How Big George Foreman Took Back His Title (20 Years After Ali) - Holyfield & Moorer Fight Breakdown

twenty years after his infamous loss to Ally Foreman did the unthinkable at 45 years of age Foreman took his title back shocking the world and leaving little doubt about Foreman's place as one of the greatest fighters in history the magnitude of this accomplishment cannot be understated Foreman had pulled off perhaps the greatest upset in boxing defying convention and embarrassing a multitude of prominent sports writers how Foreman pulled this off and the path he took to get there are both equally astounding Foreman's early career had been full of nothing but easy victories until it wasn't but it was the difficult path that Foreman did tread the one that had turned from endless triumphs to loss and failure that gave the ex champ the experience he needed to pull off the impossible the Foreman that took back his title was a completely different man from the Foreman who had lost it 20 years earlier to understand Herr Foreman took back his title at 45 years of age we must first look at how Foreman used to fight back when he was a young up-and-coming boxer in his prime after winning the Olympics Foreman arrived on the scene of professional boxing like an atomic bomb he destroyed nearly everyone who had the misfortune to share the ring with him usually within the first few rounds he did this by using his natural size and strength to pile on relentless pressure funnily enough half of the pressure was purely defensive while unfairly known as a rough brawler who simply used power to overwhelm his opponents Foreman was in fact an incredibly intelligent fighter using a number of old-school defensive techniques to control the ring primarily Foreman used frames stops and leverage blocks to stay safe and destroy his opponents balance in this clip Foreman leveraged blocks straightening his arm to intercept his upon his punch a variation of this technique is called a stop here Foreman stops his upon his punch by clamping down before he even has a chance to start throwing it Foreman used these stops leverage blocks and even jabs to frame against his upon his head and shoulders his out locked arms pushing or staring them off-balance it was these long guard tactics that led only to teasingly dub Foreman The Mummy while long guard techniques left Foreman farmer open than he would have been using a more traditional guard Foreman was able to stay safe by being surprisingly agile for his size when his opponents attempted to throw wide hooks around his outstretched arms Foreman would deftly sidestep or duck away before resuming his steady march forward this relentless risky pressure style was perfectly in line with the image Foreman wanted to portray and how he wanted to think of himself influenced in part by his rough childhood and in greater part by his mentor and sparring partner the terrifying ex-champion Sonny Liston Foreman carefully cultivated the persona of an invincible juggernaut cruel uncaring and mostly unstoppable as Foreman climbed his way to the top of the heavyweight division he picked up even more skills adding wrestling techniques to control his opponents at close range and place them where he wanted them I have it on good authority that most of these techniques were taught to Foreman by Archie Moore the legendary cross guard boxer with a hundred and thirty two knockouts these new skills greatly helped Foreman and taking the Heavyweight Championship from Joe Frazier Foreman moved the smaller man exactly where he wanted him for the duration of their short fight winning the title in just two rounds another factor in Frazier's quick demise was a tactic that Foreman had used from the very start of his career there were few better than Foreman and setting up power punches off of the jab see how Foreman capitalizes on Frazier's preference to duck under his jab by following up with an uppercut in this way Foreman used the predictability of his opponent's head movement against them [Music] Foreman's loose guard also meant his punches were especially hard to predict he had a tendency to start many of his punches the same way and then changed their trajectory Midway to the target what looked like a hook might actually be an uppercut or shot to the body may bear upwards to catch an opponent on the chin these directional faints were something that seemed especially worrying to Ali nonetheless after Foreman took out Ken Norton in only two rounds a man that Ali had struggled against greatly Ali was still ready and willing to fight Foreman and Foreman of course thought little of the loudmouth ex-champion who lacked his size and power the rumble in the jungle would become one of the most iconic moments in sports history Ali used his speed to throw sharp crosses right to roof Foreman's open guard and then out grappled him against the ropes to tire him out Foreman's wrestling worked to SAP the strength of every other opponent he had ever gone up against punishing them every time they threw a punch by throwing them wildly off-balance but now Foreman came up against someone who not only used similar techniques but did it better encouraged by Elly's endless taunting and his own coaches Foreman threw everything he had at Ali until he had no more the champion became so tired than in time he would come to wonder if he was drugged before the fight still Foreman never doubted that he was only one punch away from shutting Ali up for good but then Ali capitalized on Foreman's exhaustion and sent him crashing to the canvas with that one punch Foreman lost everything that he had spent his life working for for the first time Foreman began to doubt himself and the careful persona he had tried so hard to cultivate this was the beginning of Foreman's period of self-reflection but at first he would rebel trying to prove that he was still the man he'd always been Foreman set up an exhibition where he took on five in one night his hope was to reestablish his persona as an unstoppable monster forcing a lead to take a rematch Foreman ended most of the fights by a knockout but what he hadn't counted on was that the public had not lost respect for him as he thought they had rather than see Foreman is a fearless warrior fighting against impossible odds which anyone who is even lightly sparred fresh upon us one after the other knows he was the crowd instead rooted for Foreman's challengers seeing them as brave every men going up against an unstoppable giant although Foreman made his point the knight had achieved the opposite of what he hoped it would what did when people over was an insane slugfest with Ron Lyle the Lyle fight proved that Foreman had what it took to move past adversity Foreman got back from being knocked down again and again standing toe-to-toe with the man almost as tough and powerful as he was according to Foreman at the time he would rather have died than lose again and although it cost him he eventually prevailed as time rolled on foremen convincingly put down challenger after Challenger it seemed that Ally would be forced to fight Foreman once again that is until the night that changed everything until the night that Foreman fought Jimmy young early in the fight Foreman had failed to press an advantage because the promoters had requested he make his fights last longer but by the time Foreman wanted to end the fight he no longer could like a lead young kept Foreman off his rhythm by flicking out a quick loose jab and then tied him up before he could fire off any shots of his own young went about this in a different way than le sinking in deep under hooks to smother Foreman's punches in the last round Young sealed Foreman's fate by catching him with a right while he was off-balance forcing him to his knees and scoring a timely knock down at the very end of the fight the judges unanimously called the fight for young the loss changed George Foreman forever but this time Foreman did not seek to reestablish his reputation instead he embraced his loss Foreman would soon explain to his friends that he had had a religious experience after the fight that he had come close to death and had realized the fragility of life Foreman took a hard look at what really mattered to him he quit boxing immediately eventually becoming a minister after seeing the impact that his brother Roy was having teaching kids boxing Foreman opened a Youth Center to help keep underprivileged kids out of trouble but after someone he trusted stole a good portion of his money something surprisingly common in the world of boxing and entertainment Forman realized he no longer had the funds necessary to keep helping his community that was when Forman made the fateful decision to return to boxing ten years after he had lost his title to le what's more he vowed to once again become heavyweight champion of the world as expected very few thought that was possible and it may not have been a Forman hadn't gained the wisdom and maturity to take account of his remaining strengths and acknowledge his new weaknesses bringing back Archie Moore Foreman became an apt pupil mastering Moore's signature cross guard Foreman used to control his opponents jab by reaching out to stop it catch it or leverage guard and this left openings that alley and other fast boxers could take advantage of Foreman's new cross guard took away these lead side openings this meant that Foreman no longer needed to use footwork or head movement to evade his upon his attacks he wouldn't instead rely entirely on his size his lead hand jabbing and repositioning his opponent and his rare hand defending against jabs or lead hooks at close range Foreman no longer needed to sidestep and turn he could instead move in close in a cross guard and from there he could either lean on those that tried to crouch or use his forum to lift their chins and straighten up their posture Foreman could still manipulate their balance by cross framing off of his cross guard and this also provided a safe way to exit exchanges with this new system forming control distance with very little effort he would use his cross guard to when he wanted to move in closer and utilize his old long guard tactics when he wanted to create space or reposition his opponent all this was backed up by an even deeper understanding of the jab than Foreman had before Foreman now jabs from all angles notice how he uses an up jab here on a crouching opponent here he uses a flicker jab to set up his right and here Foreman pumps out to stiff jabs meant to hurt his opponent towards the ring a true mark of someone who understands their own style is that they know where their weaknesses lie the cross guard leaves the fighters body more open on the side of his high cross block and his chin more open on the side of his low cross block so notice how Foreman immediately takes advantage of this fact when his opponent tries to use a cross guard himself catching him with a liver blood this is why it's so exciting the daniel cormier an MMA champion uses a mix of lung guarding cross guard himself has gone to foreman for boxing advice while Foreman showed his opponents a great deal of mercy calling reps over to stop the fight rather than well on them as he had in the past he also at times gave us opponents the taste of the near-death experience he had had after his bout with young as one of Foreman's competitors put it after quitting in the ring man I saw death I wasn't gonna die in that ring that was death eventually Mormon had racked up enough victories to challenge the current champion Evander Holyfield for his title many viewed the contest as a joke the last gasp of a dying man Foreman replied to all such criticism with the quick-witted humor he developed throughout his years preaching and determined to let his fists do the talking the night of the fight as it turned out Foreman's fists still spoke loud and clear the first few rounds were surprising to most with Foreman evading Holyfield's jabs and snapping his head back with his own holy Phil's attempts at power blows with little to no setup made for easy counters but in round three it was Foreman who largely abandoned his jab giving Holyfield the chance he needed to steal the round he countered Foreman's uppercut with a tight hook and then unloaded fifteen consecutive punches [Music] perhaps it was this late round success that made Holyfield think it was a good idea to stand and grow right in front of Foreman Foreman used this opportunity to take the punches on his guard and move into close range Foreman's close-range body blows eventually took a heavy toll on Holyfield whose work rate and footwork slowed drastically in the fifth Foreman's body punches convinced Holyfield's lowers guard and it seemed that Foreman simply couldn't miss with his right at that point Holyfield's corner understandably told him to move after he threw Holyfield largely ignored this advice throughout the six getting wobbled with a hook near the end of the round and then chose to stand right in front of Foreman again in the seventh we can be glad he did because round seven became one of the most exciting in boxing history a Foreman overhand right crashed into Holyfield as he tried to cut an angle out of the corner and big George went on the offensive picking his moments to skillfully arc his right over Holyfield shoulder polyfilled had a tendency to lead with his head and as such had always found some measure of safety a close range but Foreman's cross guard meant that Holyfield would simply bounce his head off of Foreman's elbow things looked great for Foreman but then all defensive options taken away Holyfield did what so few of big George's opponents had done before he went on the offensive throwing 20 punches in a row Holyfield was taking advantage of the fact that Foreman couldn't counter well from his cross card as such big George was forced to adjust his guard as best he could until Holyfield stopped punching and Holyfield wasn't stopping luckily for Foreman the crossguard does a great job at catching punches halfway out dispelling their force even if they do connect even throwing off an opponent's follow-through after they've already made contact can help take a lot of the sting off even so enough punches hit clean that it was a small miracle Foreman was still standing at the end of Holyfield's barrage after a brief respite Foreman went right back on the attack feeding holy filled several the same uppercuts that had finished Ron Lyle all those years ago now both men seemed too spent to do anything and it was anyone's guess how the remainder of the fight might play out in round 8 both men seemed content to take a break fully filled circling and jabbing and throwing sporadic to punch combinations Foreman simply marched forward taking the brunt of the shots on his guard however in round nine it was clear that Holyfield had recovered while Foreman had not wholly filled scored two beautiful combinations which Foreman had no answer for and big George ended the round in deep trouble but then in round 10 foreman surprised everyone one last time a quick timeout mid round to wrap Holyfield's glove gave foreman an extra moment of respite and foreman put the spot of good luck to good use he came out at a much faster pace cutting off Holyfield's lateral movement with wide body hooks and goading him by dropping his hands it worked and Hoey felt again stood toe-to-toe with Foreman both men landed but in the end it seemed to be wholly filled to his most hurt wincing and packing away big George knew a hurt fighter when he saw one and landed a thudding one-two combination forcing Holyfield to clinch too tired to follow up Foreman would allow Holyfield to clinch for the remainder of the round although he did land a final parting shot just up the bail however the last several rounds had given Holyfield and obviously Din points and it was clear to all watching that Foreman now needed a knockout to win the 11th was much the same story with Holyfield penetrating Foreman's guard with fast combinations but eventually paying the price for standing too close to the fire made way through the round Foreman countered Holyfield's right with the right of his own landing would wholly filled with later described as the hardest punch he'd ever been hit with returning to his corner Holyfield had to ask if all of his teeth were still in as his entire mounted gongnam the 12th was like a microcosm for the entirety of the fight Holyfield out pointed Foreman by throwing quick flurries adding on just enough punches to penetrate Foreman's cross guard once or twice before fading out of range or clinching Foreman desperately tried for one last knockout blow but Holyfield remembered the punch from the 11th and wasn't about to get knocked out the last round of the fight he clinched so long that the ref had to forcibly push him off as the clock wound down Orman landed the occasional bomb but not the one punch he needed to put Holyfield on the ground finally the final bell rang Foreman had given his best but after a tremendous fight it was wholly filled that took the bout with the unanimous decision Foreman lasting 12 rounds in a competitive fight with the champion of the world a fight where he was on the edge of achieving victory several times seemed too many to be in credible last achievement of a highly skilled but aging fighter who could ask for more even if Foreman wanted to keep trying when would another chance like this ever come up again the world just didn't work that way but then astoundingly Foreman did get one last chance Holyfield lost to the undefeated southpaw Michael more and more was more than happy to fight big George Foreman more viewed the fight as an easy win over a high-profile opponent a tune-up fight that would still draw attention and add to his legacy Foreman now 45 had other ideas the night of the fight Foreman were the same trunks idiot warned against Ali 20 years before and as it turned out Foreman would look far more the fighter he had been when he last wore those shorts for instance many were surprised to see that Foreman had completely abandoned his cross guard instead he fought like the Foreman of old pong and his upon his gloves and using long guard tactics to block and smother punches there are a number of plausible reasons for why Foreman chose to do this but perhaps the biggest was that Foreman wanted his hands to always be in position to counter something near impossible in the way that he implemented the cross guard the effects of Foreman's style change were apparent immediately and obvious Kahn was that Foreman was much more open and as a result a lot more shops got through his defenses than normally did this was confounded by the fact that in an open stance where fighters have opposite feet forward it's much easier to connect with your rear hand the upside was at Foreman's right was finding a home as well but the strange thing was a big George's punches didn't seem to have the same effect on Moore that they'd had on Holyfield a man with a much better chin too many watching it must have seemed that age had finally caught up with George Foreman Moore's corner Teddy Atlas seemed to think this was the case Alice gave more two pieces of advice the first was to mix up his range excellent advice the second was to relax as he now had the full measure of big George but as it turned out Foreman's lackluster punches were all part of his plan over the next several rounds Foreman's power remained bizarrely absent but as he got into a rhythm his boxing skills seemed to return better than ever like many Orthodox fighters Foreman could have been expected to do worse against a southpaw instead the lead hand battle that comes inherently to the position fit Foreman style perfectly Maura's head and shoulder were closer to Foreman's lead hand making it even easier to manipulate his guard and knock him off balance more like to sidestep and slip off his jab to set up a new angle for his next punch but Foreman now used the extension of his own jab to help more lock unbalancing him and moving him directly into his punches the open stance position did mean the Foreman's rear hand was now usually too far away to effectively stifle Moore's however Foreman could cross frame with his rear hand on Moore's lead shoulder and this effectively shielded him from both hands as he exited safely outside besides Foreman wasn't looking to be defensive he was looking to counter although Foreman was a slower man his years of experience helped him to better read punches and he intercepted several of Moore's rights with his own before more even had the chance to extend them these tactics combined with the heavy dose of return jabs ensured that even though Moore might get off more punches he would pay some kind of price for each of them building on his success over the last several rounds foremen begin to pull down Moore's lead hand to make way for his right but despite Foreman's power punches getting through Moore maintained a comfortable lead on the scorecard and seemed perfectly happy to trade with big George by the end of the fifth Teddy Atlas had begun to sense something might be up and implored Moore to fight more cautiously asking him to get his shots off first and then immediately move out of range Moore ignored him after Foreman tripped more into ducking or slipping into several right hands set up off his job Moore seemed to lose his cool he decided to stand and slug it out with Foreman Foreman took Moore's punches and landed several of his own - all watching it now seemed certain that Foreman had lost his legendary fight ending power then again Maurer found himself inexplicably stumbling over his own feet the last few seconds of the round in the seventh Foreman switched things up by circling inside the opposite of what traditional wisdom says to do against a southpaw because both fighters stood squared up at mid-range throughout the fight foot position and mattered less than it generally would but what did matter was the statement that Foreman was making when Moore moved inside he was betting Foreman that he could still beat him with his superior speed when Foreman moved inside he was saying he didn't care although Moore got the better of several exchanges he also took a great deal of hard punches that he either didn't see or simply didn't care to defend by the end of the round Mora's work rate had slowed considerably and even though he had landed more punches he was backing away Moore himself might not have understood why his body wouldn't do what he wanted it to do but George Foreman certainly did viii started out well for Foreman the bigger man letting several right hands this prompted more to finally follow the advice that Atlas had been giving him about upping his pace late in the round the champion found an opening and piled on unloading on Foreman until the Bell granted him a brief respite more continued his assault into the night Foreman's tight snappy rights kept making their way through Maura's guard but were barely noticed by both the audience and oddly enough by Moore himself it now seemed a certainty that this would be a repeat of the Holyfield fight with the aging ex champion coming close but falling just short in the end and worse it seemed the big George had lost the power that had given him a puncher's chance in the later rounds in his corner a great coach Angelo Dundee pleaded with Foreman to take charge telling him that they were way behind essentially it was Now or Never and that was when Foreman showed the world the trick he had been playing all along Foreman came out twice the man he had been the round before his punches twice as fast hitting twice as hard for the first time Moore got a taste of something close to Foreman's real power now Moore's head didn't just snap back he was knocked completely off-balance Foreman only up the pace swinging wide looping hooks that stunned Mora through his guard and mixing in the same short tight crosses that he had throughout the fight the difference was that now they had weight behind them Moore backed up no doubt just as confused as the spectators the truth was Foreman had been baiting Moore the entire time when Foreman had learned that there was no three knockdown stoppage rule he had determined he could not show his full power right away the last thing he wanted was to have more survive several knock downs and then use fancy footwork from long range to out point him the remainder of the fight instead foremen tricked more into thinking he had what it took to go toe-to-toe with him putting just enough power on his punches to hurt but not enough to scare more into taking a more cautious approach if Moore had suspected what Foreman really had left no doubt wouldn't have allowed himself to take so much damage but now more is apparent pray have reversed course bard his fangs and charged at full speed with a minute left in the round Foreman again caught more with another tight cross stunned more backed up now was form his chance to quote the big man himself I threw a sharp left jab then a strong right that caught him on the forehead and made my hand hurt not wanting to wail on him until he fell I decided to bring the shot a little lower Foreman's second crust perfectly turned Morris chin and the champion of the world crumbled to the canvas felt not by this one blow but by the countless ones just like it over the last 10 rounds twenty years after Ali had outsmarted Foreman to take his belt back Foreman outsmarted more to take his belt back Foreman had used Moore's pride against him just as Ali had done to Foreman all those years ago big George stood in disbelief as a ref counted more out then fell to the canvas and prayed his life had come full circle Foreman's victory was the last echo the greatest era and heavyweight boxing a final triumph for one of the three extraordinary men who helped define a generation one last time big George Foreman had shook up the world this concludes the Golden Age of heavyweight saga this has been David Christian for the modern martial artist wishing you as always happy training

Channel: The Modern Martial Artist

Views: 2,855,399

Rating: 4.8729086 out of 5

Keywords: George Foreman vs Michael Moorer, George Foreman vs Evander Holyfield, boxing, breakdown, explained, cross guard, big George Foreman, style, long guard, analysis, rumble in the jungle, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton

Id: PeLeNhix2pk

Length: 27min 22sec (1642 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Gigantonigro]

Really great video. Also shows that he had no better way of beating Holyfield than the plan he already had, because he would've probably ran into another shot that maybe would've knocked him out if he went like him like against Moorer

[u/LittleSaintJames]

Lol, this is that guy who thought Loma beat Teo. He's hilarious.