Who was more athletic and physically gifted, George Foreman or Mike Tyson?

2nd career Foreman was very slow but I could never get behind others calling him slow in the 70s. He was no Ali of Patterson of course but if he was as slow as many people think he wouldn’t have had half the success he enjoyed.

 

Absolutely!
In one of Foreman's jovial modest comments, he said he never had any speed...But nah, he was just funnin' about how slow he was when older & heavier...
Although I do not know if specific training could have made him much faster by then, I like the observation that Foreman's second career punch speed could be measured by a sundial.

 

In terms of speed, Tyson was incredibly fast, Foreman was slow as a snail.
In terms of raw power, Foreman was slightly stronger.

 

They are both freaks to cut a long story short. Pick your departmental poison.

 

I was thinking of the grappling skills of George as an old guy where he generally rag dolled everyone in a clinch.

... and yeah, Ali is a great example of grappling skills counting for a lot. He was really, really good there.

 

That soviet boxer did a great job of blocking Foreman's jabs with his face. I bet he really hurt Foreman's left hand.

 

I would categorize Tyson as more of a "super athlete", whereas Foreman I feel like didn't have to work as hard to achieve his form, there were a lot of guys from around Foreman's time in the NFL that were in similar shape, but not a lot if any that were on par with Tyson in his day, Holyfield has said "Tyson might be the only guy that trains as hard as me", but I'm not sure if Holyfield was even getting down as hard as Tyson in 86-88

 

Re Young Foreman not being slow - I totally agree Swag.

And I’ll repeat (ad nauseam, lol) that Foreman, at his best, also had fine judgment in terms of timing and distance in complement with the speed he did possess.

Foreman’s accuracy with the heavily committed big bombs against Frazier and Norton was quite extraordinary imo.