Frazier survives two early knockdowns and slowly breaks down Sanders and stops him late. We have to remember a couple of things: - Young George Foreman was extremely good at blocking or partially blocking or evading left hooks. Watch the first fight closely. Frazier only landed a few left hooks and only 1-2 landed clean. Despite Foreman not being good at defense, he was somehow naturally good at avoiding left hooks. There was one huge left hook in particular that Frazier threw prior to the second knockdown in fight 1 that would have knocked out many heavyweights and Foreman managed to evade it. I highly doubt Sanders would be as good at avoiding left hooks. - Sanders has great handspeed and excellent power. But its very doubtful he can physically bully Frazier around quite as easily as George did. Furthermore, Foreman had a great chin and Sanders has an ok but not a great chin. - Sander's right jab at full extension would allow Frazier to either throw the left hook underneath it to the body or over it to the head. Sanders's stance naturally puts him at a higher risk of being nailed by the left hook than Foreman's orthodox stance where Foreman just needed to keep his right hand static close to his chin to block incoming left hooks. Sanders has to constantly extend his right hand to jab and that opens him up. Frazier has better stamina, work rate and is more proven. Unless Sanders can shut down his body punching, Frazier breaks him down. I do think Sanders's hand speed and awesome power would hurt Joe early though but i doubt he will be able to finish Joe off quite as quickly. Frazier gets off the floor a couple of times and breaks him down with body shots and big left hooks. Frazier tko 10. An early Sanders stoppage isn't totally out of the question but unlikely.
Frazier is crushing him, Sanders wouldn't have the stamina and I doubt he'd be able to finish Frazier in the early rounds...
@BCS8 Who you going with in this one? Can Sanders take out the slow starting Frazier, does Frazier grind him down or can Sanders even outbox him?
Sanders was an Ali impersonator, and FOTY Frazier had no issue connecting on Ali. Sanders probably gets taken out because he held his chin straight up in the air. Sanders would have a chance at getting him out early though and would probably beat the faded incarnations.
I'd have no problem in picking Sanders over Frazier. He's a faster, more accurate puncher than Foreman who loves come-forward fighters that he can walk onto his punches. Frazier doesn't have the chin to take his salvoes.
