Time Machine Mirror fight: "vs George Foreman vs"

[deucesarewild]

His comeback was so choreographed though. His quality of opposition was almost nonexistent for most of his second career. He built up his KO percentage mainly against hapless tomato cans. He hung tough against Holyfield and beat Moorer, but he really didn’t achieve much outside of his title win against Moorer (which was obviously a huge win — but George was pretty much losing the whole fight before he nailed Moorer). Plus, George never really earned either title shot: the Holyfield fight was handed to him basically and the Moorer fight was definitely handed to him (George lost to Tommy Morrison in his fight prior to facing Moorer).
Somehow, George became a top contender by facing extremely subpar opponents. Gerry Cooney was a joke. Adilson Rodriguez was sort of semi decent I guess, but he was never a real contender.
George had a great storyline and knew how to play up that whole “Nice guy, cheeseburger, preacher man schtick” that attracted fans and thus made him marketable — and he definitely capitalized. But he was a very limited fighter.

Well everyone's come-up fights are meant to groom the prospect. Foreman was effectively retreading that land again, so whatever. I wasn't even commenting on that. Let's be clear that I was commenting on the Holyfield fight as that was actually pretty interesting.

Going the distance against a prime Holyfield and giving him a tougher fight than a number of other VERY good opponents, reveals that Foreman did something special against THE guy when he was very old. There are lots of "somehow this guy became a contender" observations in boxing. We know this happens. How did he do when he got in there? Actually pretty good, all things considered.

Lastly, Foreman's only way to beat Moorer was the way he did. He bided his time to line up him. It was how an older, slower guy with a big punch was going to pull it off. Lull him. That was his plan and he pulled it off decisively. How come we don't shit on guys who have close fights and win on decision but stuck to their game plan? Maybe we do? Boxing fans are the worst, aren't we? We really can't be pleased. The fans are shittiest in this sport.

Foreman, like many before and after him, got into a spot where he could fight for the title--disagree with it as much as we want, it happens ALL THE TIME with undeserving contenders because money and timing talk loudly--and Foreman actually showed that he deserved to be there. Tyson was a unified champ when he fought Holyfield and lost more decisively at a much younger age against a much older and worn Holyfield. He had more credibility to get the fight and lost big. Foreman was the opposite. He didn't have as much credibility to get the fight but he showed up big.

Foreman did the best he could with the opportunities that showed up. Very few people can say the same. Very few.

But yeah, fuck Foreman. He's an undeserving piece of shit.

 

[ssx]

Young Foreman beats Old Foreman without question.