Would Young have been able to beat 1973-1974 Foreman?

He didn't take his foot off the gas, Ali fried his brain in Zaire. He was NEVER the same. Ali had everything going for him in Zaire (I won't even mention what's been already mentioned) and Ali never even gave George a rematch.
Their fight should have been fought in the Astrodome. George was the Champion but...Ali.
No, a 73-74 George would have reached Jimmy fairly early and smooshed him; and this coming from a Young lover! In his short window of prime he beat: Lyle (2x), a faded Foreman, and Norton IMO. His heart was broke after that, forget the Oscasio fights.

 

Young Feigned distress??????????

Every time I think I've heard it ALL I read another gem. Young was as close as any fighter ever was to going down or being koed in that round 7. Young stated HIMSELF after the fight he did not think he was going to make it. Incredible.

 

I love ya Red but a pre-Ali George is all over Jimmy. The ol' whammo would have happened at some point. The March 77 Foreman was an entirely different 'creature'...

 

I saw them decades ago. Sorry to say I haven't any idea where they can be found, although it's been my understanding that Young-Shavers II does exist.

 

Looking at the footage years ago, I arrived at that conclusion, stand by it, and call bull on Young's statements. He was selling a bill of goods. He hesitates for a moment to decide whether he can fool George into thinking he's about to go, concludes he can sucker Foreman and everybody else into believing he's in very serious trouble, then stumbles and staggers all over the place while making George miss everything.

Lyle and Gerry couldn't do anything to hurt him. After his career, he left no doubt that Shavers, not Foreman, was his hardest punching opponent. (Every common opponent of Shavers and Foreman rated Earnie's power as superior to George's, many of them on camera.)

The timing of Foreman's hook and Young's roll and stutter with it was too perfect, coming right at the outset of the round. This wasn't the very end of the Bruno-Cummings opening round where Jumbo knocked Frank silly.

Jimmy saw that wild wind-up hook coming and rolled with it perfectly. I just reviewed that round, including that hook in a slow motion replay. With 25 seconds left, George is huffing and puffing so hard he's virtually hyperventilating. The way Young and his corner are behaving right before round eight begins, they know Jimmy's histrionics just won him that match.

Once Foreman had an opponent seriously stunned, they couldn't avoid his bombs. Young's head was clear at all times. The look on George's face as he comes out for round eight is the expression of somebody who knows he's just been duped into expending himself. Look at the efficiency with which he dispatches Frazier in their rematch once he has Joe hurt in the fifth, then his waste of energy with Jimmy. Young turned Foreman's killer instinct completely against him, exploiting it with sheer guile.

 

George has spoken about his early practice of denying himself fluids prior to a bout in order to to look more cut and therefore more intimidating. Insanity! I wonder much more endurance he would of had in his biggest losses if not for that nonsense!

 

Jimmy was broken after he was robbed against Norton! It was after that fight that he started doing cocaine.

 

Jowcol, I respect your opinion here, but.....If Gregorio Peralta could make a pre-Zaire GF look foolish at times, and exploit his wildness the way he did, and then nearly survive to the limit in a rematch, then the defensively superior, even slippier Jimmy Young would always have had big George's number.
An excuse for George is always offered,....the HEAT in San Juan that night,....yeah, that's what it was,...the heat!!! Well,...Jimmy could have always echoed Joey Maxim's gem of a retort when the same "heat" excuse was offered regarding SRR's loss to him,..."Whaddaya think I had, an air conditioner in the ring with me?"

 

And drinking copious amounts of cheap wine. A guy can only take getting screwed just so many times.....it was tragic.

 

Young simply had an absolute genius for survival. It may not help his case with his detractors too much when, in an interview & article in Sports Illustrated, he volunteered "I don't fight to win, I fight to survive"....well, that remark probably doesn't exactly cover him with glory (this is the only halfway negative thing I'll ever be caught saying about Jimmy Young),...but it does reveal his absolute fidelity to the cause of survival. He regrouped quite well from one of the worst cases of mis-management ever in being pitted against Earnie Shavers(!!) in only his 11th pro bout,....and made damned sure that he would never let that experience would never happen again....and gifted with a top class chin in addition to his defensive genius, it never did again.

 

The mention of either Jimmy Young or Hugo Corro's name in a post is like chum in the water for BE,...

 

You can believe lots of things. Believe in Santa Claus but don't believe Young in any was feigned being hurt. Completely RIDICULOUS!

Young was way ahead or at least he should have felt he was way ahead. He was nimbly out boxing Foreman after six rounds. As mentioned watch the post fight interview where Young states he did not think he would make it. No reason for him to lie about it and if indeed he lied post fight it would have come out at some point in the last 40 years.