When one looks at the modern heavyweight landscape in years gone by there is no denying that as time has gone on — heavyweights have gotten bigger, stronger and faster.
That’s just how it goes in pro sports.
Athletes improve due to the continued advances in sports science afforded to them as the clock of father time ticks on.
Really, when you look back to the old days in boxing where fighters like Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano were considered heavyweights, men just over and under six-feet tall respectively, it’s almost unfathomable to compare them to modern heavyweight giants such as Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
But one old heavyweight legend who no doubt would still be a force today would of course be George Foreman.
A man who essentially only had one plan when he got in the ring.
To destroy his opponent completely.
Sure, a talented amateur fighter before turning pro, he found his true calling however in the paid ranks when he sledgehammered his way through most of the top fighters of his era.
Only to re-invent himself entirely later in his career when he came back to become (still to this day) the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
No longer a snarling, menacing beast, a man much more at peace in himself along his journey of becoming a born again Christian but still in the ring — just as powerful.
A feat he accomplished when stopping a 26-year-old Michael Moorer at the age of 45 in 1994 in front of 12,000 spectators at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Moorer had come into the fight with a 35-0 record at the time but the old adage of the power being the last thing to go in a fighter rang true when big George connected with a straight right in round 10:
While Foreman dished out plenty of beatings in his day he could also absorb punishment too when he needed to.
Foreman was asked by one fan recently on Twitter who it was that hit him the hardest in his career.
His answer might surprise some:
Ron Lyle had once challenged Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight title unsuccessfully in 1975.
His fight with Foreman in 1976 was voted Fight of the Year.
A classic heavyweight battle.
Here it is in its entirety, enjoy:
