What happens to the career's of both fighters?? Does Foreman go on 10 year reign? Lose the title to Holmes?? Does Ali go for an immediate rematch? retire?
Interesting what if. His legacy def takes a hit and is def drooped a few rankings. I would imagine top ten still but def not one or two.
Ali's legacy takes a massive blow unless he wins a rematch. Like, might barely make but probably does not make the top 5. Ali probably either retires immediately, rematches foreman or continues his career, now even more shot and disheartened by the loss to Foreman. Without champion bias he probably losses his 3rd fight to Norton. That would retire him for good Foreman becomes the H2H GOAT and instantly replaces Ali as a top 3 heavyweight, along the lines of Louis and Marciano Foreman reigns for 6 more years. He had a rematch with Norton and Frazier, knocking both out. Prime Foreman takes Lyle out in 3-4 rounds. Obliterates Leon Spinks in 1 round. A slightly older, past it Foreman losses to Holmes and probably retires permanently. By this point he is the undisputed GOAT at heavyweight and a top 20 p4p fighter.
Larry Holmes didn't want to fight Foreman when he actually challenged him in the 70's. If Foreman would of knocked out Ali then he would of feared Foreman even more. Foreman lost to Ali because his ego. If Foreman would of beat Ali his ego would of grew. That being said I don't see any person doing that era would of beat a motivated Foreman. If Larry Holmes could defend the title 20 times then Foreman could of done the same thing. Ali on the other hand would of kept boxing. He wouldn't want a rematch. He ducked Foreman after getting a lucky win to began with. Why would he want a piece of the Foreman who beat him? Ali would of just kept fighting guys like Norton and Frazier over and over like he did in reality.
Pretty much word for word what I've been thinking in my head. Foreman would be an unstoppable force for a long time and would go down as the boogeyman forever.
Foreman might have been dominant until Tyson came along, Tyson might have fought him too soon and been brutally knocked out, then dismissed as a mere hype job. Unlikely, but not far-fetched.
I'm not sure I'm reading your first sentence correctly. Are you saying Foreman explicitly challenged Holmes in the 70's?
Despite his power and chin, I honestly don't think he would still have been HW Champ in the mid-late eighties? 15 years??? Who the heck has even come close to that?
Longevity is the very rarest attribute among champions. A man who is consistent at world level over ten years, is pretty much a unicorn. Ability alone won't get you there, you have to have the right mindset as well. Foreman didn't have it, but he managed to reinvent it. He was always going to slip up somewhere!
I honestly think both men self implode. Foreman likely heads down the path of sonny liston and becomes another athlete who blows his money on booze and women with no direction in life. Or he manages his money well and retires from boxing but never becomes the big grinning grandpa and instead becomes the monster who crushed the people's champ Ali. Either way, he likely becomes an even more recluse, surly, individual bitter that he was never embraced and loved like previous champions despite all the entertaining fights and KO's. He might dabble in pro wrestling, acting, or promoting but unless something drastic happened he'd likely lead a very isolated lifestyle (similar to marvin hagler today). Ali would become a sad side show, never able to win back the hearts of the people. He hyped himself up and talked a big game and failed to deliver. They'd write him off just like Joe Louis, Jim Jefferies, etc as another champion that didnt know how to bow out gracefully. He might do a few meaningless exhibitions or unranked matches for money but if Ali actually got KOd in the biggest fight of his career it might break him. There would be no thrilla in manilla or last hurrah with norton he wouldn't have the desire. He'd have no passion for it. Or another possibility, he decides to leave with his health intact and invest his money--which ironically might preserve his brain and motor skils (no Parkinson's). We'd see a totally different Ali in the 80's and 90's: calm, mellow, and focusing his energy on family and the civil rights activities he was always passionate about but was unable to engage in due to his condition. He might even get into politics. I could easily see him running for mayor in Louisville and then the sky's the limit from there. He'd have a youtube channel with billions of views and might get into training young fighters or doing tutorials in his spare time.
The lunacy and ass kissing of this man defies belief and fact. The re invention of history ( or wanting to do so ) where this man is concerned is breathtaking. 1. He came up on a padded list of nothing. 2 Ali outboxed outfought outeverythinged him. 3 The Lyle brawl exposed him further 4 Jimmy Young retired him showing Zaire was no fluke. 5 He came back and beat a hand picked bunch of nothing . 6 Got licked by Morrison and Holyfield 7 Landed a blow on Moorer 8 Spent 5 years shaming his reign. I will give him a title.. " Most overrated...EVER " before anyone replies....list me his 10 top wins ?
1-Frazier 2-Norton 3-Moorer 4-Chuvalo 5- Lyle 6-Cooney 7-Peralta II 8-Frazier II 9-Coetzer 10-Kirkman, O'Halloran,Gullick, Qawi, Cooper or someone like that. Pretty solid list actually considering he was 40+ for a few of them and coming back from a long lay off. Plus he looked devastating in a few of those against guys that weren't destroyed by anyone other than Foreman to that point or extent. You p1ssing on the Lyle fight shows what a closed mind you have on this anyway. A guy in his first fight back, coming from a dark place mentally and battling self-doubt and confidence issues meets a true badass intent on victory. The fact he fought as tentatively and uncharacteristically cautious early is evidence of this. He still managed to come back from a severe pounding, a couple of heavy trips to the canvas to gut out a fantastic win when he could have easily turned it up (as many others would do) impresses the hell out of me, even if it was a wild and sloppy brawl. Others have better resumes but they also don't have the signature wins that George has which is why many rate him highly. You don't but that's your prerogative.
Foreman is declared the greatest heavyweight ever and a 10+year reign is forecasted by boxing’s experts and fans alike with most of them saying that the fighter to beat him has probably just started high school. The sky is the limited for Foreman ....... ....... and then in his next fight he is outpointed in a totally shocking ‘never saw that coming in a million years’ upset by Joe Bugner.... somehow.
A washed up alcoholic at number 6 plus two overrated blow outs at the top plus a light heavyweight sums it up.
