It is more a question of whether seven years earlier would have reversed the result. Nova would always have had a stylistic advantage, like Ron Lyle against George Foreman, but Baer was by far the better fighter.
Agreed Foreman was a two handed destroyer who was always looking to end the fight....Baer wasn't people forget it took George 2 rds and 6 kds of beating Frazier to get the ref to stop it
Plus the night he gained the greatest victory ever, Frazier was a 10/10 beast, no cracks or wear appearing at that stage. He would've gave Baer a frightful beating both at their very best. Even if Baer catches and hurts Joe, he soaks it up...This bull**** that he was a one armed fighter is just that, bull****. You don't beat the **** out of Ali with just 1 punch which Frazier is accused of having ! The more I think of this fight, the more i'm convinced Joe gives him a career changing beating !
Picking Frazier is fine, but saying that you can't see another outcome seems a bit crass. Baer was almost a stylistic clone of Foreman, and probably hit just as had. These are serious serious problems for Frazier, however you argue it!
Frazier via later round TKO. But if Baer was actually motivated, he's got a chance to upset. The thing is Baer was defensively poor, didn't have much of a jab, and in my opinion clowned around to stay away from the action. That won't work vs. Frazier.
Joe beats him badly. The punch that Joe had problems with against Foreman was his uppercut, a punch that max has never (to my knowledge) used anything resembling consistently. Joe puts a beating on a super tough Baer and stops him in 7.
This is not true. Foreman's ring cutting and over all fight IQ was much better than Baer's. And George had arguably the best uppercut in heavyweight history which kept Frazier out of his bobbing defense. http://imgur.com/gallery/ZnjnB He was bigger than Max, stronger than Max and overall a far better fighter than Max IMO.
I don't see this one going very long, Max will get in a brawl with Joe, land some great bombs, wobble Joe ! But Joe ain't going away and stops Max in the 7th or 8th
Baer is too easy to hit his defence was poor and he wasn't particularity accurate. Joe in his prime was hard to hit and relentless he'd stop Bear maybe 6/7th round.
JOE IN A WAR,THOU MAX COULD TAKE HIM OUT TOO. JANITOR ILIKE YOUR STYLE.YOU CLEAN UP ANY MESS.HAHA NOVA WAS DECENT CONTENDER,MAX WAS SHOT