I mean after Moorer fight he didn't ko anyone? Do you think he was holding back to prove that he is not just ko artist and could win decision? thanks!
Power is the last thing to go. Foreman had the power and probably still does, but the delivery slowed down more than enough to encourage his opponent's evasion. He simply couldn't pull the trigger quick enough.
Nearly the exact same thing happened to Joe Louis. The end of his career is rife with decisions. He came up with a very memorable quote regarding it and everything. Thing is, Louis was a actual ring general so his ability to find openings for those shots remained. Foreman? Not at all.
Foreman used his last trick on Moorer: he conserved enough of his power to get the KO while Moorer got overconfident and came to him, rather than George having to go out and chase Moorer down. George's reflexes should have been too slow to get to Moorer in that bout, (and you can see how many times his timing is off, or he's throwing just a bit too late or just a bit off target) but Moorer coming to him meant that George kept getting opportunities, and eventually he set Moorer up for the KO. After seeing how well the combination of overconfidence and coming in and staying close worked for Moorer, no fighter was going to let their guard down with George again, and instead boxed him carefully from the outside. And George just didn't have enough left in the tank to chase them down and take them out. (Yeah, in some ways that second paragraph is the simplified version, but I don't feel like doing full summaries of the fights with Shultz, or Briggs, which Foreman probably won, etc).
Foreman, during his comeback, was very heavy-handed and almost impossible to move backward or hurt. Like boxing a wall. However, his power was not as good as it used to be. Morrison is known for having a very weak chin, yet had no problem against him.
Morrison actually boxed for once in his life and actually trained for cardio. His trainers and him watched films of the fighters that had managed to outbox Foreman years before, in particular the Young fight. Crazy right?
Power is one thing, being able to deliver it effectively is another. I don't think it can be understated just how handily Moorer was beating Foreman until he stayed in front of him for too long. He wasn't winning every round, I think George deserved a couple rounds, but he was pelting him with every shot in the book and arguably could've ended up racking up something close to 400 punches on the guy. But George still had the power, and Moorer gave him the opportunity.
Like others have written, the power was there but the delivery was slower. I still think George's weight was a big factor. He was too heavy. I know he had slimmed down verse Qawi but George wasn't used to that weight and maybe that was too low. 240-245 would have been better than 250+.
The power was still there just he wasn't the same fighter. Moorer was the last guy to stand there infront of Foreman for too long and paid for it. Shannon Briggs said Foreman was the hardest hitter he ever faced.
Lou Savarese stood in front of Foreman for almost an entire fight, and he never went down - not even close! Foreman hit Savarese with some big, big punches - jabs, straight rights, left hooks - and Savarese was there all night long. Then, in his next fight, Savarese gets starched by David Izonritei. I think Foreman's power declined significantly.
I think that whole "power is the last to go" thing is not necessarily accurate. I think power can decrease and slip gradually just like any other physical attribute. Speed and timing can dull, reflexes lose sharpness, so why can't power reduce right along with everything else? But if a guy starts out being a big puncher, his power may slip and degrade to the point of him being just an above average puncher, but it still degrades. It doesn't mean that it degrades slower than anything else, it's just that it's slipping from a point where it was alreayd high to begin with!
