How would've George Foreman ('73-'74) fared against 80s and 90s heavyweights?

Similar to how he did. He was a menace but he could be outboxed.
I think Holmes and Holyfield at his best would beat Foreman
Id favor Foreman vs the rest but could see someone like Tim Witherspoon outboxing him

 

Sure, but he was dropped by men who weren't ATG punchers.

 

Wins 2/3rds if he actually fights the best and stays in normal form, but he didn’t respond well to either of two loses in the 70s, so chances are he’d prefer guys like Brian Nielson after a certain point.

 

Swap out '86 Mike for '87 or '88 Tyson if it's actually a prime for prime comparison.

 

Both Bruno and Tony Tucker, of all people, stunned Tyson early. Bruno's pretty stiff and Tucker isn't an aggressive fighter so being hurt by Foreman early would bring about a whole different set of intangibles even if Tyson did recover pretty fast. Foreman, unlike almost all the others is going to be banging away back at Tyson and we came to know that is the best way to tag him. Clam up every time he charges is a sure way to lose. He almost always had forward momentum on everyone early but he won't against Foreman. As Eddie Futch said, a Tyson not coming forward is a vulnerable Tyson.

There's absolutely every chance this fight ends early.

 

One thing that I note over the years is how Lennox Lewis's reputation had grown to epic proportions since his retirement. It isn't even recognised that in some ways he had 2 distinctive careers like Ali and like Foreman

It is often forgotten when Emmanuel Steward took over handling Lewis after cornering McCall to a knockout over Lewis that he ordered Lewis to watch hours and hours of George Foreman fights. He modelled Lewis to adopt many Foreman traits and physicalities.

My opinion is young Foreman knocks out any version of Lewis. The older Foreman of 89-91 vintage knocks out Lewis mk1 ( 88-'94) ..... I also believe he has a chance with 2000-2004 Lewis although I wouldn't want to say outright.

 

Briefly stunned in which Tyson quickly recovered in seconds his chin was tried and tested against big hitters who had similar power to Foreman who were also similar size to Foreman.

Slow big punching Heavyweights never bothered Tyson and he was as good as anyone at taking single punches I don't see any evidence that Tyson would get the same treatment as Frazier.

Frazier was not tested against KO artists where as Tyson was and he was considerably bigger than Frazier also. A prime Foreman would weigh near enough the same as Tyson in his prime.

 

Tyson recovered against far lesser finishers than Foreman and they didn't keep any pressure on him either. He was tested against big hitters that didn't arrest his forward momentum. Once Foreman gets him going backwards, and he absolutely would, Tyson's in a world of trouble and not taking "single" punches. He'd be wearing multiple punches in short periods of time and his only hope is to stop Foreman first.

 

Foreman could also be hurt Lyle come within a whisker of knocking him out and had him on the canvas twice. Tyson could definitely exploit Foremans lack of defense and being far slower in terms of hand speed.

Yes Foreman does present a very challenging style for Tyson but I do not see this match up as Foreman vs Frazier 2.0 not at all.

 

One thing I am absolutely certain of.

George deposits Tyson on Pluto.

Talk about a stylistic nightmate for Mike, he could only fight one way - coming forward and throwing bombs.

That is not enough against prime, focused Foreman with his incredible strength and iron chin.

Tyson would be pushed around, bullied and hit with a truly horrific uppercut at some point in the first two rounds that nearly decapitates him and IF he gets up (and remember he never did to win) George would swiftly and conclusively finish it (perhaps as brutally as Cooney).

Down goes Tyson! Down goes Tyson! Down goes Tyson!

 

I don't think the rusty mentally affected Foreman is the best version to throw forward when talking best for best. Foreman was being transitioned into a more patient less taxing style and that version would not be beneficial here. There's been a lot of claims that Tyson himself was rusty against Bruno, and he'd only had 8 months off. Foreman had virtually double that off and came in fighting a top 5 contender not only on the back of 15 months break, but on the back of a debilitating KO loss that we all know he took terribly. Why in gods name they had him fighting a dangerous contender after both a KO loss and a 15 month break god only knows. So, in short, i really don't get too stressed about what happened vs Ron Lyle given the overall circumstances.

That's a balanced view for mine, just like i won't be harping on about Buster Douglas whooping a miles below par Tyson. The answer is not in those two fights.

Tyson's a live dog for sure, he's got some assets and one of them is going to go and very likely early. It's the obvious result.

I don't envision this fight as Frazier 2.0 at all, not even remotely. Picking Foreman in 2 or 3 doesn't make it a replica of Frazier because of the duration. I picture a tough drag them out knock them down style of fight where both fighters have their moments - a war in fact. Frazier was anything but a war, it was a cakewalk. So just because the finishing round might be similar the fight is anything but.

I picture Tyson being the one on the canvas. I don't think he holds up under the highest of pressure in this one where as we know Foreman can hold up under great duress.

 

I'm thinking more mid rounds myself as I think Tyson is more durable than Frazier he's also alot faster with a better defense not to mention being considerably bigger.

Don't get me wrong I do make Foreman a favourite in this fight but not a huge one and I think there is a chance Tyson could also stop him aswell.

 

Considerably better? I am not confident the evidence supports this. When Tyson was done, he stayed done.

Foreman was the only man to TKO Frazier. In their first fight, Frazier took a lot of flush shots, visited the canvas multiple times, and still looked as though he wanted to continue, despite the referee deciding to call it a day.

The assertion that Ruddock had one shot power on a par with Foreman seems a bit of an optimistic guess. But, even if we entertain this positive notion of Ruddock's power, how many times did he actually catch Tyson full and flush with the single shot of this power level? If and when he did land the shot, squarely and with full power, with what was he able to follow up?

The point being that, either way, Ruddock's anime 'Smash' punch was about all he had in terms of his genuinely dangerous armory and it essentially made him a one-handed fighter. Conversely, Foreman was a two-fisted bulldozer.

Suffices to say that I don't think there's parity between what Frazier endured against Foreman and what Tyson shipped against Ruddock.

 

Tyson took sustained beatings in all his losses he could take punishment and keep trying.

Frazier getting up multiple times is showing heart not a great chin that's like Fury getting up from all his knockdowns against Wilder. I'm not saying Frazier had a bad chin but his chin could certainly be cracked and he's unproven against big punching KO artists like Tyson is.

I would say Ruddock's single punch power is up there with Foreman's yes not that i'm saying he's as good as Foreman but power wise he's certainly on that level. Ruddock did catch Tyson numerous times with solid flush power punches and was able to follow up quite a few times, the 6th round of their 1st fight Ruddock hit Tyson with a solid left hook and was able to land frequently until the round finished.

Agreed but then you could also say Foreman never met anyone who had KO power in either hand in his prime aswell. Frazier was a great but he relied alot on his left hook and his right hand was certainly not a KO punch. Tyson could KO anyone with the right or the left and Foreman's defence could be leaky and he was far slower than Tyson.

Well my theory is that Frazier couldn't take multiple hard punches from KO puncher like Ruddock without visiting the canvas. As i said i think Frazier is a bit unproven in the regard that he didn't fight a notable KO artist he didn't fight Lyle, Shavers, M.Foster, etc who were the notable KO punchers of his era.

Not that i'm suggesting Frazier avoided them i'm just saying he didn't fight them so we don't really have an example of Frazier surviving against a big punching KO artist.