Who else beats George Foreman in Zaire

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/zaire-who-else-could-have-beat-foreman-that-night.465719/

 

Foreman's opponent would have to be someone who could get into George's mind pre-fight, and make him use up all his energy by round 5. Ali may have been the only one at that high point of Foreman's career that could do it.

 

Not many to be honest. Larry Holmes top of the list for me .Lewis' stand s a chance if he avoid s a Early ko to George. Here's a surprise one but I say with caution, Chris Byrd.Maybe if surviving the initial Foreman blitz ,taking him deep in the fight and attacking a fatigued GF .But it's a long shot .

 

Byrd would stand the best chance of those three because his defense was better, Holmes got hit with too many right hands and Lewis got caught with a lot of jabs, George may have got this and used the jab to rattle Lewis, George had a great jab, Byrd gets my vote because he didn`t throw many punches and would have conserved his energy like Ali, but he didn`t trow as many fast, powerful counters as Ali, so I don`t think he would have hurt Foreman the way Ali did in the 8th round of the rumble, Lewis had the power to deck Foreman.

 

It'd be a long shot but he's got the tools .

 

Meaning Bryd that is .

 

I'd back Sonny Liston. Louis would be a chance - one of them would go reasonably early. Lewis would also be a chance. I just can't see many surviving the initial onslaught.

 

The other guy might be Vitali. But it's a short list of guys that really have much of a chance. But I don't think anyone else can be on the ropes against George back then and get the win. Not having to absorb those body punches and not show the effects. Worse than the head shots, absorbing that stuff to the kidneys/hips/breadbasket.

All the guy's mentioned would and could possibly work the ring and hopefully not have George cut the ring off on them. And not back straight up---Foreman catches you backing up and you're in big trouble. So it takes some tools and some terrific boxing radar for those incoming shots. So a guy with footwork and mobility like a Bowe or Joshua does not have much of a chance. Maybe Commander Vander has a chance, but he gets hit a lot. But he does have mobility and enough of it to possibly get rounds to pass & have that Foreman gastank run dry.

Tyson/Dempsey/Louis/Marciano have to beat George to the punch. And they cannot afford to get hit themselves. And deal with that Foreman muscling. And all have to be so careful of the uppercuts. The guys that do well against a Foreman simply have to take those deadly uppercuts away. And a lot of the names mentioned in previous posts are guys that just are not hit with that punch. Force George to use hooks and his right hand exclusively. And even that is dangerous.

A guy would also have to be physically strong enough to deal with George. He was a nasty fighter back then. That shoving and jabbing to the inside shoulder to twist a guy's torso---we haven't seen that tactic since. How many can pull that off? This is where the Byrdman doesn't do well. George would shove him around and didn't care about the referee warnings. And Foreman is not playing the feint game on the outside either--he's walking through whatever opponents threw looking to trade.

It's a tightrope act. But Muhammad Ali was able to walk that tightrope. And he'd always be the first choice of a guy capable of doing it. Next in line to pull it off sure gets blurry. And Ali did it despite his corner yelling at him to get off the ropes. Most guys are going to try and do what their corner yells at them.

 

Holmes was the first name to sprind to mind.

 

Samba ....What's getting into you ?
Are u turning normal ?!