Holmes and Foreman??

[titanium]

How did these guys make it and succeed at such a late age? Clean living? special skills? Will power?

[CarlosG815]

How did these guys make it and succeed at such a late age? Clean living? special skills? Will power?

a healthy lifestyle and good genetics.

I can't speak much for George, as he put on MASSIVE amounts of weight, but Larry lived a very active healthy lifestyle, free of partying and havoc.

I don't know much about George's personal life, other than he blew up to a morbidly obese person.

[Vadrigar.]

I think will power was the main factor for both, but George foreman completely changed his fighting personality in the comeback.

[boxing boy]

How did these guys make it and succeed at such a late age? Clean living? special skills? Will power?

One reason is not being in real tough fights that you leave a piece of yourself in the ring.Like Ali's 3 fights with Frazier,3 fights with Norton,and Ernie Shavers etc. etc.

Some fighters peek at older ages...Like Jersey Joe Walcott.

Plus being all-time greats.Both are in my top 5 heavyweights of all-time.

[Obama]

Holmes was just that damn good.

George was just that damn strong and tough.

[Toney616]

How did these guys make it and succeed at such a late age? Clean living? special skills? Will power?

Holmes:
Skill set
Intangibles

Foreman:
Intangibles
power

Neither of them took to many bad beatings during the first phase of hteir careers either.

Off topic: Foreman-Holyfield was a damned good fight

[Southpaw Stinger]

Do you think Lennox could be as successful if he came back now?

[Clegg]

I think the main reason is that they were so damn good to begin with that when they slowed down they were still good enough to beat a lot of good contenders. In both instances though they lost to guys they would've beaten in their prime.

There's no shame in that, of course. But it does show that while they were very good for their age, they were still a long way past prime.

A prime George Foreman would've walked through the likes of Tommy Morrisson and Shannon Briggs. Holmes certainly would've defeated Neilsen and McCall.

So IMO the main factor is that they were so good to begin with. The second reason is that what made them so good in the first place never deserted them: Foreman kept his power, Holmes kept his skills.

Perhaps I'm overlooking something, but I don't think that Holmes made any improvements in the 1990s. It's just that he was a very good technical fighter as a young champion and that technique never left him. He was slower and had less snap to his punches, but he could still control lesser fighters with his jab and smarts.

Foreman on the other hand did improve in certain ways despite having declined with age. He was calmer. There were no nerves or reckless tactics like when he was younger. He was a lot smarter and so was able to look at his opponents and work out a strategy, lay traps, time them etc. His patience is what won the fight with Moorer (though his big right hand didn't hurt lol)

[Sugarj]

Most things have already been touched on.

Holmes had a later start to his professional career than usual. But his skill set, defense, reach and lack of beatings certainly helped his longevity.

Foreman of course had the big punch equaliser, but ten years out of the ring helped his body and mind recover to a degree. Plus, in his comeback he did fight regularly. All those tomato cans helped him find world class form in the 90s.


Another factor was chins and ability to absorb punishment well. Both Larry and George could hold a punch very well, with only one stoppage loss each in what? 140 odd fights between them.


But as for Southpaw Stinger's question, no......I dont think Lennox would make a truely successful comeback. I doubt that he would be willing to take the tomato can route like George to get ring sharp. He'd probably want a Klitschko and Millions of £/$ ASAP, and with seven or so years out of the ring and a portly waste to shift I couldn't see him beating either of them. He did look very slow when he met Vitali all those years ago. Larry Holmes had fast hands into his late forties, Lennox seemed to lose what handspeed he had after beating Rahman.

Plus Lennox did not have a chin the equal of Holmes or Foreman.........and he would need that to cope with the deteriorated reflexes of age!

[The Iron Man]

Do you think Lennox could be as successful if he came back now?

Yes, but that would mainly be because of the poor state the heavyweight division is in now. He would struggle against the Kilitschos and possibly Haye (i wouldnt bet on an outcome) but he would handle everyone else in the division imo.