Is George Foreman the most overrated boxer in history?

The demolition of Joe Frazier alone makes George Foreman a legend in the sport, then he did it again! Along the way he demolishes Ali's bogey man in Ken Norton. George Foreman is not overrated, the big shame with Foreman is he retired way to early and a defining fight with Larry Holmes by 1979 could've seen big George immortalized as one of greatest ever. Foreman was a monster in the 70's, never before had the Heavyweight division seen such power.

 

Watched him win the gold in 1968...watched him struggle with some mediocre opponents in
the early part of his career...get booed by the crowds on occasion...look sloppy...beats a shopworn Joe Frazier in 1973...KO's Joe "King" Roman in his 1st defense...ko's Ken Norton..and then fights one of the dumbest fights I've seen in all the years I've been watching the fights...(1964)...and runs out of gas against a past his prime Ali and gets Ko'd
in 1974...then beats Moorer...and wins the title again...good power?...yeah!...over rated?
...yup...

 

No George Foreman isnt the most overated fighter in history. He may be a little overated especially the younger version. I think Frazier and Norton were great fighters but both were made to order for George. They both crouched and played in his strengths. Those uppercuts were where his uncommon power was at its strongest.

 

While Foreman wasn't the most skillfull boxer ever he put together a prettty good career.

 

And, Big George is crying all the way to the bank............:yep

Give me a 'Hamburger'

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I think all of them are overrated , at times.

None of them were as good as their advocates think they were. That includes Ali.

 

No George is one of the most underrated.

"He won an Olympic Gold Medal after boxing only 1.5 years and with only 20 amateur fights going into the Olympics. That is just unbelievable, in some ways his most notable achievement.
He destroyed an undefeated heavyweight champion who was considered the best heavyweight in the world at the time, crushed him in only 2 rounds and ruined his reputation to this day, Joe Frazier who was a true all time great. Smokin' Joe is an equal to Marciano, but does not get the credit he deserves because of his loss to Foreman.
Big George came back and won the lineal heavyweight title 20 years after losing it. That is just mind boggling. No one and I mean no one else could do that, not Jack Johnson, not Jack Dempsey, not Joe Louis, not Rocky Marciano, and not Muhammad Ali. Nobody."

 

"Consider that George Foreman, in his prime had the highest knockout percentage in boxing history. After his destruction of Norton, he was 40-0 with 37 knockouts, for a knockout percentage of 92.50. In his career Foreman had 15 first round knockouts and 18 second round knockouts. That's 33 knockouts inside of the first 2 rounds! He had 46 knockouts that were 3 rounds or less, which is more than any other heavyweight champion. George Foreman’s incredible two round destruction over Joe Frazier was the most one-sided beating ever delivered upon an undefeated heavyweight champion."

" I get a good laugh when boxing people think that all you have to do to beat George Foreman is "box" him. Is that it? Is that all you have to do? Go ask Ali about that one. Those who do hold on to this error and believe that any “clever boxer” type could beat George often give the Jimmy Young fight as an example. Foreman showed up for this fight in San Juan the day before the fight and didn’t give himself time to get acclimated to the heat. He paced himself, fighting in his newfound measured style and did not throw a significant punch for the first 5 rounds. This was all wrong for him. The Foreman of Zaire would have tracked down Young, forced him to the ropes, went to the body with power and belted him out inside of a few short rounds. The 1973-74 Foreman, the one who cut the ring and really went after his man was the best Foreman. The George who lost to Young never really went after him. The Foreman who fought at a measured pace just was not the real George Foreman."

"His knockout of Gerry Cooney was an awesome display of both tremendous punching power and deadly accuracy. At age 42 he gave an undefeated Evander Holyfield an outstanding fight, stunning him and driving him to the ropes in the third round. A much older and slower Foreman fighting at a tortoise pace and lacking the meanness and killer instinct of the young George failed to go after Evander and ended up losing a decision. George proved the quality of his chin in this fight taking 25 unanswered punches in round nine from the champion without falter. One could not help but think that the Zaire Foreman would have beaten Holyfield.

George shocked the boxing world in 1994 when, at the age of 45, he regained the heavyweight championship by defeating an unbeaten 25 year old champion with a sensational ten round come from behind knockout of Michael Moorer. The victory must be considered one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of sports. Twenty years after having lost to Muhammad Ali, Foreman vindicated himself by regaining the linear heavyweight championship. The fight remains a testimony to the extraordinary power that surged through the veins of George Foreman."


Foreman is top 5 ATG no doubt. Not a pretty boxer but the stats and facts are there.

 

Your schizophrenia acting up again ?

 

Ingo johansson also did this.

Floyd patterson was undefeated as a heavyweight when ingo johansson knocked him out.

If Frazier had of hung them up after TFOTC he would have a strong shot at matching marciano for sure. However, unlike marciano, career timing prevented Frazier from being able to say he beat all the active champions of his own era. patterson and Liston were still around but missed out, so Statisticaly Frazier might not match marciano even if he retired when he should have. Frazier was indeed a great champion who already paid his dues, cleaned out his own era before facing Foreman. Pity was, Joe dropped a level after 1972.

Maybe not but a whole lot of unique circumstances allowed this to happen. Moorer was not regarded as the best heavyweight at that time, a rare and unusal thing when there has been an undisputed title. Lets not pretend Goerge was ever regarded as the best in the world second time around! Moorer did happen to be the linear champion but Foreman did not happen to be a rated fighter who deserved another poke at the title. Jack Dempsey v Jim braddock (if it happened) could have been the equal of Georges big record breaking fete, and whos to say Jack could not pull it off if Dempsey was allowed to miss out hungry contenders to get his chance? Ok george did this (and I was as happy as anyone when he did) but lets not get carried away.

 

foreman who destroyed frazier would kill johansson and patterson. after his defeat to ali foreman had a breakdown and wasn't in the right frame of mind until his comeback.

 

perhaps. I was just saying statistically Johansson did every bit as much with his career as Foreman did first time around.

Is this excusable for a top 5 ATG?

 

if we are rating fighters at their peak then a good case can be made for a young foreman and a young tyson to both be in the top 5 along with ali and louis. you have to ask yourself, how many fighters could beat them at their peak. what ali did was unique in zaire. i can't think of any other boxer fighting the way that he did.

 

That was not the only way to beat Foreman, it was just the only way Ali could beat Foreman - at that time. All the "live" opponents young George faced gave him a fight and just like many of other champions opponents, they were not all that remarcable.. There was just not enough of them.

Foreman took a lot of right hands his whole career. lazy right hands, off of all kind of opponents who were fighting for their lives, but even so that was only possible because many of them were 20lb or so lighter, much shorter and at the wrong end of their careers or simply not of a level to bother any elite fighter. Foreman was always going to look fantastic walking through them, but in many cases so would many others. George was just so physical, dirty and often had every advantage.

Foreman at his peak was a phenom ...but just like all other phenom's he was flattered ( and I will include young joe louis, tyson and Liston in this) by the fact there was often not much coming back at them in a lot of their fights.

Great fighters also win great fights.