Why was George Foreman such a successful slugger?

On top of being freakish strong, extremely powerful and very durable, he could also box. That's why.

 

It was a combination of factors.

In order to be successful with that particular style, you must have power, durability, physical strength, and god given reflexes.

If you lack any of these, the mathematics of the style wont add up.

A slugger like Foreman is basically born, and they do not come along very often.

 

Who would you add to that model?

 

I agree with 70s fan.

Every truly successful puncher has great traits on top of their power. For Louis it was his finesse. For Marciano his stamina and will.

For Foreman it was his strength, grit, and boxing ability. To be as good as a boxer as he was, given the type of puncher he was, must’ve been a very difficult thing to do. And he did that really well.

 

Foreman couldn't box!

 

Besides some of the things already mentioned, I believed it was Foreman's skills in cutting off the ring, his great arsenal of punches in both hands, and his ability to manipulate, and actually be a pretty accurate puncher.

 

THIS. Very few people seem to think Foreman was anything more than a brute. He had talent and insight plus ring IQ and skill. See a break down here

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Max Baer, although of course he did not fulfill his potential.

Like Foreman he nullified more technically adept boxers, and busier swarmers, by imposing himself upon them, and had the fundamentals to get away with it.

 

Foreman had a serious jab. And a solid corner.

 

He wasnt.....if foreman is in the top five ever then say jimmy young must be number one or two

 

Talent. Genetics.

 

There's one other thing that might getting left out. His mentality. He had a murderous tenacity and when he hurt a guy it was blood to sharks. When Foreman had you hurt he seems to go into another zone. Even Joe Frazier in their first fight was throughing some sizzling hooks at Foreman and it was like he didn't even notice them.
George had stated after knocking down one opponent he briefly considered stepping on his chest and killing him. It would have made his future opponents fear him that much more. Its absurd but also shows George wasn't all there.

Anyway I've never seen anything like George Foreman as a finisher.
I dont think that many heavyweights can match Foreman's power punch for punch. George didn't always through proper punches. He could hurt a man with arm punches and or glancing blows. Some guys when they line up their very best punch could match him not every shot they fire.
His jab was outstanding when he believed in it. That made him next to impossible to beat.

There are some fans that just look at the scale. Trust me George Foreman's 230 and Bonecrusher's 230 are not the same.

 

He was more successful than the average slugger because he was more skilled than people give him credit for. All they see are the big muscles and the scowl and the knockouts. All people can think about are him fighting like a buffoon in Zaire forgetting that the guy who beat him is considered one of the best if not the best heavyweight of all time (and also one of the smartest) who used a borderline suicidal plan of attempting to wait for the younger, harder hitting opponent to get tired while taunting him.

You don't win a gold medal and demolish 2 hall of famers like they're nothing while having zero skills or talent. It simply doesn't happen.