Many people would favor "Toledo" Dempsey over "Vegas" Foreman (or whatever the hell the Foreman of Moorer bout is called), but how would that same Dempsey do against "Caracas" Foreman, the one that lambasted Ken Norton in two rounds?
Yea, Dempsey is going to get flattened big time. It will make Foreman look awfully more great and powerful against these swarming type Heavyweights.
Prime Foreman would stop Dempsey in the 1st/2nd round IMO. Prime Dempsey against the Foreman that beat Moorer; I'd lean towards Dempsey on points.
When you take a look at the first minute and a half in Toldeo, it becomes obvious that Dempsey wouldn't simply swarm into Foreman from the opening bell (a la Firpo), but circle around and move in and out, until or unless a sudden outburst was able to hurt George. Foreman was stronger than Willard, but also much slower and more wide open defensively. (Jess was able to control Frank Moran in large part because of vastly superior speed.) Jack was much faster, more mobile and more elusive than post FOTC Frazier or Norton were. There's a dynamism there which Smoke and Kenny were missing. Dempsey wasn't always strictly a swarmer, but started out at Toldeo as a bobbing and weaving, countering mover. There is no footage of Marciano even attempting this in any of his bouts, a fact omitted by mediocre scribe Frank Lotierzo in his Sweet Science hatchet job on Jack. (Lotierzo also tried to claim that Young "exposed" Ali by making Muhammad come forward in a way nobody else ever had, thus proving that Lotierzo never viewed Ali-Bugner I & II, Blue Lewis or the first five rounds of Mac Foster, ect...) Lotierzo also wrongly claimed the Dempsey's power never lifted an opponent off his feet, when we can see Jack doing exactly this with a late third round short hook to Willard's ribs. Levi Forte and Greg Peralta 2X proved that it was not impossible for somebody Dempsey's size to survive with Foreman, and Jack was infinitely greater. In three consecutive matches, 6'4" 230 pound Carl Morris got himself chewed up by Jack in 1917 and 1918, despite trying to exploit his greater size to his advantage. Dempsey showed in round 12 of the Brennan rematch that he had the late round power to get George out of there if Foreman lasted that long, and Jack had the combination of defensive elusiveness, power and maneuverability to take him into deeper water. "These big slow guys are easy meat for me." Foreman, who was considerably slower than Firpo (who worked diligently on developing his own speed for Dempsey) was the very epitome of a "big, slow guy."
