This throws in a lot of variables, and a lot of Foreman losses :think Foreman didn't look impressive at all with Jimmy Young. I can only imagine what Holmes would've done to him. Same with all the contenders through the late to mid 80s. I can't see Foreman doing very well. He was now a few years past his best now, and with guys like Coetzee, Thomas, Page, Dokes, and Cooney coming up, he might very well have quite a few losses. Thoughts?
There would be a lot of guesswork involved. He went out of the fight game a mess, but if he somehow continued on better off for the Jimmy Young loss, he could beat anybody, although Holmes would have always been a difficult match-up for him. He could also drop the odd decision to an inferior boxer every now and then, Foreman just wasn't a man to win any decisions, he would have to win by way of KO most of the time. Realistically he wouldn't have done well, as his desire to box was all but gone.
I'm a Young fan but admit that Foreman was mentally ****ed and dirty as hell against Young. If anything, the timeoff helped George and I think he needed it to gain his desire back.
I'm forgetting who would have been around at that time, I must be getting old. Coettzia and Kalli Knottzi (remember him?) would have been blown out in a round or two. Cooney, Thomas and I think even Page maybe wouldn't see rd 6. Neither would Ali. Holmes, Occassio (if he could stay out of trouble), same for a young Mike Dokes would be his biggest problems. He would still be a terror, even an old and heavy Foreman did good for himself, can you imagine a young and pissed off Foreman coming back, Soon, a young Tyson would be on the scene, Goerge a little older then, and would KO Tyson.
He would have lost to Holmes and had to fight the top guys for the next few years and had 2 more losses and retired. Taking the break and hand picking his fights helped his legacy. I think he was overrated. He had great power though. Beating Michael Moore in 1994 after losing to Evander and Tommy, is a lot easier than had he had to fight Bowe or Lennox.
It depends who hes matched against, no chance of him beating Holmes imo, if he went on to lose to Holmes he'd likely be seen as a lesser tier HW Champ
There is no way he could have continued without beating Young in a rematch. His chances? See Young-Lyle II. Big Ron by then had the accumulated confidence of having bettered a late prime Ali on the cards, getting off the deck to knock out Shavers in a classic, and given George himself hell in yet another classic. Didn't matter, as Jimmy schooled Lyle all over again. Foreman was never going to have any more success with Young than Ron did. What happens if George doesn't retire following Young? Jimmy gets an enormous career boost, and an even bigger reputation as a slugger's worst nightmare after Foreman II and Shavers III. (Don't forget that Cooney-Young was also going Jimmy's way until an unlikely right hand resulted in a ridiculously unfortunate and unpredictable tear in Young's face.) Foreman certainly could have been counted on to always dethrone Norton, but be dead meat for Jimmy. Then, Holmes comes along. Coetzee may have planned to perform his own Ali impression on George. (This is one rare instance where Gerrie would have come supremely confident in the superiority of his own stamina, and unlike Denis, he had the power to hurt Foreman with that Bionic right, a potent ring cutting antidote.) Tate would have taken George into deep water as he did the deadly Knoetze. Would Foreman want any part of Bugner in 1977? (Let's not forget that Joe himself decided to stop at the same time after Ron shaded him, and was actually a little younger than George.) Maybe Lyle would want a second crack at Foreman. In selecting a more conservative boxing strategy like the one he used to try lifting Ali's title, and succeeded with Bugner at, perhaps he takes George into the later rounds this time, then unloads his proved firepower. It would have been open season on somebody who had once been the most feared slugger of his era by everybody with size and strength who could box, move and punch with any level of proficiency following Young. Too bad for him, as he either could have or actually did defeat most of the title opponents Holmes had, but the late 1970s just wouldn't have been a good era for him with Larry, Bugner (who could either be too passive, or actually box to win against George), Young, a well prepared Tate, or Ali mimic Coetzee.
Well, Foreman was only 28 when he dropped the nod to Young in '78, so he still had a good 3 to 5 more years as a ringer if he had decided to keep on going... Foreman would struggle early with the likes of 1979 John Tate, but he'd impose his will on Tate and get him outta there late, and he'd KO Mike Weaver inside of 8 rds during that time period... Foreman would get sliced and diced by WBC champ Larry Holmes, and Foreman would know that too... Had Foreman never retired and merely kept going, he'd have eventually washed-out as a fighter by 1984 for sure...... Foreman really benefitted a whole lot by resting for 10 years... MR.BILL
Ali was actually Coetzee's idol. Especially earlier in his career, Gerrie utilized the Ali lean to slip punches like Muhammad, tried to imitate the same dancing footwork, and was actually a skilled enough technician to outbox one of his opponents after breaking both his hands early in a bout. (This may have been in his 12 round decision over Mike Schutte.) He was 185-7 in his amateur career. His coaches were always trying to get him to not throw so many right leads, again a deliberate mimicking of Ali's tactics. If Coetzee had taken on Foreman, he may well have adopted some of the same template. Domestic rival Knoetze was also a powerful puncher with questionable stamina, and Gerrie beat him over ten when they squared off one final time in the professional ranks. He had the skill to box Thomas to a standstill, and was unanimously leading Dokes on Michael's home turf after nine rounds when he scored the knockout. In actuality, it might be argued that no top heavyweight in the immediate aftermath of Ali's reign more closely resembled him stylistically than Coetzee, even eventual conqueror Page. The upset of Leon Spinks and starching of Koraniki altered him somewhat from his roots as an Ali mime to more of a puncher. He never really had anything resembling that kind of speed, but he did have size, power, skills and good mobility. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1095100/1/index.htm
