Did you mean compared to Foreman, or Tyson? If former then it's not true, let's compare all of Tyson opponents from his so-called prime (1986-89): 1974 Foreman vs Norton: 6'3, 224 lbs and 78.5' reach David Jaco: 6'6, 210 lbs and - reach Mike Jameson: 6'4, 236 lbs and 79' reach Jesse Ferguson: 6'2, 211 lbs and 77' reach Steve Zouski: 6'0, 210 lbs and 74' reach James Tillis: 6'1, 208 lbs and 80' reach Mitch Green: 6'5, 225 lbs and 82' reach Reggie Gross: 6'3, 218 lbs and 78' reach William Hosea: 6'1, 215 lbs and 75' reach Lorenzo Boyd: -, 198 lbs and - reach Marvis Frazier: 6'0, 210 lbs and 76' reach Jose Ribalta: 6'5, 211 lbs and 80' reach Alfonzo Ratliff: 6'4, 201 lbs and - reach Trevor Berbick: 6'2, 219 lbs and 78' reach James Smith: 6'4, 233 lbs and 82' reach Pinklon Thomas: 6'3, 218 lbs and 77' reach Tony Tucker: 6'5, 221 lbs and 82' reach Tyrell Biggs: 6'5, 229 lbs and 80' reach Larry Holmes: 6'3, 226 lbs and 81' reach Tony Tubbs: 6'3, 238 lbs and 79' reach Michael Spinks: 6'2.5, 212 lbs and 76' reach Frank Bruno: 6'3, 228 lbs and 82' reach Carl Williams: 6'4, 218 lbs and 85' reach Number of fights: 22 Opponents heavier than GF: 7 Opponents with longer reach than GF: 13 (assuming numbers for Jaco and Ratliff) Opponents with both advantages: 7 If the latter, then of course Tyson almost always fought against fighters with longer reach, but he outweighed his opponents quite often actually (13 times out of 22).
I apologize for feeling the need to intervene in the discussion. I gave in the topic the exact specific fight, as "peak", and the exact weight: Unlike the theme: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/prime-mike-tyson-88-vs-prime-george-foreman-73.679611/ where I "targeted" the year ('88 or '73), this time I "targeted" a specific fight as a peak, where both boxers weigh in. P.S. I also saw that Tyson and Foreman had almost the same weight; the difference is 1¾lbs, or 0.795 kg).
And conversely, that means I’m with you. Certainly, excellent posters like yourself have previously covered off on all these aspects. For all the deep analysis’, this is ONE we all would love to have seen - paper forecasts will only take us so far - as boxing history has proven over and over - hidden or over-sighted variables often pop up - that’s the beauty of the actual proofs being borne out in the ring, perfectly real, not imagined or hypothetically calculated. .