That's bull****. You don't take 20 flush punches in a row from Holyfield as well as many heavy shots from Morrison/Briggs without any problem, and then get knocked down by Jimmy Young.
I think its a little of everything, and mostly because of his mental toughness. I remember Tommy Brooks talking about Holyfield in the Tyson fight saying if a fighter decides he aint getting knocked out you can tee off on him all night and he aint going nowhere. Foreman brought a lot more mental toughness to his game in his second career. He was very aware of his disadvantages going into each fight and what it took to get the win.
This simply proves how much his stamina had improved. He was completely gassed out against Young and was caught with a well-placed counter punch. Young landed a ton of right hand counters previously in the bout which did little more to Foreman than annoy him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AePc6gKmYWo 4:30 In fact the punch doesn't even seem to land cleanly in the slow motion replay. He was just tired and stumbling around the ring. I think if Foreman had been more tired in the Holyfield fight, he would have gone down from the counter right that Holyfield caught him with in the 9th round. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4Vaw_w8bc 8:15
He wasn't tired when he was dropped against Lyle.... Foreman's ability to take a punch improved when he got older because of several reasons. One, he was mentally stronger and refused to go down. Two, old Foreman was bigger and stronger and this DOES help in taking punishment. Three, old Foreman paced himself and didn't leave himself as open as the young one. It's the punches you don't see coming that hurt the most. The Lyle fight is not one in which Foreman shows an ATG chin, Lyle is NOT a big puncher, contrary to popular belief. His entire rep as one is built on this fight.
Foreman is overrated but Marciano isn't? You are going to say Foreman got lucky against Frazier and Norton didnt have a chin? Yet Marciano beat old washed up bums and nobody ever puts him down
I think people confuse "technique" with "skill" George Foreman had a lot of crude techniques, but his boxing skill was top-notch.
Foreman's "chin" didn't improve in his second career, but he had slightly better defense, consistently better balance and he didn't punch himself out. Chins dont improve by putting fat on round the waist !