Why is George Foreman rated so highly on a lot of peoples lists?

[butterfly1964]

No Johnson was a real heavy.

Oh. *sighs in relief*

I was a bit worried there.

[BAREKNUCKLES]

I'd have to disagree with the bold, when George Foreman can't KO Evander Holyfeild then there's a problem. George Foreman in his prime would have torn any of the fighters he fought later in life to shreds..

Evander Holyfield, at that point in his career was not somebody you just "knocked out". He was a master boxer and tremendous counter puncher.

George had trouble with counter punching boxers. He stood toe to toe with Evander for 12 rounds and took a tremendous beating. Evander Holyfield had a good beard, you can't deny that. The only thing that ever knocked out Evander was fatigue and/or old age.

Did you ever see Evander Holyfield KO'd out cold? It never happened.

Bowe KO'd him, but that was fatigue and attrition, not a clean knockout.

He was KO'd by Toney, but you can't slam the man because father time had stopped Evander, not James Toney.

George had brutal power in his 40's. He KO'd Addelson Rodriguez so vicously, that the man's eyes were crossed. Gerry Cooney was flattened, Michael Moorer went to sleep on a slow motion punch.

The added body mass added to his raw power. The young George threw tons of punches, and took you out that way.

The old George loafed around the ring until he had an opening, he
normally would slip that right hand in, and it was over.

George knocked people unconscious. There is a difference between the real KO vs. the TKO.


Bert Cooper, who was a very good, tough fighter, quit after George whacked him with two good body shots.

The reason he gave for quitting was, and I quote---- "He's a big man."

[Abe Attell]

There's actually an old saying that says a good chin isn't something you can learn or develop. While a person might get more accustomed to taking punishment, their chin is something they have from very early on.

[They] could be nuts though...

People miss one key point with "Chin"...is the fighter taking full, flush shots, or is he rolling or partially blocking those punches, like most, good boxers know how to do:
You can have a fighter that has never been knocked out before and people will say, "He has the greatest chin in history". But the truth is, that fighter may have never had to keep taking flush shots over and over; if he even took a serious full shot on.

Guys like Foreman, never learned how to actually roll with the punch, or partially block those punches coming in directly at his chin...he took flush shots over and over again...even when he was knocked down by Lyle, if you notice, part of it may have been do to George throwing a punch...which is now bringing his force into the punch...and getting caught by Lyle's punch before he was able to land his own...so not only is his chin being exposed, his body weight is being pushed into the punch.

For the Ali fight, it was more stamina: as you are tiring, your ability to take punishment is being depleted.
It was clear how heavy Foreman was breathing when on the ground; he looked like an asthmatic looking for his inhaler

I also think the added weight and even age may have helped in his later career: Your body still grows/thickens with age, mostly starting in your mid 20's, you thicken out to more of a "Man."
I also remember reading an article where it discussed that George's trainers wanted him to come in "light", which was about 217-220, in order to make sure his stamina was good.
George himself, said he believed his true, ideal weight, was 235lbs...George was known in those days to have to lose weight before fights in order to make the weight of 220.

[hemichromis]

I understand that Foreman would always have the advantage against swarmers and he would have been victorious most of the time imo. But you also gotta understand that these fighters aren't jokes, they have a VERY good chance against Big George.

I doubt Lyle hit harder than Frazier and Tyson. Maybe his right hand comes very close..i dunno.

frasier and tyson are no jokes and both of them would and in frasiers case did do better against some fighters foreman had trouble with

tyson would stand the best chance of any swarmer agaist foreman i would have loved to see him in his prime against a 40 yearold foreman because he might have been fast enough to get inside

[hemichromis]

People miss one key point with "Chin"...is the fighter taking full, flush shots, or is he rolling or partially blocking those punches, like most, good boxers know how to do:
You can have a fighter that has never been knocked out before and people will say, "He has the greatest chin in history". But the truth is, that fighter may have never had to keep taking flush shots over and over; if he even took a serious full shot on.

Guys like Foreman, never learned how to actually roll with the punch, or partially block those punches coming in directly at his chin...he took flush shots over and over again...even when he was knocked down by Lyle, if you notice, part of it may have been do to George throwing a punch...which is now bringing his force into the punch...and getting caught by Lyle's punch before he was able to land his own...so not only is his chin being exposed, his body weight is being pushed into the punch.

For the Ali fight, it was more stamina: as you are tiring, your ability to take punishment is being depleted.
It was clear how heavy Foreman was breathing when on the ground; he looked like an asthmatic looking for his inhaler

I also think the added weight and even age may have helped in his later career: Your body still grows/thickens with age, mostly starting in your mid 20's, you thicken out to more of a "Man."
I also remember reading an article where it discussed that George's trainers wanted him to come in "light", which was about 217-220, in order to make sure his stamina was good.
George himself, said he believed his true, ideal weight, was 235lbs...George was known in those days to have to lose weight before fights in order to make the weight of 220.

1970 george had 16 inch arms but the 1990 george had 20 inch ones thats why i believe he may have been stronger

george also had a mini mental breakdown agai9nst ali he had thrown everything he had against ali and ali was not only still standing but pounching away!

[Dirt E Gomez]

Ahahahahahahahahahaha, now I've heard everything!

I stated my reasons why and if you disagree that's ok... mostly because you're a moron. You run around acting as if your opinion is law and anybody who thinks differently has to prove something to you.... You realize your knowledge is virtually based upon only Ali and everything else you get by copying Yogi or a handful of others and chiming in with "I agree, deerrrrrr."

By 36 Ali was considered washed up and those final fights of his career are not to be spoken of. George was busy winning fights at 45 along with the Title of Heavyweight Champion of the world. Hell, Foreman retired only after getting robbed of a decision against Shannon Briggs... who ins 2006 is still considered a possible contendor.

My top 3 HW's have always jumped around from Foreman, Ali, and Louis. Odds are Louis will be back up to #1 soon and I'll dump off Ali to #5 or so as to erase all the ****** comments you make about fondling his balls from my mind as quickly as possible.

[Haglerwins]

I rank Foreman high because
-He hit probably harder then any heavyweight in history

-He's argueably the physically strongest

-He had good/well rounded boxing skill for a man his size

-He beat some of the best competition and the best contenders in history- excluding Ali and Young (only two he lost to in his prime)

-Some of his big name wins are Chuck Wepner (3), Joe Frazier (2), Ken Norton (2), Ron Lyle (5), Joe Frazier II (5)

-another notable thing: Sparring Partner for Sonny Liston

-Had Possibley the greatest comeback in Boxing History, only Comeback I can think of that maybe considered better was Ali's. Foreman came back only losing three times and once to a formidable contender Evander Holyfeild (other 2 are Tommy Morrison and Shannon Briggs).

-I believe he was the oldest man to fight for and win the heavyweight crown at 49- I believe it was

and I'm sure I missed many accomplishments, George Foreman is arguabley one of the greatest Heavyweights ever, IMO top5 easy...

In his prime...


During his successful comeback


76-5-0 (68 KO's)
87% KO Percentage (92.5 in his prime)

How can you not rate him high on your list??

68/76 is 89%

[hemichromis]

68/76 is 89%

i'm not entirely sure what you mea by that but in foremans first career is knock out ratio was 92.5% and alot of those were aginst tough guys

[Haglerwins]

i'm not entirely sure what you mea by that but in foremans first career is knock out ratio was 92.5% and alot of those were aginst tough guys

Overall it's 89%+ not 87% as was quoted.

Just plain freakish, probably the highest KO rate of all the HOF heavies.

[RockyMarcianofan00]

68/76 is 89%

no see your only counting his wins. 68 is 89% of 76 but 68 is 87% of 81 which is his total amount of fights (76+5=81)