07.05.06 – By Matt Stein: I was recently reading ESB’s excellent boxing forum when I stumbled on an interesting thread about a fantasy bout between Wladimir Klitschko and George Foreman, the 70’s version, not Big George during his comeback, mind you, when he was in his 40’s and grossly overweight. No, I’m referring to a prime Foreman, the one that destroyed fighters such as Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Jose Roman, all in two rounds or less.. What better fight could there possibly be than two of the most powerful, large heavyweights the heavyweight division has ever produced.
For the sake of this discussion, I’m choosing the current 30-year-old version of Wladimir, rather than the earlier version, since he appears to have vastly improved as a fighter in the short time that he’s trained under Emanuel Steward, perhaps the best trainer in all of boxing. At the same time, I’m selecting the 24-year-old version of George Foreman, around the same period where he had annihilated Joe Frazier in two short brutal rounds in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973.
What is unclear, however, is how well Foreman would have done against the fighters that have beaten Wladimir in the past. That is, Ross Puritty, Corrie Sanders and Lamon Brewster. All of them punch quite hard and with the exception of Sanders, they all have extraordinary stamina and excellent chins. However, the 1973 version of Foreman was next to unstoppable, with his cold stare and his enormous punching power, he would in all likelihood have an easy time beating these fighters, for as good as their chins are, they wouldn’t be able to handle the type of punches that Foreman would be raining down on them.
It’s safe to say, that Foreman would have an easy time beating any of Wladimir’s previous opponents, including Samuel Peter, a fighter that would be tailor made for Foreman. Peter, although a powerful puncher, is similar to Frazier in size, after you add 30 pounds of flab, that is. What’s more, Peter has none of the hooking ability, work rate or stamina that Frazier possessed. Foreman would feast on a slow, straight ahead plodder like Peter, and knock him out easily within two rounds or less. I do, however, feel that Sanders would present some problems for Foreman, though, mostly due to Sanders southpaw stance, size, huge power and fast hands.
Foreman, never a fighter to back down from a power puncher, he would likely take the fight to Sanders and turn it into a short war. However, Foreman’s superior power and chin would quickly turn the fight into a major route, for Sanders would be quickly softened up by Foreman’s sledgehammer jab and then knocked down by his enormous uppercuts. This fight, too, would likely end before by the 2nd round, with Sanders down for the count.
At the same time, the 30-year-old version of Wladimir would have easy time beating Jimmy Young and Muhammed Ali, both of whom beat Foreman earlier in his career. Regardless of what people’s lasting image of Ali is, at the 32, (the age he beat Foreman), he was nothing but a slightly larger version of Chris Byrd, with a better jab and about the same power. At 6’3”, 216, Ali would be at a huge disadvantage against the 6’6”, 244 lb, Wladimir, who with his size and reach advantage, could dictate the pace of the fight and dominate the older Ali.
At this point in Ali’s career, his legs were mostly gone and he was more or less, as stationary fighter, one that could get on his toes for a short period of time and jab. However, that wouldn’t be effective against Wladimir, since he would just lean away from Ali’s jabs, making them miss, while firing back with his own jab-left hook combination. After several rounds of confusing Ali with the jab/left hook combo, Wladimir would unload with his right hand artillery and bury Ali under and avalanche of right hand, left hook shots to the head. Poor Ali, as good as he was, he’d never know what hit him and wind up being stopped within 8 rounds by Wladimir.
I know about you, but I see Ali as being an immensely easy fight for Wladimir, considering the Ukrainians vastly superior hand speed, size and power. Let’s honest, Ali never in his career faced any fighter as remotely skilled as Wladimir Klitschko, never. Fighters, such as, Cleveland Williams, Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, Ken Norton and Joe Frazier, were all limited, shorter and much less skilled fighters than Wladimir and as good as all of them were, they’re all from a lower class.
Another opponent that gave Foreman fits was Ron Lyle, a fighter with good power but was limited by a weak chin and poor boxing ability. Really, Lyle would be an even easier fight for Wladimir than his recent destruction of Chris Byrd, mainly because Lyle had major problems with fighters that could box, for instance, Jimmy Young, a crafty boxer that fights much like Chris Byrd, was able to beat Lyle twice in his career. Not surprisingly, Lyle wouldn’t be able to make it past Wladimir’s jab and would lose badly, probably by early knockout.
What the matchup between Foreman and Wladimir boils down to is whether Foreman, with his superior power and chin, can get to Wladimir in the early rounds, before Foreman runs out of gas, something that he had a problem with during the early portion of his career. Foreman, perhaps trying to impress, often exclusively focused on trying to knockout his opponent and forgot all about trying to pace himself and box, even though he had the tools to box with the best of them when he wanted to. It’s almost as if Foreman just mentally told himself, “forget this boxing stuff, I’m just going to knock this guy out and go home early.’ However, his lack of pacing himself in his bouts would come back to haunt him against first, Muhammed Ali, who stopped an exhausted Foreman in the 8th round of their bout in 1974, and then against Jimmy Young, who beat Foreman by 12-round decision in 1977.
While Wladmir is the taller fighter at 6’6” vs. Foreman’s 6’4”, the size is negated by Big George’s reach, which it, as it turns out, is one inch longer at 82” compared to Wladimir’s 81.’ At the same time, Wladimir couldn’t count on his using his jab alone to beat Foreman, since George had one of the hardest, jabs of all time, and it’s impact was similar to actual power punch. As for the better chin, clearly Foreman is superior in that area, however, it’s still not academic, though, considering that Foreman never fought a puncher like Corrie Sanders. Also, Foreman was knocked down by Muhammed Ali, who was never much of a puncher, as well as badly hurt by Jimmy Young. I’d still side with Foreman having the better chin, since he wasn’t knocked down during his early career as much as Wladimir has.
Moreover, Foreman always seemed to be a more confident fighter and wouldn’t get nervous when attacked, which is a problem that Wladimir has had in the past. Although, to be honest, very few fighters, other than perhaps, Frazier and Lyle, were brave enough to actually try and slug with Foreman early in his career. Most fighters knew better then to try and get close enough to Foreman and risk getting taken out. Whereas, Wladimir seems to visibly get nervous when attacked, as if shocked that someone would actually want to even consider fighting back. I think that’s more likely caused by Wladimir having had such an easy early career, where he faced mostly 2nd and 3rd tier fighters, who had neither the ability of the inclination to want to fight back. Finally, when Wladimir started facing someone that was going to fight back, he wasn’t prepared for it and froze. Nevertheless, Foreman never seemed to panic when hit and instead, would fire back with even harder punches, showing himself to be a warrior.
The outcome of between Wladimir and Foreman rests on how well Wladimir reacts to Foreman’s early attack. If Wladimir, as in the past, reacts with fear, and backs straight up when attacked, I see Foreman taking him out in the first round or two. Foreman has always been excellent at pursuing his opponents and cutting off the ring, forcing them to fight. Wladimir wouldn’t be able to depend on simply using jab and ring movement, like he did against Samuel Peter because Foreman was great and predicting where a fighter will move next, and he’d intercept their path and meet them head on with uppercuts and right hands. Sure, Wladimir would find a little success moving, yet he would soon be caught up to by Foreman and destroyed. Instead, Wladimir would have to use a combination of jabbing, running and clinching, if he wouldn’t nullify Foreman’s offense. Wladimir couldn’t do a rope-a-dope, like Ali, because of Wladimir’s weaker chin and poor inside fighting ability, so he would have to use the skills that have worked for him in the past against someone like Samuel Peter.
However, as hard as Foreman hits, he has never fought anyone that remotely punched as hard as Wladimir, nor did Foreman ever fight someone as tall and had as wide of a assortment of knockout punches as Wladimir. With Wladimir, he can take a fighter out with either a left hook, right hook or a straight right hand. At the same time, his jab as punishing and a weapon all to itself.
Most of Foreman’s power shots are mainly effective within close range, whereas Wladimir tends to mostly stay on the outside, except for when he is quickly tying up his opponent when they stray too close. Therefore, I see Foreman having few chances to land his heavy punches in the early rounds of the fight, while Wladimir is calmly moving around the ring, firing off jabs and left hooks to the head of Foreman. By the 7th round, Foreman would be badly tiring and most of his power would be gone. Wladimir, sensing this, would stop running and would start unloading with right hand salvo’s, followed with left hooks to the head. Foreman, even though perhaps the best power puncher in history, he would be helpless at avoiding Wladimir’s power punches, most of them thrown with power almost equal to Foreman’s own. Without any real defense, Foreman would be a sitting duck for all of Wladimir’s punches, which would reduce the former champion to a beaten shell, as he goes down in the 7th round under Wladmir’s storm of punches.