I have not seen much of the great Bob Foster. I am limited to having only viewed a few clips here and there. A. What fights have you seen? B. How good did he look? C. What were Foster's best attributes? D. How does he rate when compared to other great lightheavys?
He's one of the best Light Heavyweights ever in my opinion. His consistency was unbelievable. I don't think he ever lost a fight at or under the Light Heavyweight limit. What fights have I seen? The Ali Fight, against Frazier... Finnegan. Quarry.
Yeah it certainly would have interesting to see what his record might have looked like, had he stayed away from the heavyweights.
yeah i totally agree with that as a LHW he was just unreal his punch was just out of this world and i loved his frame and his power was unexpected but i have seen a handful of fights not sure what ones though
Imagine if he had never gone above LHW peroid? No Jones loss, no Frazier or Ali loss... With even more defenses of his title.
Foster was undefeated at LH his entire career. Foster had masterful footwork... he didn't dance, he just constantly stepped around you creating angles. And his parrying defense caught punches before they even reached halfway to the target. Then you had to deal with all the feints knowing that any one of those would-be shots had KO on them. And what classic combos! He'd lull you with ah-one-and-a-two-and-a-feint-and-whap-whap-whap... and boom, you were out.
That's it. I have only 13 of his fights but wish I had more. I love the angle Foster fought out of. He provided a razor blade to his opponents in there. He'd position himself at 11 or 1 o'clock and provide that thin target. Very very difficult to solve and penetrate while avoiding the incoming. And was the rarest of breeds with 1 punch ko power in both hands. And he was an all-time great finisher & nobody can make mistakes against the guy. I'm not sure if I can think of another 1 punch guy that used feints as much & was it ever effective. I like that Ahumada fight where he had lost a ton of skills but still went the distance and wouldn't quit or keep trying. But that frazier ko was a lot to overcome. and that long sustained beating from Muhammad Ali. And just how many other lh are going to take on a Muhammad Ali for no title anyway? > those losses, the bouts aginst Hicks/finnegin/Fourie hardly showed the same assassin in there but he was still formidable. His early lh fights are fun to watch as well when he had those youthful reflexes.
Bob Foster was a feared killer as lightheavyweight champion. Just watch the 2 round ko of Vincente Rondon for example. I feared for Rondon in that fight, he was so scared and intimidated of Foster. Foster reminded me of a 50's sci-fi monster, or alien in that fight particularly. It wqas like a foregone conclusion that he was going to go "splat" on Rondon, and it was a matter of when. The fact is, no lightheavyweight then, or up to now was/is capable of beating him, unless they ran like crazy. One of, if not THE very best 1 punch killers in boxing history, IMO.
Foster reminded me of alien preying mantis type, who resented being "challenged" by his mere mortal opponents. His ranking would have been even higher had he stayed in the lightheavyweight division, ala Monzon and Hagler staying in middleweight. I think his forays into the heavyweight division were mistakes.