ok, how about we'll call a truce in this debate... i'll say that had Mike been more prepared that he might have won the fight, but the same Douglas still would have given him massive problems and possibly still won.
Nope, I don't agree with this concept. It is the ability to focus on your sport and overcome all else that is, again, a key factor that makes a great athlete just that. Lots of people have external circumstances that pull away at them. It is the ones that don't let that get in the way of their greatness that are remembered for generations to come.
Pathologically being unable to make the jump from the gym to the ring is what I call te mental game - so many are great "gym fighters" but can't turn it on Tyson clearly could The reason I say he was an anomaly is that he was always up for the fight on that side of things but his personal demons overpowered him; most fighters with the incomplete game are restricted to the gym/ring dilemma It doesn't mean it is not a lack of mental strength, just that it is an unusual manifestation of same
I always say that when I grow up, I want to be like George Foreman. When you do an image search for George Foreman, you have to wade through all his grills and kitchen items, cleaning products, then his collection of fine motorcars, the many photos of him at speaking engagements and lecture tours - very successful man. So successful that his legendary boxing career almost seems a mere side-show - we know his boxing career wasn't a side-show but one gets the sense that being one of the great boxing champions is only one component of many. The man did it right and continues to do it right. Funny he was mentioned in a thread about Tyson. In some ways Foreman is almost the antithesis of Tyson - coming back the way he did at 45 - adjusting his style into a more relaxed approach ( he said that all through the early years he was extremely tense and anxious during fights and was able to change his approach ) While some fighters spent some of their 'retirement' doing time in penitentiaries, Foreman had been busy for years establishing children's homes and feeding poor kids ( the need to fund some of his orphanages led to his comeback ); his metamorphic change from a brooding, angry young man who loathed speaking even to friendly press and fans to this smiling, engaging grandfatherly type who, when not busy filming television and radio adverts, could be found on the lecture circuit as a motivational speaker; needless to mention Foreman's entrepreneurship; the list goes on and on. I was going to go on about Foreman's underappreciated fighting style, ringmanship and so forth but... We'll have to do a thread on Big George at some point.
He lifted burgers over and over again, very high rep. I used this program myself. I was looking at the picture of where he is knocking down Moorer and thought if he had lighter skin and more hair that could be me. I have a very similar build. Found this on the boxingScene web site. His training routine for Holyfield. 4am - 8-mile run monday, 5-mile run tuesday, 10-mile run wednesday, 5-mile run thursday, 8-mile run friday. Rest, eat, rest. 9am - chop wood for 2-3 hours, monday to friday. Rest, eat, rest. 2pm - 12 rounds of heavybag then work on tactics with sparring partners, monday to friday. Rest, eat, rest. 7pm - bench press, weighed sit ups and neck weight harness, monday to friday. Eat, sleep.
One method he did was to hook a huge heavy bag on the back of a pick up truck and jog behind the pick up punching the bag for miles..awesome idea for a walk forward big puncher as George was
Wonder what he benched? Incredibly strong man. I wonder how much was natural, and how much he worked on it? Some people are just born amazingly strong.
Foreman, arguably the strongest of the heavyweights would undoubtedly be able to press some enormous weight - for a non-weightlifter. As m1k3jobs stated, push ups and chopping wood were his mainstays. I've heard that K. Norton was quite the weight-lifter. Didn't seem to help him against George... Neither did the speed advantage he had over Foreman. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhXIDRYzO8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhXIDRYzO8[/ame]
I'm not going to make assumptions, but I will say that for a man of Foreman's size that you couldn't rule out steroids. The testing today is lacking... let alone back in prime Foreman's time. Also, push-ups can build muscle with the right diet, but I never have heard specifically if they were standard push-ups or perhaps weighted ones.
It's interesting to see just how low Foreman's hands are and just how side-on Norton seems to be. Mitch
Wanted more torque ability vs. a guy who was fast and with Foreman a guy who they wanted to get out of the way of perhaps the stance was used more for speed and more pivots? IDK, just a guess.
Ken Norton was quite a character himself and seemed to have been a genuinely intelligent, nice fellow. An early proponent of positive thinking/visualising-success as a tool for achieving tangible rewards long before the masses became aware of such, he was one of the very few boxers to give M. Ali trouble - he gave Ali a great deal of trouble, in fact; partly due to that oddball stance - variously referred to as a 'cross arm', 'crab-stance' (IIRC). You'll notice in the video I posted that Norton keeps his arms very low (see 0.56 - 1.01 for examples) until things get hot, at which point he raises his right arm a good deal higher to cover more real estate (see 1.43 onward as example(s)). Foreman apparently thought highly of the awkward stance, despite punching through it with seeming ease, because he emulated it somewhat in the second phase of his career in his 40's. The style is also similar to that of Archie Moore's - who ironically, trained George Foreman! Have to say that I've heard a good-deal about how Norton was a boxer ( true ) whilst Foreman the puncher... Sorry...Foreman exhibited far, far more subtleness than given credit for ( not saying that he did that as routine or consistently - for this fight with Norton is to which I speak. How often have I heard that round 1 was even :bang::bang::bang: No, no, no , no... Go back and carefully see how often Foreman landed during the second half of first round. I do believe many of these strikes by Foreman escaped the eyes of the television announcers and others who see the round as even.