Foster. He keeps Qawi on the end of that long, piston jab, and Qawi probably gets hurt early which leaves him wary of Foster's power for the rest of the fight. Outside of Ezzard Charles, I dunno if any other light heavyweight in history beats the 68-72 Bob Foster.
Hell of a matchup. foster jab was a thing of beauty , would be a hell of a factor against Qawi, (obviously enough). And no need to talk about his power. It all comes down to Qawi ability to slip it and get inside (again obviously enough). He was great at it. Gun to my head, I think i'd favor Qawi, Foster defense wasn't very good, I think that Qawi could land enough and hurt him. I can stop rebembering how easily Frazier was able to get inside and land on him, and Qawi had a bit of the same bobbing and weaving style Not a lot of confidence behing my pick though
Frazier wasn't worried about the power. He had no reason to be. Frazier also had more of a not-give-a-fuck mentality than Qawi. Joe would walk through an atomic bomb to get inside if he had to. Qawi was easier to tame.
Just can’t see Qawi getting past Foster’s jab and I think Foster keeps him honest with the occasional cross or hook
Of course qawi wouldnt do it as easily as frazier (who was bigger and probably/arguably better p4p) but still, i think we cant completely dismiss the result of that fight. Foster looked completely inept dealing with the pressure of frazier, a bit like hearns vs hagler. Now, it doesnt mean that any pressure fighter could replicate it, but Qawi was an awesome pressure fighter
Foster was like 20 pounds lighter than Frazier and never had any success above 175 anyway... he simply couldn’t carry weight Qawi isn’t going to be 6’ 210-215 he’s going to be 5’7 175 The Frazier that Foster was in with would go through Mike Spinks like a hot knife through butter ... Mike Spinks kept Qawi on the end of his jab and kept him respectful... Foster would do the same
That guy Dick Tiger was a pretty good pressure fighter, and you saw how hopeless he was at the end of Foster's jab. Granted, Qawi was a bigger man than Tiger, and in his prime, unlike Tiger, but he'd still face the same problem.
Qawi would come in trying to grind Foster down, and then he gets tagged hard, and out-boxed over 15 rounds. So basically Spinks redux
Foster doesnt doesnt have the defense, technique, nor the discipline of spinks. Im pretty sure this turns into a war eventually, and qawi seems to have the better attributes in that kind of fight
Been an eternity since i saw tiger fight, but i don't recall him being a bobber and weaver a la frazier and qawi
I'm not sure I agree with that. Spinks wasn't exactly renown for his polish or technique prior to the Qawi performance. He was usually the aggressor in his fights and could look wild or ungainly at times.
