Joe Louis V George Foreman

Louis stands no chance, Foreman destroys him.

 

Foreman was vulnerable against HWs that could move well and were fast.
Louis is flatfooted, Foreman will eat him alive.
Louis was great for his era, he gets beat by most ATGs that followed.

 

Lolololol compare Foreman with Baer? Shame on you
The records and the quality of opponents they beat are worlds apart.
Good news is you can go back to school now chump

 

Louis is too small and weak to stand a chance.

 

Louis too weak? You never disappoint

 

Yes, weak in comparison to Foreman.

 

Louis might have been the most concisely powerful combination puncher in history...yeah, even above guys like Iron Mike. No, he probably didn't hit quite as hard, but look at how TIGHT he could make his combinations. Only Ali did them that non-looped, though Ali tended to arm punch a lot. Louis almost never did that, he was just a really powerful man.

Foreman would have found it all too much, as great as he was (and he is my 2nd favorite fighter, ever).

Though George can be bizarrely over-modest and inconsistent with his statements, he'd be first to agree with me. Louis was a wrecking machine of monumental proportions.

 

Louis

He will capitalize on openings with his balance.

 

He really did have amazing balance, this is a super accurate observation! It allowed him to be statue-esque and get together amazing leverage with relatively little body movement. Thus the Super Combinations.

 

Foreman knockout, too powerful for Louis

 

Right!

It would also allow him to always be in position to capitalize on Foreman overleveraging his attacks or being out of position.

 

Foreman wasn't usually out of position to punch. He was an expert at keeping his man exactly where he wanted him to be to line up his sledgehammer bombs. On the occasion he wasn't in position to punch, he simply didn't punch. This is a big myth. You will not find any bouts where Foreman would simply swing for the fences stumbling around off balance as the opponent dodged his overly telegraphed attacks. He only got wild when he knew the opponent was badly hurt and threw with full swings to get the most power to finish them off.

 

Foreman was very good at staying in position relative to the power he carried.
But relative to a sharp boxer he had chinks in the armor. Louis capitalizing on that would be the deciding factor imo.

 

Louis by TKO. I think he would've given Foreman serious problems at midrange given his handspeed and accuracy (similar to Foreman-Ali). Foreman's uppercuts wouldn't be as effective since Louis fought with a bladed stance. But at the same time, Louis would be more vulnerable to Foreman's haymakers (looping right in particular) since they were rarely straight and could catch him behind the ear or side of the head. Foreman faced two counter-punchers in his first career and went 0-2 against them. He was a sucker for feints and leaned too much on his front foot making him a prime target for Louis' 1-2. Another thing about Foreman is, his defense was designed to pick off one punch at a time. He didn't know how to defend combinations and Ali exposed that weakness. Ali didn't even throw hooks, uppercuts, or body punches, it was just 1-2 over and over. Louis would've mauled Foreman at close range imo. Foreman was too slow and needed space to be effective. Foreman is bigger and stronger but there's a significant gap in skills and the matchup favours Louis stylistically. I'm not very confident in Louis' chin but I'm pretty confident in everything else. Louis wins 2/3.

 

I agree. A fast combination puncher could find holes in Foreman's armor and light him up with quick combinations. And Louis is possibly #1 in combination punching. I'm not disputing that.

The problem with the Ali comparison is Ali had A) a tremendous chin B) incredible pain tolerance for the murderous body punches Foreman was throwing C) still had great head movement even past his prime slipped a lot of the supposedly flush shots at the last split second D) Ali neutralized about 40% of the sting on Foreman's punches even further by leaning back into the loose ropes and E) Ali was physically stronger than Louis and a better clincher and knew how to tie up Foreman to drain him (the hot outdoor weather helped a lot too).

Louis was not as durable as Ali by any stretch of the imagination (although he did have a better chin than people give him credit for), did not have great head movement, would not get the benefit of loose ropes, did not know how to fight on the back foot and fight a cagey defensive style in the first place, and finally he was not nearly as good of a grappler or clincher as Ali to drain Foreman (nor would he necessarily get to fight outdoors in humid hot weather).

Those are A LOT of factors to consider.

One more thing to take note of is no one ever just stood at mid range in front of Foreman and lit him up with fast combos. I already explained how Ali pulled it off (stars were aligned+idiotic cornerman+Ali's superhuman toughness and reflexes), Young did so by fighting a very cautious and defense fight with plenty of lateral movement and clinching (and that was a past prime Foreman whose confidence was shattered). Louis was not exactly a fast footed guy using cautious lateral movement and tended to have both heels on the ground.