I've noticed a trend with the heavyweights that managed to beat Bob Foster... And similar situations in other LHW vs. HW matches. Against Foster they used their 40+ pound weight advantages to physically overwhelm him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ali couldn't outbox or out jab Foster. Joe Frazier simply bullied Foster around and blew him out. A similar Light Heavyweight great in Micheal Spinks was destroyed by another hard hitting swarmer in Mike Tyson. But against a 6'6 giant of a Super Heavyweight with a 81' inch reach Micheal Spink's took apart Gerry Cooney. In 30 rounds Holmes couldn't even get Spink's off his feet. The jab also didn't save the day against a man far smaller then himself for Larry Holmes. Thoughts?
And a separate question which I meant to ask in the first place... Was it possible for a heavyweight to actually outbox Bob Foster, when the likes of Muhammed Ali couldn't? Was swarming the only option?
Chris Byrd is another great example of this. He started his career fighting below LHW, and more than likely it ended as a LH as well. Ike Ibeabuchi, who had nearly a forty pound weight advantage on Byrd, swarmed all over him and eventually stopped him. But against other Super Heavies? Jameel McCline was outboxed despite having a 82' inch reach, a 55 pound weight advantage and being much taller. Byrd's career is full of other examples of this... Massive fighters who had the power to stop him, but they simply weren't active or fast enough, lending credence to the fact that swarming heavyweights might be the closest thing there is to LH's moving up.
Do you see Foster as a great boxer?I see him as a stalking ,one in a million puncher,who came forward behind a waist high jab leaning to his right with his right hand cocked ,not particularly fast on his feet and with average hand speed ,but that incredible power compensated for it.He outboxed Ali? Foster managed to land quite a few jabs when he was upright but he was down 8 times including the ko,we must have seen different fights. To answer your question ,Foster could be outboxed by a heavyweight ,and he was Zora Folley took a U Dec off him ,and we saw Folley against Ali.
Holmes was nearly 37 when he lost narrowly to Spinks his refexes were slower ,he couldn't execute his punches as he used to ,plus he had only an inch in height and 18 lbs in weight,contrast that with Wlads fights.
I've not managed to find rd 3, 4 and 5 of Ali-Foster, but I've seen the rest and I don't see any traces of Ali being outboxed there. Sports Illustrated certainly wasn't of the opinion that Ali was being outboxed. The saw it as a mismatch, and seemed to think that Ali was in total command throughout and only got caught and cut by a couple of jabs in rd 4 while playing around, waiting to take Foster out in rd 5 as predicted. A prediction that almost came true.
Not the greatest boxer of all time but he was an unbelievable ring general... Had one of if not the best jab ever in his division that kept you at range just where he wanted to, and he had power to affect one of the toughest heavyweight beards of all time, Ali's. Not a master boxer but a competent one. Not many without a massive weight advantage couldn't bully their ways in past that jab, which is my point. And yes, he did land quite a few jabs. He cut Ali who was nearly impossible to cut.
I dont think Foster's jab was as good as Loughran's,Conn,s ,Maxim's ,or Johnson's,he was a puncher ,he cut Ali ,so did Bugner,which means what? Ali won as he wanted to against Foster and was never in any trouble,nor was the result ever in doubt,imo.
Foster did it with a consistent jab that he could seemingly land at will. That's impressive. I'm curious how many heavyweight's could beat him with a jab, from a distance. Basically without using their massive size advantage over their skills.
Folley was about 30lbs heavier ,but 2 inches shorter,and though him and Foster were the same age ,Zora was on the slide after beating Foster ,he would never beat a top ten heavy .
Foster was incredibly fast. The best bet was to overwhelm him and not give him the chance to sharp shoot.
Does anyone have the first 5 rounds of Ali-Foster? It really bothers me that I've never got to see all of them.
