Is Prime Foreman with Old Foreman’s brain the best heavyweight?

He'd be right up there I'm thinking. I really liked how cool Old Man Foreman was under fire. I like how he'd developed his jab into a real nasty weapon, his crossarm defence and how he was working off of timing and not just bumrushing guys Shannon Briggs style. Only problem was his low workrate and that he was slower than an asthmatic sloth. Almost as slow as Joe Joyce, in fact. Being young again would have solved those hassles right up.

 

I've said as much repeatedly here.

 

Old George was more patient. Does that solve his problem with high endurance movers?

 

Young George was real quick on his feet in terms of covering ground in the ring. His hands weren't fast, but he wouldn't have had the issue with movers that he did when old.

 

Hard to say if it solves it but he'd do better certainly, I think

 

He would definitely be rated a lot higher but we could go on forever with these scenarios -

A sixties Muhammad Ali with his seventies ring generalship is another. This one would be absolutely bionic.

 

I sometimes think that Foreman was the best natural talent that the heavyweight division ever produced.

If you took his natural gifts and added patience and cleverness, it is hard to imagine him losing.

 

He gives Ali all kinds of trouble and possibly pulls it out in Zaire, beats Jimmy Young, beats Holmes. So he would be the top guy until the early 80s.
When you think about it that alone should put him right up there into top 3 ATg HW territory

 

Top five for sure all time.

 

No. His defense is just too poor.

 

That would be a sight to behold. Hard to imagine him losing unless he just got sick of boxing or got too old to keep up. I think Holmes and Ali would still be tough challenges for him, and he'd need to work on his endurance either way since he sometimes had hypertension issues.

 

Meh, Sullivan in 4

 

In some ways he would be better. Saying he’d be the best Is an extravagant claim

 

Sum of their parts - prime Foreman considerably > than old Foreman, imo.

Prime Foreman with old Foreman’s greater experience, IQ and emotional balance > than either prime Foreman or Old Foreman, but perhaps on an as and when basis.

Suffice to say, if prime Foreman was more patient with some of his quickly KO’d opponents than he actually was - some of those fights might’ve gotten away from him.

We saw an older, heavier and lesser Frazier get more mileage out of Foreman’s more metered approach in their rematch than he did against the destruct and destroy version he came up against in Jamaica.