How many heavyweights could have beat Caracas Foreman?

You're not quite playing with the full deck are you?

 

General Ripper, George Foreman peels Mike Tyson like a potato .

 

Tyson is tailor made for Foreman and would get killed in my opinion but I could make a case for the next 3 on your list.

Wilder would get KO'd pretty quickly. If he can't take Fury's power then he ain't getting anywhere near George. AJ, dunno but I just don't think he's good enough.

Suspect the Brown Bomber gets beaten up too but I am not willing to discount him.

 

Do you seriously believe that?

 

Cleveland Williams

 

Norton did not look great. A guy that always came forward tried to fight backing up and looked uncomfortable and awkward. He fought more or less the same way against Shavers, albeit on older legs, and was taken out in less than half the time.

 

Muhammad Ali and peak Larry Holmes at the top of the list; the rest are debatable. I would take Deontay "No Defense" Wilder out of the competition.

 

Ken actually had an excellent first round against Foreman.

I thought Foreman appeared a bit disconcerted and concerned by it and therefore pushed the issue more in round 2.

Remember too, Foreman landed a few illegal swings on Kenny - George wanted him out of there lest Ken settle into his groove.

I read these comments 100% as quoted in an article focusing on predictions for Ali vs Foreman.

Norton was one of only a few to pick Ali - “Ali by decision, easily!”

In his analysis, Norton referenced his own fight with Foreman.

He said he saw plenty of openings but was overly tight and tense to take full advantage - he said Ali wouldn’t be similarly impaired and would be able to take full advantage of said openings.

Of course reasonable levels of fear can be healthy but too much fear can compromise a fighters normal style and approach - and being too tense can lessen the resilience that they might’ve upheld otherwise.

So honest Ken was nervous, but not morbidly fearful as Spinks looked on pre fight appearances and by virtue of the manner in which he fought.

Ali was self admittedly fearful prior to the first Liston fight - but he used that fear to his utmost advantage in the early rounds via acute mobility and evasions before he settled down somewhat.

 

You waited all your life to get this off your chest didn't you?

 

I agree on your assessment regarding Foreman-Norton. Norton was confident against Foreman and actually had a good first round. His confidence against punchers seemed to disappear after that, perhaps getting PTSD when nailed with a very powerful punch.

Against Shavers and Cooney, he didn't have any semblance of a game plan whatsoever like he did against Foreman.

 

Forgot about him. Make that 3.

 

Unfortunately Ken didn’t have much time to execute much of anything vs Shavers and Cooney - but he could’ve at least exercised more early round caution without such a strategy necessarily seeing him fighting scared or overly compromised.

Ken trying to allow Shavers to tire himself out, supported by Norton’s laying on and fighting off the ropes (ala the rope a dope) was suicidal.

Shavers knew exactly how to deal with an opponent on the ropes - as he proved against Ali - even Muhammad knew not to remain on the ropes against The Acorn.

Finally, in the instances when opponents did prevail over Earnie due to Shavers’ own fatigue, the opponents in question were iron chinned and had already tasted more than their fair share of Earnie’s power.

 

Aside from other possible considerations, my choices in order of likelihood would be Ali and then Liston with good confidence in both.

 

Great minds think alike.