The world was in awe of Frazier: he beat Ali, didn't he? Certainly it would have to take a very great fighter to beat him, quite possibly Ali himself, once they could meet again. Foreman? No crude unproven slugger, no matter how big, could be picked over the tried and true champion. Ali, Ellis, Mathis, Quarry, Bonavena, Chuvalo, Foster, Ramos. The bigger they were, the harder they fell. And hadn't a Goyo Peralta taken this guy the distance? But, while Foreman was primed to rise to the occasion and make the most of his shot, several factors were at work in Frazier's inexorable diminishing process: having conquered his mountain in the Lip, Frazier was milking the title for all it was worth, living large and defending against one Terry Daniels and one Ron Stander; and that Fight had forever taken the best out of him anyway; as a small pressure fighter relying on a tremendous workrate, time was eroding the champ. The first moments of the fight itself saw two impressive athletes rush to meet in center ring. The challenger, game, but a bit shaky and tentative. The champion seemed ready to rumble and bring down his brazen foe who had looked down on him seconds before at the stare-down so apparently disdainfully. Suddenly a whistling left hook to the Foreman head wakes up a beast. Self-preservation, the training, all the youthful dreams take over. Banished become any thoughts of self-doubt. George Foreman now finds himself in a brawl against a grunting, panting jungle creature and here and now he is going to take charge, with his own awesome stuff. BANG! BAM! THUD! The two-handed attack by Foreman on an immediately hopelessly smaller, limited, foe is relentless. Down goes Frazier, from some of the best shots ever seen in a heavyweight championship challenge. They come especially in the form of pulverizing short right uppercuts and sweeping left hooks, in lethal tandem, to a most available skull. The distressed champion's response is utterly powerless, just a huge telegraphed left hook, vainly cutting the air again and again. Over one and-a-half rounds, this is the story. The baddest man on the planet is mercilessly bounced and slammed to and fro, an erstwhile boy bully running into and being bludgeoned by a heartless, excruciating grown man. After a sixth fall, an unsteady champion rises, all balls, yet with absolutely nothing left, and is retired by his trainer, to live another day. Foreman was a monster. Every bit of his reputation was deserved. The way he destroyed Kenny Norton was also a masterful demolition job on a high-flying, powerful man. In the swirl of the moment, only an epic hero such as The Greatest could have the confidence to stand up to and defeat a nightmare such as this.
I can remember those rumors flying around after that Fraizer demolition that Joe had died in the hospital.
Coming forward against Foreman is such a death sentence. The first good blow Foreman lands on Frazier is a right to the body as Frazier is coming in, and it seems like time stands still for Frazier for four seconds or so. Of course, pain is irrelevant to Joe as long as he's in there, so he advances gamely right after. But for those four seconds...it seems like something gave him pause. It alwas makes me wonder -- knowing what a tolerance for pain both Ali and Frazier had -- if a man like Lennox Lewis or Mike Tyson would be intimidated inside the ring once they tasted how heavy Foreman's hands were. Evander Holyfield backing up against an old Foreman speaks volumes of this as well.
Norton was another guy that has to go forwards to be effective. Nobody was picking an early Foreman destruction in that matchup either, although George was a 3-1 favorite.
Great win for George. He did everything he was told to do to beat Frazier and executed it perfectly. Still, I have a hard time believing Foreman would destroy a pre-FOTC conditioned Frazier. Definitely George knocks Frazier down a couple of times early, but prime Frazier would have got up, lasted a whole lot longer and given Big George a much tougher fight. I won't go so far to say FOTC or pre-FOTC Frazier beats George, but he definitely stands a better chance than the poorly conditioned fighter who showed up in 1973.
