George Foreman's weight for the Dwight Qawi fight

The best part of this fight is in the 6th when Foreman hits Dwight with a nasty uppercut and Qawi fakes going down and then dives at Foreman with a hook.

 

Yes, I noticed this too. Foreman talked about how the extra weight gave him a bit more power. He felt he would hit a man and he would come back at him. Foreman was pretty light during an exhibition I remember toward the beginning of his comeback. The thing with George was that he maintain his pace/stamina. He was big and had some fat but don't dismiss this as being unconditioned. His strength was top notch, and his legs were very powerful. This strength allowed him to take a lot of punishment and not wear down so quickly which may in a way be inter-connected to his energy level.

Foreman certainly looks really trim in comparison to later fights.

 

This was an entertaining fight. Qawi sure was game here, wasn't he? The odds were stacked against him, but he came to fight and gave it everything he had. He managed to land some nice shots, but ultimately lacked the power to hurt his bigger opponent.

It's been a long time since I've seen this fight, and George looked in very good shape here. I had forgotten that he had come in at such a comparatively low bodyweight; he looks quite a bit like his 70's version here, albeit an older version.
I suppose it shows that if he had wanted to, he could have fought in the mid 230's for virtually the duration of his comeback.

It begs the question why he didn't. I can't answer that question with any certainty. I trust George may have discovered a few things about coming in that the lower bodyweight, and figured he could fight more effectively weighing more than he did here.

George was playing smoke and mirrors a lot in his comeback. He'd laugh and crack chesseburger jokes, but I don't doubt he trained as hard as anyone in the gym. His body sported a layer of fat, but underneath that fat was also a world of muscle.
He was about as immovable as a fighter can be.

George reinvented himself in his second spell as a fighter. As opposed to many guys making a comeback, George did not try and recapture the years by being the fighter he was in his youth. Instead, he became a whole new fighter, taking the good bits if his 70's self and combining that with a new-found attitude to the fight game.

I think George was very, very smart about not trying to roll back the years. He accepted that he had grown older yet wiser, and worked out a new style around that. Luckilly he had the raw natural assets to make it work. A Mike Tyson trying do do the same thing would not have been nearly as successful, because he just didn't have the raw size to make it work.

Okay, Big George was a lot heavier in his comeback, but he carried the weight well. For the Holyfield fight where he was 257, he paced himself well and did not go crazy trying to knock Holyfield out, instead working behind a solid jab and picking his spots. At the end of the fight, it appeared that Holyfield was the one whose gas tank was running on empty rather than George, and who would have guessed that beforehand?

Holyfield was seen as the fittest, best condioned heavyweight in the game, yet here came old George, many years past his physical prime, who matched him step for step. This is where I think George's added size and weight worked for him.
He still had enough mobility and spring in his step to be within punching distance of Evander most of the time, yet the younger man had no chance at all of making George take a backward step. George was making him fight every inch of the way, and when Evander punched back he was forced to throw 3,4,5 punch combo's to get George's attention.
Aside from the 9th where Holyfield landed a corker of a right hand counter, George was never in trouble in the fight. Holyfield threw some very impressive combinations, but George would cross those huge 19" arms over each other, tuck that chin in and wait for the storm to pass.
He didn't try and match Evander punch for punch, but picked his spots and landed some good punches of his own.

Effectively, Evander was having to work twice as hard as George, and this was entirely down to the large size and power difference between the two. I think basically the fight was won and lost on the fact that George didn't have fast hands (he never really did) and had to pace himself, and the fact that Holyfield played it smart and after realising he could not bomb George out, didn't try to. But as far as gameplan goes, I can't think of a better one. George fought about as well as he could in that fight.

You've got to give the old lug a lot of credit for how he went about things in his second comeback.
Apologies if I've waffled a bit - I got a bit carried away.

 

Naw....... Foreman at age 39 and 235 pounds was about the lightest he could go as a fighter at that time frame............ Foreman stated that he eventually trained down to 229 in camp, but he felt drained and weak, so he decided to go up in weight....... I do think that Foreman would've been great at the weights of 242 to 245 pounds, but he liked to eat and 255 to 261 became the normal range, until he fought Moorer at 250....... However that was a "One Fight" deal......

MR.BILL:bbb

 

To make a guess:

The sort of training regime that gets a boxer down to a low weight puts a significnt strain on the body in terms of, strain of joints, muscle recovery, injures etc.

These problems are exacibated greatly in an older man, and Foreman might have decided that his best shot at being an effective fighter was not to train hard but to come in fighting fit.

 

I was more amazed at Dwight Qawi's weight, 222 pounds for a 5'5-5'6 man and he still managed to perform admirably until being worn down in the end.

 

Qawi did do well for a much smaller dude weighing a hefty 222 pounds against Foreman........ Qawi was over-matched, but game..... Qawi made a whopping 50 G's for his nights effort.......

MR.BILL:hey

 

I remember watching this and thought George looked pretty poor. I recall GF saying he felt at that weight and thats why he came in a good 15/20lbs heavier from then on...

 

Great post.

 

Well, Foreman was tight and looking slim at 235 in March of '88 for Qawi and I thought he looked good, but fought "Off Key" against Qawi as well.........

Come August of '88, Foreman fought this bum outta Mexico who had a win over Leon Stinks named Ladislao Mijangos on the USA TV network....... Foreman came in at roughly 251 pounds and looked bloated in his girth...... Foreman eventually settled in near 256 to 263 pounds looking massive, bulky, strong and somewhat fat.... But generally effective in the ring.......

MR.BILL:hey

 

Qwawi made a good effort at 5"7 and not as old as Foreman at all but an old version of Qwawi....Archie Moore than later took over with George and really taught an old dog new tricks and improved George, Archie new George could not get faster so he made him gain muscle for power but Archie helped improve his stamina.....but its shows you not every short fighter loses like Frazier and Dwight was 5"7 and 175lbs in his perfect weight