I think Holyfield beats 70s Foreman is that an unpopular opinion?

Mot sure I see much love for Ol Holyfield lately what do you guys all think? personally I think Holyfield outlasts and turns Foreman into a bobble head but that could just be more to do with my "Agenda" to restore Louis to the undisputed #1 spot on HW lists so ignore that.

 

Oh yeah I think 70s Foreman isn't that good, mostly an overrated fighter H2H but historically Mr Foreman 100% earned a place.

 

Can you think of any fights where his jab won it for him? I always sort of just saw him use it as a club, just lumbering his way back into range for his hooks / uppercuts always cutting distance he was pretty rudimentary with it and while very hard it wasn't a tool of much utility.

 

I have seen it be said it was "An ATG jab" plenty I assumed that meant it was more useful then it was hard, but per what you're saying about the jab's meshing Holyfield cutting Bowe up for the first 6 rounds of there 2nd fight comes to mind before Fan-Man showed up he was boxing great.

 

In the 3rd Bowe fight Holyfield unloaded right before being nuked, always going to his left he was right there for RB's right hand, when he started trying to get the ball rolling on a combo Bowe got off far to the left throwing his right and swapped straights with EH... essentially walking him into the hardest possible right a pro can typically land. GF isn't capable of doing that from what I've seen but Holyfield getting caught cold going uzi mode isn't unheard of.

 

“Foreman don’t get you in the first 3-4 rounds and you hit him back you can make him look terrible” – Muhammad Ali

Pat watch the first 6 rounds of Bowe 2 and how he was slicing Bowe up with his left hand, A good example of how Holy could follow a plan required for the job here. Holyfield darted in and out, landed what he could remaining mobile, frustrating Bowe, Bowe had success countering Holyfield there because he was proficient at riding right hands and returning with the right uppercut to the body (The Futch signature) Steward told Holyfield he was "fighting the perfect fight, get him tired and turn it up down the stretch" (Zaire?) and "to roll the rights he could get" something like that, the fight also showed how Holyfield would stall well with Foreman's many looping rights and lefts... that was by stepping inside there arc (Something Leonard used to talk about as a commentator and something Steward noticed against Bowe also - if he kept his head on his chest during his exchanges Bowe lost a lot of his tools) he was wrestling Bowe to fatigue him and stooping his uppercut inside in an early iteration of some of things he did well with Tyson. Bowe turned it up in round 4 and it was a 90 punch round for RB that brought Holyfield out of his shell however (whilst RB was probably resting) in round 5 it was business as usual EH was picking Bowe apart with his left hand, in and out at the feet (like with Douglas) he even looked to be having Bowe going before the round ended with his combos, Foreman himself actually said entering the 6th Riddick was young, to potentially throw in the towel because he was being “whipped” so badly, going on in this round he tied up, stayed just outside Bowe’s reach with his feet bouncing in and out with stinging combinations, Steward probably gave him the orders to "Turn it up" I noticed here he started to invest more low but then well the fan man showed up in round 7…. To roughly quote Steward again “In and out everything off your bounce, keep using those great legs.” just one of a few moments in his career to demonstrate how to deal with GF he did a lot of what Jimmy Yong talked about in his plan for a more measured GF "Stay too far or too close"