Prime Foreman vs Riddick Bowe

Foreman certainly punched harder than Lewis.

Foreman KO before round 4 for mine. And I like Bowe as a fighter.

Just on their respective chins, Holyfield hit Foreman with something like 18 straight shots and Foreman never even looked like going down. This is the same Holyfield who put Bowe on his back. Bowe may have had a good chin but Foreman's chin is legendary.

 

Sonny Liston commented after sparring with a young George Foreman: He Can Sure Hit.

 

I love Lennox mate and yeah, he could absolutely bang with the best. There's not that much in it from a power perspective.

But I will say that nobody hit harder than Foreman, to my eye anyway. Not even Shavers and that is no disrespect to Ernie.

But Lewis, unbelievable power too so your point is well made.

 

Lewis had a tremendous shot. I think he was more on the speedy side though (like Iron Mike). As far as heavy, bludgeoning punchers, you can't get better than Foreman imo.

The HUGE thing against Bowe is the fact that he always took WAY too many punches. The only reason Holy took those heavy shots from him and survived (albeit with assurances Foreman was the hardest puncher he ever faced, after he'd already faced Lewis twice) is because Foreman was too old to follow up.

I just don't see even amazing fighters like Holy or 1992 Bowe going warrior mode and surviving a young Foreman, who rarely banked on just one shot. Even pre-Steward Lewis would have got caught imo.

 

By the barometer of iron chins Foreman/Tyson against Holyfield’s ‘power’, I’d wager Bowe had a very good chin.

I think Holyfield’s left hook and counter right that guys don’t see were his only real serious ‘big punches’ and all three were out on their feet against Holyfield from one of those.

Bowe totally walked through some good shots in that first Holyfield fight and got teed off and hurt by some real good Holyfield combos in the second but took them well.

I think Bowe had a decent chin tbh. He could get hurt, but then Holyfield got hurt quite a lot but is correctly regarded as having an ‘iron chin’.

I don’t think Bowe’s chin is a weak point in H2H matchups at all.

 

I said Bowe had a very good chin.

I just don't think it is a Foreman level of chin.

 

He didn't face punchers so how would we be able to assess his chin? He would have had to face more big hitters.

Holyfield had a much longer career and fought Lewis and Tyson while Bowe didn't face punchers of that calibre.

 

Bowe definitely fought some punchers: Bert Cooper, Herbie Hide, Jorge Luis Gonzalez, Andrew Golota

 

Young Foreman's stamina problem gets overplayed? Let's see: The fight with Goyo, the Rumble and the Young religious awakening. That's three times he turned into a 215-pound rag doll, by my count. Am I overplaying it? Notice I'm not counting the Lyle clobberfest.

 

Foreman convincingly. Bowe never met a punch he could avoid in his entire career. Holyfield had him on Que3r Street with a single hook in their last fight. This won’t end pretty.

 

If Foreman was 29 years old, given two life-altering beatings that essentially retired him, by Andrew ****ing Golota we'd never hear the end of it from guys like Noneck, Kamikaze, and He Grant.

 

Bowe's chin being excellent is a stretch. It was never really tested by huge punchers like Tyson, Ruddock, Bruno, etc. Their were an abundance of punchers to choose from in his era, yet his resume is strangely devoid of any big punchers. He was dropped by Golota of all people twice, and hurt on numerous occasions.

I've seen nothing to suggest, Bowe is immune from being knocked out early as you're suggesting. His defense certainly doesn't support that, and his chin was never proven on that level, and instances where he was hurt by lesser punchers than Foreman, in guys like Holy and Golota may infer his chin wasn't on that level.

Bowe's lack of defense is not overplayed at all. I think it's absurd to say his defense is better than Lewis or Vitali's. You realize their's footage of him right? We can plainly see how virtually non-existent his defense was. It's a big reason, his career was basically over before he even reached his 30s.

Regarding Foreman's fight with Lyle. That was after Foreman returned from a 2 year exile, and wasn't the same man mentally. He'd changed up his style and body mechanics that on paper should've improved him, but it did anything but that. He shifted his body mechanics, bringing his feet to close together, which altered his natural gait. Clancy made Foreman bring his feet to close together, which prevented Foreman from utilizing all of his power and left him off balance quite a bit.

His jab which was once an ATG weapon, was more or less non-existent at this point. He just threw it while standing still. He didn't put his body into it, and walk in with his weight behind it like he did pre-Ali. He just tried to become to technical imo to improve, but it actually did the opposite. Every aspect of his game, declined imo. Even his endurance. He was still getting fatigued at around the same time, but he was expanding less energy and his work rate, wasn't even remotely the same as it was pre-exile.