Joe Frazier v Bob Foster

Bob way out of his depth. I agree, if anything, Frazier looks to have won the first. Foster's flicking out the jab, but only 'pawing' really, nothing of substance lands. Joe avoids most and land a big left of his own. Cosell was a dick. :good

 

One of Frazier's most brutal, and in my opinion, best wins.

 

Agreed. Might be Frazier best performance, which should not be confused with best win.

 

Agree completely.

 

Two of boxing's all-time greats, though Foster getting KO'd the way he did was not very surprising, to be honest. He was brave, did the best he could, but of course, a LHW wasn't gonna withstand Frazier's vaunted left hook for 15 rounds.

 

What about Frazier's glass chin ? Foster hit like a mule at any weight and Frazier walked through his shots ... because Frazier had a great chin and was an all time great heavyweight ... it was a huge win by a prime Frazier ..

 

This is one of, if not the, most aesthetically-impressive wins over Frazier's career. It is also significant to note that Foster hadn't lost a fight in about five years, was coming off 13 consecutive knockouts going into this fight, most of them over heavyweights, and had produced some of the most devastating knockouts in history- a very strange fight for Frazier's management to accept if, as has been suggested on here, they were afraid of facing punchers.

However, in retrospect, as great light heavyweights moving up go, it seems Foster was relatively ill-suited to handling bigger opponents; to answer one of your questions, this is historically not generally "something to be expected when an ATG LHW meets and ATG HW." Certainly other historical meetings between great heavyweights and their contemporary light heavyweight counterparts, such as Dempsey-Carpentier, Louis-Conn and Marciano-Moore, were much more competitive than this bout. Foster evidently lacked the durability or the style to hang with bigger men.

 

This was Frazier's last fight before he took on Ali 4 months later.

Frazier said: "I don't know why Bob wants to fight me" ( I think Joe & Bob were friends & Frazier wanted to give him a payday, and he ended it quick).

I was in college then, and the 11-18-70 fight was on a Wednesday nite in Detroit. I don't remember there being any closed circuit in Austin or in San Antonio...I think it was considered to be a mismatch.

I remember hearing the result later that nite either on the late TV Sports or on radio.

Most people viewed it as "now on to Ali-Frazier" (Note that Cosell is doing a "voice-over" in the fight version above, probably being shown the following Saturday on Wide World of Sports)

 

He looked very good in this one for sure but it ended a bit early to be his best performance for mine.

I reckon he looked even better in the Ellis fight as he had to break down a slicker boxer who was a much better Heavyweight than Foster.

Which he did do.Brutally.

 

I thought Frazier got the first round quite clearly, it's mad how devastating punchers like Foster and Spinks (at 175) moved up and couldnt dent the great HWs. I know Spinks stopped plenty HWs, but i mean against the great ones, when Spinks fought Holmes it was as if Larry was merely annoyed by Spinks' shots rather than hurt, then check his power out when he fought at 175............

I know it seems logical that larger men can take shots from smaller men, but i atill find these events strange how they unfolded.

 

Bob Foster was 6' 4" tall with a huge reach . He was the hardest hitting light heavyweight of all time ... he was still in his physical prime ... if he was not suited to move up and give it a shot I don't know a light heavy that was ... the difference was he was not fighting an old, poorly trained Holmes like Spinks did or a limited Ruiz like Jones and Toney. He fought a prime Joe Frazier, a devastating fighting machine and he was crushed ...

 

Thank you. I have come to view you as one of the most knowledgable and even handed guys here so I welcome your feedback.