Larry Holmes vs Max Schmeling

I appreciate Schmeling's talents but feel he is greatly over rated here by many ... the only fighter reasonably close on style to Holmes that he fought was Sharkey who at the very least fought him on an even level .. Holmes was vastly superior to even the best Sharkey in virtually every way .. I simply see them as a class apart.

 

I look at Holmes-Shavers I, where Larry flew around the ring counterclockwise, away from Earnie's right, and just don't see Max having sufficient countering opportunities to win with his right. Schmeling might be capable of decking Holmes at some point with a Snipes type right, but it wouldn't be enough.

Larry utterly dominated Norton over the first ten rounds, and should have had it locked up on the cards by then. The first punch he floored Ocasio with was a jab which nearly had Jaws down for the count. I know it was claimed Louis could potentially knock out a man with his jab like Liston later supposedly was capable of, but it was Holmes who actually came closest to doing this in HW Title competition footage against a championship caliber contender. (And Ocasio did in fact become one of the first substantive CW champions, and was the first to get the better of Dokes.)

 

Where do you see Louis Carnera fitting into this picture?

 

You mean with respect to Joe's jab? He decked Primo the first two times with a right, the final time with a hook. (Actually, it could be claimed that Carnera killed Schaaf with his jab, but we know it was an attack of influenza which produced meningitis induced swelling of the brain that sent him to the hospital bed from which he stubbornly rose to get himself killed.)