Is George Foreman the most overrated boxer in history?

If George Foreman is the only man who ever fought Bigfoot Martin, Dave Jaco, and Bobby Crabtree, then I really must have done a lot of acid during the 80's and 90's, because that's not what I remember.

 

Top 10 ranked heavyweights Foreman faced during his comeback:
Evander Holyfield L12
Tommy Morrison L12
Michael Moorer W-KO10
the rest were unranked.

 

Adilson Rodriguez was ranked #9 by the WBC, and pretty sure Savarese had to be ranked by the governing organizations as well.

 

I'm talking Ring ratings, not the ABC.

 

Mr Magoo, If you watched the Terry Daniels and Ron Stander fights, you'd probably echo the same sentiments as Eddie Futch and Yank Durham. Frazier looked horrible in those two fights and both trainers moreso Futch, tried to disuade Frazier from fighting Foreman in January.

There is a monumental difference between the prime Frazier of 1967 - 1970, 202 - 205.5 lbs and the Frazier who showed up to Jamaica weighing 214 lbs. Prime Frazier was quicker, showed better head movement, and had more snap in his left hook than he demonstrated against Foreman. You can also add that Foreman had some considerable help from Arthur Mercante who didn't do a good job of officiating in the fight. Foreman's wrestling tactics shouldn't have been allowed and was not warned for the pushing, shoving and grabbing Frazier's shoulders while holding and hitting underneath.

Ali himself said that the Frazier who fought him in March 1971 would have whupped Foreman while giving him one of the roughest and toughest fights of his career. Who wins the fight is another story, but Frazier certainly wouldn't have been blown out in two rounds. I believe he would have been much more competitve against Foreman had he demonstrated the same drive, attention to training and keeping his weight in check as he did for Ali. Some say Frazier couldn't get down to his prime weight because he left a lot in the ring in the FOTC. One factor that is forgotten is the fact that Ali missed a lot of jabs and straight rights in the FOTC. He missed many uppercuts too, which was the punch that Foreman used to destroy Frazier. Compared to the handspeed of Ali, I don't think Foreman hits Frazier as cleanly as he did in 1973.

Yes, it's safe to say that Foreman probably knocks him out based on what really happened, but I'm more inclined to give a better conditioned, focused Frazier a solid chance of making it past the early rounds and quite possibly stopping Foreman inside 10 rounds with his pressure and body attack.

 

Roy Jones is.

 

........somebody hold me back.
Hold me back!
HOLD ME BACK!!

 

Of course you are. The ABC ratings don't best suit your argument here, therefore you go for what works. Kind of like the way that you like to comment on how Norton had a weak chin because he was Ko'd on 4 occasions in his career. Of course, what you don't comment on, is how at least 3 of those KO's came against elite punchers, some of which were past his prime, but again gotta with what works eh?:good

 

I think a lot of Eddie Futches anxiety was the result of an experienced trainer seeing that his fighter was all wrong stylistically for the challenger coming into the ring. While other experts may have harped on Foreman's competition, Futch saw a hungry Olympic gold medalist who had Ko'd 21 strait opponents, and trained with Sonny Liston ( another fighter, many would favor to beat Frazier ). Frazier may have looked like **** against Stander, Daniels and anyone else as of late, but that could have just as easily stemmed from a lack of motivation factor, the kind that comes when a champion comes off the biggest fight of his career and is then placed in the ring with a stiff. It doesn't necessarily reflect being washed up. Larry Holmes for example, had many of these performances. He looked like **** against Renaldo Snipes. Didn't mean Gerry Cooney was going to beat him - and Holmes was 32 years of age against Cooney, not 29.

Foreman fought dirty in the ring that evening. That much is true. But, it doesn't errase the fact that even the clean shots he was hitting Joe with was lifting him off the canvas, sending him accross the ring, or flat out putting him on his ass. I doubt things would have been very different 2-3 years earlier. You argue validly that Joe may have had additonal hand speed, stamina and upper body movement, but that's not going to prevent him from getting hit at close range against a destroyer of swarmers - precisely what George Foreman was. Cus D'Amato said that no swarmer would ever beat George Foreman, and I have to agree. Fighters who lowered their center of gravity, bobbed up and down, and placed far more emphasis on hand and upper body movement as opposed to footwork, were basically ****ed against Big George. Its pretty much the same reason that I would pick him to beat Marciano, Tyson, Patterson and yes even a peak Frazier.......

 

Couldn't have constructed it better - in total agreement.

 

If anything hes under rated

 

Tell that to all the guys he knocked out.