QUARTERFINALS: The All-Time Heavyweight H2H Tourney- LEWIS vs. FOREMAN

Lewis is great and has a chance here, but Foreman just too strong and his bombs will land early. I favor Foreman in 3.

 

Foreman would knock himout. No doubt about it

 

You guys think he would bomb him out twice?? I personally find that hard to believe.

 

Prime Foreman beats down Prime Lennox. Simple as that.

 

Just watched the Lyle fight and I totally disagree. I think not enough posters actually saw George in his prime to make that determination. Wouldn't mind it if posters could cite actually fights to prove their point.

 

Wouldn't call the Lyle fight a prime Foreman. He was certainly degraded mentally post-Zaire.

Likewise I wouldn't call the Rahman or McCall loses good examples of Lennox.

Best idea would be to take a peaked out Lennox and compare video to Foreman smashing up Frazier and Norton and see what the brain can conjure up as a styles clash.

One thing Foreman gets underrated with is skills and timing. He isn't a boxer by any means but he had a great jab, excellent timing and his ring cutting skills were some of the best in HW legend.

One thing Lewis gets underrated is chin, I've seen the man take plenty of heavy shots from well regarded hitting HWs.

Foreman though could really ****ing hit and he will find Lewis' chin. So the debate is basically if Lewis can weather a 5 round storm, if he can then he wins, if not then Foreman wins.

I have to favor Foreman because Big George was just a monster in the early 70s, he is a tad underrated IMO and what Ali pulled off was something very special that logically shouldn't have happened.

 

Do you use careful and studious Lewis vs. Tua as an example here? Or a Lewis throwing bombs also?

You get in a corner with someone as strong as Foreman, clinching can only do so much. Ali still had to absorb lots of punishment and George was positively elite as making sure an opponent was backed into the ropes at his best.

The betting point is no doubt the speculative durability of Lewis in this fantasy fight.

But unlike the Klitschko's wrongfully being in the quarterfinals of a HW tournament, Lewis is indeed a great fighter and I could see some possibilities of him defeating Foreman.

 

Thank you for challenging me, forums need discussion and you're right, I didn't explain my choice :good

Firstly, the Lyle fight is not what I would call 'Foreman at his best'. George has a strange career to evaluate in that his absolute peak (in my opinion) was very short in the quantity of top opponents faced and beaten - Norton, Frazier I, perhaps Chuvalo).

Peak Foreman was the same physical beast as he always was. Punches had little effect on him, he feared no-one, he was relaxed and hence did not waste energy, he was one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In other words, he was a cold-hearted stone-fisted punching machine.

Peak Foreman simply would have walked through any version of Lewis. Lennox had a superb jab and not too little power, but I don't imagine Foreman being overtly troubled by it. Lennox wasn't exactly twinkletoes, his head movement was nothing compared to Frazier, he would find no hiding place in the ring with Foreman, and George would eat him up with his crunching straight punches.

Post Ali, Foreman clearly lost something mentally. That version of Foreman (the one of Lyle and Jimmy Young) has a lot more trouble with Lennox. He was distressed by the awkward style of Young. With Lyle he just got tagged by another murderous hitter, and had to slog it out. I don't think George gets enough credit for that. People use the Lyle fight to discredit him, but the fact is he walked through fire against a big puncher and won one of the best fights in heavyweight history.

Either way, for me Peak Foreman walks through Lewis within 3-5 rounds. The mentally damaged version still wins (Lewis was nowhere near as downright awkward as Young), but he perhaps takes a little longer.

I will say this though, if I were given a hypothetical situation whereby Lewis somehow makes it to the cards against any version of Big George, Lennox takes it on points :deal

 

I agree with your earlier points re: Foreman's cutting off the ring. I can't remember a fight (perhaps outwith the Jimmy Young fight) where an opponent managed to find space or distance with George. Even The Greatest couldn't - he simply accepted his fate and lingered on the ropes, bided his time and landed when he could, and of course such immense bravery won Ali that fight (IMO his greatest victory). Lennox would not escape the best version of Foreman and I don't see him pulling off some courageous rope-a-dope like Ali or some insanely awkward movement like Young - hence I see Foreman by stoppage before the fight reaches halfway.

 

Prime Foreman was considered 'strong' when compared to his peers in the 70s, many of which would be CWs in they fought today. Foreman wouldn't stand out in strength compared to prime Lewis. Quite the opposite actually.

 

A younger version of Ali would never have fought like that. It wasn't that George did anything special rather it was that Ali was significantly past prime and his legs weren't the same. A prime Ali would have boxed Foreman. That said, I'm probably one of the few that think that Foreman would have won a rematch.

One advantage both Foreman and Ali had was that they were bigger than most of their opponents. Foreman was about 6'3" and he was significantly taller than Lyle. Lewis on the other hand would be the bigger fighter with the longer reach, I think that would make a difference, if the fight lasted more than 3-4 rounds.

 

Lewis!!!

 

I think Lewis's skills **** all over Foreman's. Foreman has a punchers chance, but I have to go with the guy who has faster hands, better accuracy, better footwork, better jab, better all round strategist and also has an almighty fooking dig himself.


Lewis all day long.

Foreman's defense was atrocious back in the day, Lewis had the size and the ability to really expose that, Foreman also had an uncanny knack of putting his hands out in front of him when he was expecting punches coming his way... very similar to what Rahman did in the rematch.

Lewis all day.

 

I pretty much agree with this assessment. Lewis is simply a better boxer.
as has enough power of his own to possibly win by KO.

But if power is all that mattered, then one has to wonder why Shavers didn't have a better career. Fact is Foreman's defense was nothing special, he mostly just pushed guys back so he could create space. Do that against Lewis and you're getting hit with an overhand right