scraps in the 60s and 70s. Instead we have Quarry and Ali. Quarry's a great fight, and Ali is a huge waste of time. His fight with Lyle came very close to happening multiple times from 1972-1974, but Foster backed out, citing "sparring and training injuries". Four times, right. No way, man. That would have been a good little barnburner for a while. Two guys trying to finish at off from the very beginning.
I think Lyle would have steamrolled Foster if they'd been able to make that fight. Lyle was at his best between 72 and 74, while Foster lost his motivation after losing to Ali. Foster was 2-4 during those years, beating a couple of non-entities and losing to Ali, Bob Stallings, Bugner, and Henry Clark.
Yes, I think we can logically pick Lyle, seeing as his only prime losses were to the very best in the world. Foster, as you pointed out above lost to several journeyman and fringe contender level fighters (plus young Stan Ward).
I remember watching the Ali-Foster bout live, it may have been Cosell as the commentator. From the start you could see that Ali didn't train hard, he won most rounds but never looked sharp. Mac didn't look very good either, he never looked strong or punched sharp either. Really a pretty boring 15 rounds.
February 19, 2020, Matchmaker Teddy Brenner was really trying to put some MSG NY CARDS TOGETHER Quarry vs Chuvalo (Rematch) Foster vs Bonavena winners clash then Frazier vs winner for all the marbles PS- Brenner was envisioning a Frazier-Foster million$ dollar gate.