Who was faster? Prime Vitali or Prime Foreman?

Vitali had both the better chin and was quicker.

 

Both vitali but foreman has more power and a better jab. there fight would have been a classic because of styles. In my opinion only great V.Klitschko has a chance of beating.

 

Quick as molasses in winter.

 

Vitali took some NASTY uppercuts from Lewis when he was flailing around at rds 5 and 6 in their fight.

Meanwhile Foreman KTFO'd is legendary highlight reel

 

Foreman better chin, jab and power.

Vitali is a bit quicker and technically sound.

 

Better chin? Prime Foreman hit the deck four times...

 

Prime Vitali is great at neutralizing speed, fast fighters like Hide, Donald couldn't use speed against him. He had amazing reflexes for a really big man, the best of the 6'5 and taller HW's I have seen. That plus his punches from weird angles made him have effective speed over fighters who perhaps had quicker hands and feet.

Prime Foreman looked slow but was never beaten by speed either. He probably was the rare case of a fighter who overcame being slow and other mediocre aspects of his game with his one outstanding attribute, his power.

 

Head to head, I might favor Vitali Klitschko, even though I rate Foreman much higher from a legacy standpoint. Klitschko, had the physical and stylistic tools to match and even excede Foreman in ways that most of his opponents couldn't. He was much larger than George in his prime, could take a huge punch, and had both the reach and outside boxing ability to keep him out of harm's way for most of the evening. I have also always had issues with Foreman's stamina in his first career, and the only way I could see him winning, is if he stops Klit within 5 rounds or less, which I can't picture happening.. Of course, there is always the possibilty of George opening up a cut in similar fashion to the way that Lewis did, but I'm not sure that George had the right mechanisms to land flush the way that Lewis did, and nor would I make a prediction just on one isolated incident in a career consisting of over 40 fights.

As for chin, I think its debatable.. Of course Vitali has never been floored or KO'd, wheras Foreman has experienced both of these things. However, when we look at the circumstances, its not so cut and dry... Klitschko has faced some hard hitting men like Lennox Lewis, Sam Peter, Ross Purity and Corrie Sanders, but few of them were able to land systematically on him, except for maybe Lewis who was past prime, and ended up winning by a stoppage anyway.. Foreman was floored and KO'd by Muhammad Ali and decked by Jimmy Young, but that was a STAMINA issue.... Not a CHIN problem.. He was down twice against Ron Lyle, but also following a 15 month layoff and a devastating loss, not to mention trading back and forth at point blank with a relatively hard hitter, something that Vitali has rarely done..

I think the chins of these two men are fairly close, but again I would favor Vitali to win, regardless of George being the better career fighter.

 

If this was Wlad, I'd say Foreman would take him out because at some point he'd hit him and then down Wlad would go. Vitali on the other hand is another matter because Vitali does have a very solid chin. Certainly that vicious uppercut that Lewis landed would have flattened most people.

That said, I think Foreman's jab is under-rated. When he could be bothered using it, it was decently quick and pretty accurate and it hit hard enough to drive his opponents back to set them up for the right hand. One of the problems with Foreman though was his tendency to brawl with opponents, something that Vitali doesn't do all that much. Look at the Foreman vs Lyle fight. He was backing him up with his jab and landing the right and he got floored because he decided to wade in and turn it into a brawl even though he didn't have to.

So yeah, I'd say Vitali was probably faster on the jab than Foreman (he certainly seems more willing to use it), but neither of them are exactly lightning fast. With regards to chin, I'm not exactly sure, although neither man could be called glass-chinned. If they ever did fight prime vs prime, I would advise Vitali to avoid standing and trading with Foreman. Tough as he is, going punch for punch with big George is just asking for trouble.

 

You bring up a really good point about George being dropped in his first career, I never thought about it but youre right and it makes sense why he had an iron chin in his second career but was dropped a few times his first career. He didnt have a bad chin and was dropped only after he was tired.

 

Vitali better chin i'd say...Faster probably Vitali too. Big George was pretty slow & plodding. I'd much rather watch George though!