What made Foreman hit like a truck?

[giancana]

who do you think hits harder george foreman or sonny liston?

 

[PeakyBlinder]

He was a natural puncher and had a great training regimen

 

[AndyTran]

I think you are trying too hard to not get it. People feel a difference in OUNCES of glove size, but you don't think they'd feel a difference of fist.

By this logic people with smaller fists should punch harder than people with bigger fists because 10oz gloves clearly hurt more than 16oz gloves, no?

 

[Sinister]

By this logic people with smaller fists should punch harder than people with bigger fists because 10oz gloves clearly hurt more than 16oz gloves, no?

Nope. Note that I didn't actually say hit harder with so and so gloves, I said "people feel a difference."

But the big gloves, small gloves debate depends on who you ask. I always felt that bigger gloves = bigger impact. They feel heavier, thud more, smaller have a smaller focal point so there's potential for greater delivery of force, but also people don't throw full-force often for fear of hand breaks.

 

[pookiyama]

In my experience, 16 oz gloves have a tremendously more forceful impact.

 

[wang xiangzhai]

I dont usually follow boxing save a few fighters but looking at that vid is obvious Foreman was a beast, even in his late years.

As Sinister pointed out, I think is mostly a question of leverage. See how compact, how dense all his body is at impact. Look at the feet, they rotate slightly or sometimes even not at all. When the fist connect the whole body trunk is rotated to the max yet the feet are still, anchored, as if roots were growing off the sole... applying the whole leverage of the body agaisnt the ground. Also, the arms never leave the "the circle of power", they are always locked in the maximun leverage range, always forming a perfect "crescent" curve with zero leaks; theres no fissure at all in that structure, neither in the wrist, elbow or the shoulder. Thats a one piece body/punch man, like one of those rigid figurines with a spring in the waist

That might had impaired a bit his footwork but at HW and with his imposing figure he didnt need it (In lower divisions mobility factor increases and you need to rotate the feet a lot more with all the direction changes, therefore losing some rooteness). On the other side of spectrum you had a Tyson, a lot smaller, that needed to make use of a lot of powerful leaping and looser hands; and in fact that style might be on another level - if we are talking in absolutes - but in terms of power transmission, transference of power... of pure leverage in other words, Foreman was as good as it gets. Utterly brilliant.

 

[Fire of Youth]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up that a portion of the effect from Foreman's power came from his grappling set ups. That is, Foreman was exceptionally good at jostling your body weight around or pawing your guard out of the way and putting you in a bad position to receive a punch. He would put you in that bad position and then whack you hard. In that bad position, you often have no choice but to accept the full impact of the blow. Not much opportunity to roll with it, or absorb it or deflect it. Just take it and keep standing if possible.

 

[Azam]

I love watching Foreman especially a young one. old foreman was bigger and had still super heavy strikes but he had even more akwwards punching technique and young Foreman had on top of the weight of his punches really fast hands as well.

George Foreman & Joe Frazier are my favourite boxers of all time - for different reasons. Out of the two - Joe Frazier is at the top of the list for me - people call him a slugger but he was one of the best heavyweights at cutting off the ring, ducking/slipping punches - his whole style was about getting around someone with reach and with the greatest spirit I've ever seen in boxing along with imho the best left hook and maybe right hook.

The younger Foreman was much more explosive than the older Foreman but that said the older Foreman was much wiser/smarter with his approach. The younger Foreman often left himself open quite a lot - but his insane punching power meant that very few were able to exploit that *****. The older Foreman was more aware of the *****.

I think people also overlook the fact that Foreman had an iron chin to go with the insane punching power. A great example of someone taking advantage of the openings Foreman left was Ron Lyle - another great heavyweight but this was a severely psychologically effected Foreman. But we also see his iron chin that saved him along with that monstrous punching power. I mean in 76 fights he was only knocked out once by Ali - which is pretty incredible (he was knocked down in fights but never out cold for the count).


If the younger George had the older George's wisdom/mentality - he may truly have been unbeatable.

It's also insane looking at the weigh he stops people he can seemingly get power everywhere while someone like Tyson for example still has to get proper leverage with tyson you see the effort and explosive power he puts into punches in his movement Foreman seemingly just touches you out of awkward position and it's still enough to hurt you.
Wladimir klitschko tbf someone does the same with his left hook but he has textbook punching form even though his left hook is incredibly short but Foreman does whatever he wants with every pucnh and it works

There's no kink in the leverage chain - that's what I think Foreman's secret is - everything is compact/stable. When he punches it's one whole mass together going into the target - it's something that some people instinctively do better than others.

I think your stability bio-mechanically along with actual technique plays a huge role too. I think very few people focus on strengthening the actual leverage chain from the ground up to the actual fist enough.

I'm of the belief that the forearms, wrist and triceps play an abnormally important part in the delivery of leverage especially with hooks - I feel this is where most of the leverage generated gets eaten up.

I've always had naturally big shoulders/triceps but weak wrists. As soon as I started strengthening my forearms/wrists and toughening up the hand - I felt huge improvements in the leverage I was able to generate - punches felt much more solid/more impact than before. To the degree that I must state again the difference was enough that I've kept up the practice.

 

[clashnat]

I recall George himself saying once that a key factor for his power was the strenght of his forearms.

Probably true, strong forearms make everything easier, though it's a merely one factor among various factors.

I also recall one opponent say that he has lower back pain to this day, pointing out that George was a dirt player who tagged him on his lower back when the referee was distracted or so.

I didn't see that fight, but I would imagine that it was a type of punch where the hips didn't come into play as they do in a punch from distance where you're dependent on leverage. So that's something where George's comment about his forearms gets more value.

 

[Shoemaker]

Nope. Note that I didn't actually say hit harder with so and so gloves, I said "people feel a difference."

But the big gloves, small gloves debate depends on who you ask. I always felt that bigger gloves = bigger impact. They feel heavier, thud more, smaller have a smaller focal point so there's potential for greater delivery of force, but also people don't throw full-force often for fear of hand breaks.

Interesting. I was just talking with Cracky in F53 about this. He said he sparred with 12s to "get respect" but I never thought it was an issue with 16s.

 

[MotivatedPenn]

So is the consensus that it was due to skill, woodchopping, and strong forearms? If so I'm going to add a few things to my S&C and see if I notice a change over the span of a few months.

 

[Samuel Reynoso]

When I think of GF's style I think of the boulder from raiders of the lost ark. It takes intelligence to set up that booby trap but once that boulder is moving it's not gonna cut an angle, pull out, and reset. George would Kung Fu through your guard, turn you, or just push you back if he crowded himself.

But yeah, Foreman had 7 foot arms. You can't punch like Foreman with skinny Jon Jones arms. I'm not saying he got his power from his arms, but 7 foot arms are going to be a weak link for most people... not George though.

 

[Gabicho]

He wore some Elven forged gloves that gave him +5 to knockouts and +3 strength.
He also had the "stone handed" feat from Fallout as a passive skill.

 

[Chungungo]

I love chopping wood. I'd do it two or three times a week for exercise if I could. Unfortunately, I live in the suburbs.

I can't recall who said it--maybe Jack Dempsey--but chopping wood is so much better as an exercise than swinging a hammer at a tire. Just the fact that you can look at a massive pile of split logs after you're finished that wasn't there before is a major advantage. It's mental as well as physical exercise. A very stripped down version of making something with your hands while becoming stronger. I always find those things to be easier to fixate myself on than ones that just seem like simple exercise. I imagine smithing and other swinging work is similar.

Someone said here once that chopping wood had a little component at the end of the movement that hammer doesn´t give you---

 

[Bee Smart]

All his "wax on, wax off" rep drills.

 

[kahiljabroni]

Its like asking, how did Michael jordan play ball so well? Well he dribbled alot. We're talking about genetic specimens here who applied hard work. What im saying is its a natural gift.

 

[Gandhi]

Foremans uppercuts def have body motion in them

 

[Uncle Termite]

weights and strongman training in his comeback he was a better puncher...forearm strength plus 30 pound heavier.At 250 plus he could hit with the best modern 225 plus Hw's for sure.

 

[Sinister]

I don't think he was a better puncher than his younger self.

 

[Azam]

Foremans uppercuts def have body motion in them

Nearly everything he throws is one big mass.





I think as well that when he punches the first two knuckles are always the first point of impact - I've noticed this with his hooks. It makes a huge difference especially with body shots.

I think that is why the heavy bag crunches up with each punch.


I think the whole chain is important and Foreman seems to have it on point. I think people do a disservice when they call him a slugger since getting into the right positions to maximize leverage (and knowing how to do it better than anyone else maybe the exception being Shavers) is I feel also part of the sweet science.