With fight fans regularly debating if Deontay Wilder is a harder puncher than Mike Tyson, George Foreman has said he believes Tyson was far ahead of the Bronze Bomber.

With Wilder’s amazing knockout record inside the ring (currently 41 stoppages in 44 fights), many pundits have argued that the 34-year-old is the biggest puncher boxing has ever seen.

However, heavyweight legend Foreman believes that Wilder is still behind a few legends, including Iron Mike.

When asked about Wilder’s power, Foreman had this to say about the Bronze Bomber:

“He’s good but he hasn’t approached Joe Lewis, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson. No, he hasn’t approached that kind of recognition yet. No way.”

Foreman went on to say that Wilder needs a big win against a top boxer to cement himself among the elite.

“For me, he has to have a performance like Mike Tyson did over Trevor Berbick. Boy, when I saw that, I was down visiting Vegas, and I thought, ‘This guy is a nightmare!’.”

Following on from Wilder’s crushing defeat to Tyson Fury in their WBC world title rematch in Las Vegas in February, Foreman used his experience from his own historic loss to Muhammad Ali and counselled Wilder in the aftermath.

“I had a nice conversation with Wilder, nice conversation with him,” he said. “We talked because I was in a position where I lost unexpectedly with the title in Africa. Only I know what he’s going through.

“He’s gonna have to live with [the Fury loss] but I can show him how to live with that and come back better. We talked a lot on those lines.”

Wilder is poised to take on Fury for a third time in October after triggering a rematch clause and Big George, who has offered to train Wilder for the third showdown, believes he can win the bout easily.

“Not only beat him, [Wilder] can do it easily,” the 71-year-old added. “Give him another chance. He’ll show you.”