20 yo Foreman would utterly dominate HW division today

[STRUGG]

no hate here...........but prime george foreman was a beast.............i say beats them klits...........................6-7/10............................hell thats just me though

[Rick Grimes]

Frank Bruno would dominate this HW division.

[bojangles1987]

20 year old Foreman would dominate most every heavyweight era except for the era he was in.

[RimmyDelicious]

We're in agreement regarding Vlad, methinks. Nuff' said.

But VM 'smokes' GF? How? I'm a fan of Vitali. Go and look at prior posts of mine to confirm if you are so moved. But (seriously) how?

Which performance of prime Vitali's indicates to you that he would 'smoke' prime Big George?

George ate pressure fighters alive, guys who came forward walked straight into his 1-2 and got devastated for it. Vitali is a fighter who keeps distance with a brutal jab and straight himself, and has maybe the best sense of distance, timing and reflexes of any heavyweight sans possibly Ali and Holmes. He would punish George mercilessly, circling and avoiding incoming fire until George tired and then go for the kill. Assuming George did land anything huge, Vitali would just eat it. Prime Vitali is an absolute killer, ferocious, iron chinned if slightly less athletic than Wlad however he more than makes up for it with intangibles.

Wlad would also give George hell in the same fashion, I just don't see him standing up to the bomb or two that would inevitably land.

[RimmyDelicious]

Big George was incredibly powerful and defeated some of the great pressure fighters of all time. However, some of you have a deluded or distorted sense of what he was. The man had serious flaws. He wasn't as fast as you all make him out to be (he certainly was slower than Wlad and IMO slower than Vitali as well), he was an arm puncher who needed to be set to throw, his stamina was miserable past the first half of the fight and his chin was only good at best. I suggest watching his fights with Lyle, Young and Ali to get a sense of George's limitations.

Fighters like Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Tyson, Holy etc. would be slaughtered by George. They would walk in and get hammered and carried out on stretchers. fighters like Johnson, Tunney, Ali (obviously), Holmes, Vitali and probably Lewis and Wlad as well would have their way with George.

[guru]

George ate pressure fighters alive, guys who came forward walked straight into his 1-2 and got devastated for it. Vitali is a fighter who keeps distance with a brutal jab and straight himself, and has maybe the best sense of distance, timing and reflexes of any heavyweight sans possibly Ali and Holmes. He would punish George mercilessly, circling and avoiding incoming fire until George tired and then go for the kill. Assuming George did land anything huge, Vitali would just eat it. Prime Vitali is an absolute killer, ferocious, iron chinned if slightly less athletic than Wlad however he more than makes up for it with intangibles.

Wlad would also give George hell in the same fashion, I just don't see him standing up to the bomb or two that would inevitably land.

agreed. young george was a brute force, but was not a skillful boxer. like u said look at the lyle and young fight. i actually think the klits would do well against him just becuz he was so sloppy in the ring. but yes george would of had a huge a punchers chance.

[jrosales13]

Foreman KO's Wlad and probably does it quick.

Vitaly would be a much tougher fight. However, Vitaly does like going straight back with his hands down and chin up in the air. He gets away with it cuz he is so much taller than everybody else. However, Foreman having the longer reach would benefit from it. Also Foreman would be the hardest puncher that Vitaly has ever faced in his career. I can see Foreman cutting Vitaly up.

[jrosales13]

Big George was incredibly powerful and defeated some of the great pressure fighters of all time. However, some of you have a deluded or distorted sense of what he was. The man had serious flaws. He wasn't as fast as you all make him out to be (he certainly was slower than Wlad and IMO slower than Vitali as well), he was an arm puncher who needed to be set to throw, his stamina was miserable past the first half of the fight and his chin was only good at best. I suggest watching his fights with Lyle, Young and Ali to get a sense of George's limitations.

Fighters like Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, Tyson, Holy etc. would be slaughtered by George. They would walk in and get hammered and carried out on stretchers. fighters like Johnson, Tunney, Ali (obviously), Holmes, Vitali and probably Lewis and Wlad as well would have their way with George.

agreed. young george was a brute force, but was not a skillful boxer. like u said look at the lyle and young fight. i actually think the klits would do well against him just becuz he was so sloppy in the ring. but yes george would of had a huge a punchers chance.

I would say this Lyle and young are probably better than any HW in the last 5 years not named Klitschko.

[lefthook2daliva]

George ate pressure fighters alive, guys who came forward walked straight into his 1-2 and got devastated for it. Vitali is a fighter who keeps distance with a brutal jab and straight himself, and has maybe the best sense of distance, timing and reflexes of any heavyweight sans possibly Ali and Holmes. He would punish George mercilessly, circling and avoiding incoming fire until George tired and then go for the kill. Assuming George did land anything huge, Vitali would just eat it. Prime Vitali is an absolute killer, ferocious, iron chinned if slightly less athletic than Wlad however he more than makes up for it with intangibles.

Wlad would also give George hell in the same fashion, I just don't see him standing up to the bomb or two that would inevitably land.

The emboldend text above sums up my admiration for prime Vitali (I'll omit the qualifier henceforth. We know what we're trying to convey here.). Vitali was never smokin' fast boxer. But his situational awareness allowed him to avoid major shots while landing a short, powerful (it seems to come from the elbow) jab repeatedly, which gives him the offensive initiative. His seemingly slow footwork (along with a slight body lean backward and/or to one side or another) mostly kept him away from serious hurt. As you said, he is a (or maybe 'the') master of fighting tall. He is accurate as well and when he follows the jab with a straight right, he could fell a horse, imo. None of his movements are exaggerated and thus he conserves energy, though those that are addicted to 'flashy' are usually too slow to credit his boxing skill.

Having said all that, an out-of-shape, past his prime, Lewis was able to win by legit stoppage.

George was much more skilled boxer than he is commonly given credit for (watch his performances and see how seldom he is actually off-balance. It's not that often considering how hard he throws), but even so I'll grant that Lewis was a better boxer.

Even so, George was much much faster than Vitali and was not so ****** as to come straight in (despite noob claims to the contrary). The hardest puncher Vitali ever beat was a golf-pro who chumped his little bro and had Vit in trouble at least once.

Though I respect and understand (I think) your position, I contend that George was too talented, punched too fast, too hard and too accurately for Vitali to beat him.

Imo, one of the best fantasy matchups that can be made.

Cheers.