.........he'd bulked up to 200 lbs odd in the way that Michael Spinks did,when he started to take on heavyweights ? He'd still have lost to Ali and Frazier,imo. He may have enjoyed some success with the more moderately talented big men.
Well I thought he showed some really decent skills against Terrell, and his style is certainly more suited to boxing bigger guys, but the physical disadvantages would probably be too much to overcome in the end. Most Heavies would probably just walk right through him and his chin wasn't exactly unbreakable.
Foster just didn't have it to climb up to heavyweight...now if there was a cruiser division during his time...ah, but what would that prove...
If Foster put muscle on his twig legs, on his neck/traps, lower back, and put on the weight right, yes he'd be more successfull
It would have been bad for him I think. He would have been just as or nearly as vulnerable and would have dropped off in terms of mobility.
This. Bob Foster relied on devastating power at Light Heavy, he would never have had that at Heavyweight. Whereas Michael Spinks relied on cagey, awkward boxing skills, with intelligent strategies for victory.
I read in an interview with Foster that before the Frazier fight (I think) he knew a guy that had him drinking "this stuff" and said he got up to 189 lbs, but he said it tasted so bad, he stopped drinking it... I could go try and find the mag with the article if anyone's interested... It was a Ring magazine about Jones' move to heavy and asked several light heavies about their experience moving to heavy: Spinks, Foster, Mustafa Muhammad, Czyz, Torres.