"Holmes-Shavers 2" from 1979.... Classic or Not?

[MRBILL]

Folks,

I am a Larry Holmes nutgrabber to the max... Yes, sir..... No shame, either... He was the main man at heavyweight during my high school years......

I have my tape of "Holmes-Shavers 2" rolling...... I LOVE this fight........ I review it all the time---when buzzin' hard..... Anyway, does this epic title fight from 1979 truly get the credit it deserves, or is it merely just another heavyweight title fight that many have forgotten, yet many still remember? I LOVE IT! Yes, I know Larry Holmes pretty much OWNED Earnie Shavers in the ring, except for the knockdown Shavers scored on Holmes in round 7 of fight # 2, but for the sake of it, Holmes was the master.......


I think "Holmes-Shavers 2" is a great fight....... Who else??

MR.BILL

[Longhhorn71]

Originally Posted by MRBILL

Folks,

I am a Larry Holmes nutgrabber to the max... Yes, sir..... No shame, either... He was the main man at heavyweight during my high school years......

I have my tape of "Holmes-Shavers 2" rolling...... I LOVE this fight........ I review it all the time---when buzzin' hard..... Anyway, does this epic title fight from 1979 truly get the credit it deserves, or is it merely just another heavyweight title fight that many have forgotten, yet many still remember? I LOVE IT! Yes, I know Larry Holmes pretty much OWNED Earnie Shavers in the ring, except for the knockdown Shavers scored on Holmes in round 7 of fight # 2, but for the sake of it, Holmes was the master.......


I think "Holmes-Shavers 2" is a great fight....... Who else??

MR.BILL

Would have liked to have seen prime Ali & Holmes tangle.

[MRBILL]

Originally Posted by Longhhorn71

Would have liked to have seen prime Ali & Holmes tangle.

So would I....

MR.BILL

[mr. magoo]

It is absolutely a classic.. Not only was it a great fight, but it's also one of the main bouts that most serious fight fans refer to when commenting on Larry Holmes' career.. Among one of Holmes' greatest attributes, was his chin and recuperative powers. The Shavers rematch illustrated this in the purest possible way. Few fighters would have risen from that knockdown, and even fewer would have come back to win the fight in the fashion that Holmes did. In additon, this fight not only did credit to Holmes career, but when discussing Earnie Shavers as the hardest puncher of all time, he is commonly credited as being the man who "almost" beat a prime Holmes....

This fight was a great credit to the sport of boxing, and equally a great credit to two great heavyweight legends.....

[MRBILL]

Originally Posted by mr. magoo

It is absolutely a classic.. Not only was it a great fight, but it's also one of the main bouts that most serious fight fans refer to when commenting on Larry Holmes' career.. Among one of Holmes' greatest attributes, was his chin and recuperative powers. The Shavers rematch illustrated this in the purest possible way. Few fighters would have risen from that knockdown, and even fewer would have come back to win the fight in the fashion that Holmes did. In additon, this fight not only did credit to Holmes career, but when discussing Earnie Shavers as the hardest puncher of all time, he is commonly credited as being the man who "almost" beat a prime Holmes....

This fight was a great credit to the sport of boxing, and equally a great credit to two great heavyweight legends.....

Not only that, we, the fans, got to see it back in '79 on prime-time ABC TV for FREE!!!!!!

Howard Cosell (I Miss Him) called the action......

The last major FREE heavyweight title fight on regular TV was back in '85 when Holmes fought Carl "The Lie" Williams..... I miss the good ole days....

MR.BILL

[mr. magoo]

Originally Posted by MRBILL

Not only that, we, the fans, got to see it back in '79 on prime-time ABC TV for FREE!!!!!!

Howard Cosell (I Miss Him) called the action......

The last major FREE heavyweight title fight on regular TV was back in '85 when Holmes fought Carl "The Lie" Williams..... I miss the good ole days....

MR.BILL

Well, I envy you for that, but in all honesty I was 5 years old in 1979, so the whole " seeing it live, and for free " part, doesn't really apply to me....

[MRBILL]

Boxing kicked ass on FREE TV in the 70s and 80s....... Come the 90s, Cable took over and the $$$ factor became an issue...... It is now worse than ever in 2010..... Oh, the current schedule sucks right now....... 2010 is a letdown year for boxing, thus far anyway....

MR.BILL

[mr. magoo]

Originally Posted by MRBILL

Boxing kicked ass on FREE TV in the 70s and 80s....... Come the 90s, Cable took over and the $$$ factor became an issue...... It is now worse than ever in 2010..... Oh, the current schedule sucks right now....... 2010 is a letdown year for boxing, thus far anyway....

MR.BILL

You can say that again..

Boxing got too big for it's own bridges.

If the forces that be were smart, they would have tried to stay competitive with other sports and entertainment venues, by continuing to make boxing as accessible to the general public as possible.. Instead, people got greedy.... They took too much advantage of the few loyal fans that the business had left, and abused its primary source of revenue.... The diehards either died off, became disinterested, or were just priced out of the market...

As a result, everything just trickled down.... The fights got too expensive and the upcoming talent wasn't showcased.. Then the younger viewing generation became less interested or uneducated to boxing..... Kids who might have been good future fighters, came up watching football, basketball or baseball rather than boxing. Gyms in every major city shut down, and as of 1996, the famous Kronk gym in detroit, which nurtured countless champions over multiple decades, finally shut its doors... The sport developed an increasingly bad reputation for being scandlous and unscrupulous.. Eventually, no one took it seriously anymore, and fewer television sets were projecting boxing matches.... Far less news papers, magazines and other publications were displaying fight news on their front pages....


In 1987, you could walk down the street and ask a 10 year old girl who the heavyweight champion of the world was, and you can bet that she'd be able to tell you with confidence that it was Mike Tyson.... Today, you could ask a 40 year old, diehard sports fan the same question, and I doubt he'd be able to answer it.... I never thought that I'd live to see the day when sports like Golf or Snow boarding would have more popularity than the very game that bred great champions like Robinson, Louis, Ali, Dempsey, Marciano and Leonard.... But that day has definately come...

I give boxing maybe 10-15 more years before its virtually a non-existent activity..

[MAG1965]

Originally Posted by MRBILL

Folks,

I am a Larry Holmes nutgrabber to the max... Yes, sir..... No shame, either... He was the main man at heavyweight during my high school years......

I have my tape of "Holmes-Shavers 2" rolling...... I LOVE this fight........ I review it all the time---when buzzin' hard..... Anyway, does this epic title fight from 1979 truly get the credit it deserves, or is it merely just another heavyweight title fight that many have forgotten, yet many still remember? I LOVE IT! Yes, I know Larry Holmes pretty much OWNED Earnie Shavers in the ring, except for the knockdown Shavers scored on Holmes in round 7 of fight # 2, but for the sake of it, Holmes was the master.......


I think "Holmes-Shavers 2" is a great fight....... Who else??

MR.BILL

very good fight.

[apollack]

Awesome. Shavers was one of the hardest hitting heavys ever and he couldn't have landed that right any more flush to Holmes' chin than if Larry had stood there and said "give me your best shot." Well, Holmes went down like a tree, but you saw how he got up and was actually firing back vicious shots relatively quickly. Amazing.

[techks]

Holmes really proved his heart by getting up from that flush right by Shavers. The average boxer would've been out cold!!! I haven't seen all of the fight but will once I get Holme's career set.

[The Kurgan]

One of the best examples of a textbook match-up: how does a slickster beat a slugger with huge power? Answer- move carefully, stick the jab and tire him out. In this respect it was too one-sided to be a classic.

What DOES make it a classic was round 7. I honestly think that that punch was the hardest single punch ever thrown in a prize ring. The fact that Holmes got up suggests to me that Holmes has one of the best chins of all time, P4P, regardless of what happened in other fights. No human being should be able to take that kind of force and live, let alone get up and go on to last the rest of the round.

The fight basically sums up what made Holmes great: great boxing ability, great speed and outrageous durability/heart.

Some boxers are great because of their tremendous skills, like Joe Louis, Carlos Ortiz, Pernell Whitaker and Willie Pep. Some are great because of their ability to rise to find a way to beat almost any opponent, like Lennox Lewis, Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Carlos Monzon. Others just defy what it's possible for a human being to do, like Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson and LARRY THE EASTON ASSASSIN HOLMES.

[he grant]

Total classic !

[apollack]

I actually think Larry's legs were even more GONE against Snipes. Another great comeback.

[MRBILL]

I have BOTH fights from '78 and '79 on file..... Holmes totally commanded Shavers in the original fight of 1978.... Their were no knockdowns, but Holmes was fast, spry and slick as whale shit on an iceberg in that fight....

Still, all in all, fight # 2 is a classic.... After all, the title was on the line and the Shavers knockdown of Holmes in round 7 was a beauty of a punch launched from right field..... Shavers was gased and out on his feet in round 11 when referee Davey Pearl waived it over.....

MR.BILL