I feel Joe was better than any heavyweight champ during the 90`s except maybe Vitali, but Joe wouldn`t have bothered with the WBO in the 90`s, ironically I feel older Foreman would still be a fighter that mifght have beat Frazier at that time, so would he have been champ back then?
Ellis1/FOTC Joe would have beaten all (comeback Foreman would have been too slow to deal with Joe, no matter how set people here are on a Frazier Foreman mismatch at any cost. Context, people!). If Qawi landed that many killer punches on George, Frazier would have discombobulated his ass. pre-Ellis 1 Joe beats them all except Bowe and maybe Tyson (the latter fight would have been killer imo). Bowe had too good an uppercut and jab for Joe, and Mike (say, Marvis-Mike) was probably just too maniacally ferocious, filled with youthful enthusiasm and....uh, other stuff. The pre-Steward Lewis would have gotten stopped within the first six rounds. Post-Steward and Joe gets stopped in 7.
Well at one point in the 1990’s the WBC, WBA and IBF Heavyweight Champions were respectively Frank Bruno, Bruce Seldon and Frans Botha. I think Joe might’ve been able to take a strap if these gents could.
Joe would be a champion if guys like Botha Moorer and Bruno could then Joe definitely could I think he would a top 5 HW but wouldn't be the top dog imo
Comeback Foreman has gotten so overrated that it borders on irrational! Prime Frazier would have battered 90s Foreman. If anything one can make a case that FOTC Frazier vs Foreman would be a different fight and quite possibly a different outcome; at the very least Joe had a good chance of picking up at least one win in a trilogy against Prime Foreman. FOTC Frazier was sharper, had better head movement and reflexes. Foreman met a slower, fatter, disinterested but still very dangerous Frazier. As for the OP? Frazier has a good shot depending on when in the 90s he'd fight. If you drop him in the scene in 1990 and have him fight until 1999, I'm certain he'd at the very least pick up a belt (WBA, WBC, IBF) along the way and depending on how things play out he can very well win the lineal title. Of the lineal champs of the 90s I'd reckon he'd beat Douglas, Moorer, Foreman, or Briggs. 50/50 with Holyfield. I don't think he beats Tyson, Bowe or Lewis. As for the belt holders (WBA, WBC, IBF) He beats Seldon, Bruno, McCall, Morrison, Botha. If we factor in the WBO Belt which I didn't really recognize until the 2000s as a meaningful belt. He would likely beat: Damiani, Morrison, Bentt, Hide, Akinwande 50/50 with Mercer I don't think he beats Vitaly assuming he faces Vitaly in 1999 after fighting in the 90s for just about a decade. Though prime for prime I'd say he likely outworks him.
An early 70s Frazier would have been a unified champ in the 90s. If a past his best Tyson could win the WBC and then WBA then of course would have . There are only 3 fighters who could have matched him. 1992-1993 Bowe. 1998-1999 Lewis.. And Holyfield would have given him hell. A prime Frazier would still be the favourite against Holyfield. Remember how Cooper battered Holyfield for several rounds. Also Holyfield dropped in my eyes because of the Evan Fields scandal. Which reinforced the rumours. Foreman would have really struggled and would have soaked up punishment like in the Holyfield fight. He was way to slow to get his blows in first. Unlike in 1973.
Mike had more youthful enthusiasm when training with Rooney his defensive skills during the 90`s were nowhere near as good as Joe`s and neither was Bowe`s.
I think you're right. Bowe was too big for Joe imo, it wouldn't have been Foreman, but Joe goes out by the seventh at the latest. Riddick's uppercut was damn close Foreman's (plus indubitably faster). pre-Steward Lewis most basically a one-handed fighter and that wouldn't have been enough to stop Joe, though obviously LL was a much bigger man I think Joe would have chopped him down....too one-dimensional was Lewis back then. post-Steward Lewis...eventually he is going to bomb Joe with his freshly-and-devastatingly developed hook and the right in general will destroy him. Imagine Holy and Joe going at it...WOW what a fight. This content is protected
