Is George Foreman the most overrated fighter in history?

Against world class guys:
2-0 in 73
1-1 in 74
2-0 in 76
0-1 in 77
0-1 in 91
0-1 in 93
1-0 in 94
(Robbery against Schultz in 95.)
5-4

In contrast, Wilder is something like 4-2-1 against world class guys and it's been seven years since he won a belt.

 

I might muster a reply after I've seen your list of the fifty you consider greater.

 

On a good day I could fairly easily muster 15 active fighters that are greater.

 

Tyson isn't overrated at all. Sure, if you say he beats everyone at HW, you're overrating him. But based on his actual career, his resume is not bad. Thomas, Tucker, Holmes, and Spinks were all very good wins. Secondary wins over Bruno, Ruddock, and Golata were good wins. You can't suck and beat any of those guys IMO.

If you want to pick a fighter who no one ever says is overrated at HW, that would be Joe Frazier. He beat a rusty Ali in 1971 and beyond that his resume isn't all that good. And he didn't take a punch very well, Bonavena almost had him knocked out early (and Bonavena was an under-sized HW). Not to mention the demolition job Foreman did on him twice. The first time being an early KO. You never saw Tyson get bounced that early in his prime.

 

In that case, given that it's such a fairly easy task, please indulge us with even 15 off the top of your head.

 

I never said Mike sucked. Mike is great and, as I said, he's my all-time favorite fighter. But among CASUAL boxing fans he's hugely overrated. They just watch his highlights and because he was so unique and fun to watch overlook his shortcomings and call him the best ever. This may happen with many fighters but more so with Tyson.

No one might say Joe Frazier is overrated but also no one calls him the best ever.

And let's be honest, even if Joe got KTFO early by George Foreman, that is George Foreman. Mike was beaten down by Buster Douglas. He was thoroughly beaten down the whole fight. The only reason he didn't go down early is because he had a great chin and Buster wasn't a huge puncher like Foreman. Now if you want to say Mike wasn't prime anymore, that's another debate. Yes, his skills were diminishing, but I'm not giving him a pass. He was very young and in his physical prime. His fault for not coming prepared.

 

No.

 

George took a ten year hiatus from the sport. He never even shadow boxed in this time.

 

Oleksandr Usyk
Naoya Inoue
Gennady Golovkin
Canelo Alvarez
Dmitry Bivol
Kazuto Ioka
Ken Shiro
Artur Beterbiev
Roman Gonzalez
Wisaksil Wangek
Juan Francisco Estrada


Well, I don’t want to really put guys like Crawford and Fury here since their resumes are awful. But the above 11 guys above range from arguably being greater to being obviously indisputably greater.

 

George no - Wlad, Usyk, Haye, Joshua...........

 

I was thinking HWs.

 

Ahh. Gotcha. Yeah, that would be a crazy claim to make lol.

 

No.....What a Prime Foreman let alone a 40 year old Foreman would do to this lot of Heavy's would prove that in most peoples Top 10 for a reason.!!!

 

Er no, he at worst was the 2nd best heavyweight in the best era of heavyweight boxing with arguably the best heavyweight ever being the only one better than him.

He also won Olympic gold when he hadn't even boxed for 2 years, nobody to my knowledge has done that. Can you imagine some 18 year old now first stepping into an amateur boxing gym and then winning super heavyweight gold in Paris 2024?

He at the age of 42 fought Holyfield a the future ATG and didn't shame himself, doing far better than anyone expected. How many 42 year old ex champs no do you think could hang with Usyk?

Then of course he beat Moorer, the guy who beat Holyfield. Yeah styles makes fights and Foreman had the right guy at the right time in front of him to make boxing history but if it was that easy to do someone else would have done it.

Resume stand out wins are Frazier twice, Norton and Moorer. Does he have the deepest resume obviously not, but his achievements cant be overlooked.

 

I must live in a bizarro world where Foreman is overrated. Guy is a f’n legend.