Depends I doubt he was very popular in the Tiger household!!! From a UK perspective, I think he was respected by the hardcore, but not really loved.
As a heavyweight, he is overshadowed due to his loss to the likes frazier, ali, Folley, terrel and doug jones. As a light heavyweight, it's probably the other way around, i mean he was a generationally great light heavyweight, a huge light heavyweight. Light Heavyweight champion for 6 years, 4 of them the undisputed champion, he had 13 championship fights as a light heavyweight, and was 13–0 with 11 knockouts.
I always get the impression boxing outside of heavyweight division was not very big in the 1970s compared to the 40s and 50s. I don’t think championship fights stopped traffic unless it was a Muhammad Ali event. Bob Foster suffered a lot for this. And he was a truly great fighter. Even though it picked up later, when a really great crop of lightheavyweights came just past the Bob Foster era... I think lightheavyweight itself was really in the doldrums for that Bob foster period. I get the impression Bob foster is only respected retrospectively. He came to London to beat Chris Finnegan. I don’t think it was an event as big as a British heavyweight title fight. Bugner vs Cooper was a bigger event..and looking back that just seems crazy.
I have had Australians swear up and down that they didn't even drink the man's beer. But I think that's untrue. I think they are playing dumb. The true sign of an Australian, really. Dumb like a...dingo...who will eat ya baby, if you buy that aw shucks routine. These people are clever; they are rueful; they are sharks, hucksters, hustlers and opportunists of the highest order. And they drank Bob's beer alright. Oh, they drank it. They probably stole it first.