Is George Foreman's power overrated?

Those guys were not harder or powerful punchers than foreman even p4p except maybe Hearns or Marciano.Hes not the hardest puncher but he has those guys beat by a mile.Hes about a number 5 or 6 spot overall in HW history in terms of everything included that constitutes knocking someone out,he was not a one punch k.o artist with bigger guys.Definatly not overatted he was a top Hw puncher not the best in my book for one punch power though.

Going by the definition overatted I would say most overate him over others who had better one punch power over a select few.

 

his power was top notch but he was a bit slow imo

thus he couldn't deliver his power most of the time.

if he had a big swing he could hit pretty hard but his big swings usually missed.

 

this post just messed me up mentally :smoke

 

Great point. One punch knockouts aren't the only measure of elite power (they're also almost never truly "one punch" anyway). Foreman had the type of power such that his punches hurt people wherever they landed, in some instances even if they didn't look like huge punches or land flush. That says a lot, imo. And he'd probably have more one-punch knockouts anyway if he'd had better speed and precision with his punches.

 

Then he would have less weight behind it if hes lighter like the 70's,it wasn't so much speed with him as technique,powerful yes but accurate?No...accuracy and technique combined with speed makes the harder punch.Put speed on the 250 plus foreman then he MAY be number one,but technique goes along way too.

Power and hitting harder are two different things.

 

Power is more thudding and with force,heavy handed shots..Harder is direct power that usually ends with a k.o or knockdown. I don't believe he hit the hardest but was the heaviest handed,at 240/250 plus.

 

There is a threshhold of power punching beyond which it simply does not matter:

Getting hit by a runaway train vs. getting hit by a cement truck going downhill at full speed.

Either way, you're done. Should you survive, somehow, and have any mental faculty remaining, you may be able to say one was harder than the other ... but either was off the scale in relation to any force of collision you might otherwise experience.

I seem to remember a story in Sports Illustrated, I think it was, which went back and talked to "young George Foreman" KO victims when he was on his comeback trail. The singular word they all used was numb, i.e.: "When he hit me on the arm, my arm went numb." People who fought Earnie Shavers often used the same term.

I'm not sure it makes a huge difference whether one is shot by a sniper using a .30-06 or bludgeoned about the head with a baseball bat swung by Babe Ruth ... one is a sharper blow, but either is deadly.

 

Not many fighters have ever been serial "one punch knock out" artists, even guys like Marciano and Shavers.
To even suggest Foreman's power is overrated is outrageous.

 

Ali said he was hit by foreman while on the ropes with a right hand and he started going into a dark room (losing consciousness).

Holyfield said Foreman hit him with a right hand that he felt knocked all of his teeth out.

 

Foreman hit extremely hard. I think that maybe his technique let him down a bit, maybe. Possibly he would have been better off not being so wild and loading up less on his shots.

... then again, he was HWC and I'm a guy on the internetz so what do I know?

 

I remember seeing a video where he just gently flicked or upper cut a guy's face and this was in his second come back where he was slow as a mummy, and the guy's mouth peace went so far away from the ring and into the stands.

Now if that isn't power then i don't know what is.

 

I think he had great power

there is a myth in boxing that you never lose your puch or it is the last thing to go, but i don't agree.

 

The art of the one punch KO is more than just power, aspects like timing, delivery, speed, accuracy, technique all play a factor. Foreman had a ton of power but he lacked in other areas.

 

^ This is correct.
Foreman had immense power. You can see, hear and almost feel the effect his punches had just by watching him.
But he rarely showed the accuracy and timing and technique needed to score the one-punch KOs.
It didn't actually matter.

In some ways it's much better to have the steady mauling pressure of powerful glancing blows and dull thuds than count on catching the opponent with the perfect punch.