Who do you think was the more genetic freak of nature between George Foreman and Mike Tyson in their prime?
Foreman, imo, is the most gifted heavyweight in history. Not only did he hit harder and take a punch better than Mike (who to be fair, was faster), he also had FAR more longevity Dinosaur Foreman winning the heavyweight title at 45 and then actually DEFENDING IT multiple times only to be robbed eventually by a prime Shannon Briggs is insanity Foreman also did far more with far far less boxing ability; Tyson was by all means a masterful fighter. Amazing offense and combination punching that mixed seamlessly with his also dazzling defense. Young Foreman just kind of threw **** at a wall, to see what would stick. Realistically if he had less of an ego, and the brain of old Foreman, he would've been an invincible super-champion
Whatever Foreman did, he actually was. Whatever Tyson did, he was projected to be. When the mask wore off, people could see the inside of him.
Tyson for sure. Not only was he an offensive dynamo with his S-tier speed, power and combination ability, but he was also defensively sound at his absolute peak with his head movement -- very hard to hit clean.
Foreman seemed to have inherited ridiculously advantageous levers from his parents: he could get a huge amount of leverage from bizarre and/or short angles as well as round, clotheslinen ones.
The bigger genetic freak is Foreman. Don't forget that Foreman won an Olympic gold medal with about 20 amateur fights in total. And he trained boxing for a very short time before the Olympic gold. On the other hand, Tyson devoted himself to boxing in every sense to the point of fanaticism. Training, eating, sleeping, watching fights. Everything, EVERYTHING in Mike Tyson's life was subordinated to boxing.
Really good point about Foreman’s amateur career, not enough people know a lot about that. With scarcely a year’s experience from day dot to the winners dais, Foreman went from throwing his first jab to winning Olympic gold. That is unprecedented. If it were a movie, you’d consider it too far-fetched. It’s an overlooked achievement to this day. That said I find it a hard to answer question. Both were freaks. The combination of speed & power Tyson exhibited is so rare at HW, it had not been seen since the days of a young Joe Louis. Foreman for his part had obscene, born-with-it physical strength & punching brutality.
No one who climbs to the top ten-twenty guys isn't some kind of freak. These two are very freaky freaks, granted. Realising Foreman's age and career, when you consider that his speech and brain are fine, it's part of some freakishness we won't see for a while with Tyson, to see if that's there. But, let's give it up for the ultimate freaky deaky. Rocco "The Italian" Marchejeanyo. Guy gots so freaky with them honies. They saw he was coming through and the panties just DROPPED. Dripping and dropping, got them ladies poppin'! Rocco! Hey, Rocco! Bada bing, bada bang! You know? Oh!
