Larry Holmes is the greatest HW of all time

He won the second

 

What's your opinion of the Witherspoon fight? Was he not a little vulnerable to the right hand? I'm not getting the Buster Douglas analogy. They fought rather differently, to a different rhythm.

 

Borderline top ten.

 

He clearly lost the first Spinks fight, but clearly won the rematch.

 

He's very similar to Douglas. Movement, busy jab, speed. Very, very similar in styles.

 

Here's another fun filled fact, Larry Holmes did twice what Mike Tyson couldn't do once...stop James 'Bonecrusher' Smith.

 

:deal. In terms of h2h I think he may just well beat the most heavyweights that weren't great, like it's already been mentioned, possibly the most well rounded heavyweight of all time, but I just don't see him being able to overcome stylistic problems easily at all. When you start throwing the likes of Tyson, Lewis, Louis, Ali, Marciano etc against him, I dont think he does half as good as most expect him to do.

 

Nope

 

I'm sure Holmes still holds the record of 9 consecutive stoppages as heavyweight champion.

 

Maybe because Louis trumps Holmes in his two best categories. Dominance it isn't even a question, Louis beat virtually everyone in his era and the majority of the time it was by KO for what it's worth and had more consecutive title defences. Even if you want to argue that it wasn't Holmes fault for not unifying (he had the chance, but took the extra money) you can't give him any credit for that, only discredit him less.

Also if you want to get into H2H I think Louis may well beat Holmes in a H2H match up.

 

No, but he is in top 10.

 

:huh:huh:huh

What does your top ten look like?

 

Is this fact?

Bert Sugar got Lewis just inside the top 20?



I'm torn between saying what I really feel and not wanting to offend since he's dead.

I get really ****ing emotional whenever Lennox gets unfairly treated.

I hate Bert Sugar now.

 

Maybe it's the fairest to rank the heavyweights based on the ranked opponents they beat.
You can only beat the men that were avaible then.

Marciano, Louis and Ali are all extremely close then.
Ali would maybe even be third if you take away some wins that are regarded as robberies.

But ratings do get strange then, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore would be top 10 heavyweights

Oh well, no kind of rating is perfect

 

Rating fighters by their ranked oponents does produce some strange results.

Louis and Ali are obviously in a class by themselves, with Larry Holmes as a clear third.

Jack Sharkey of all people is surprisingly high.