Could Lewis hurt Holmes ? I think the answer is YES. Was the Holmes that fought tyson PRIME Holmes ? NO. Holmes was way faster and way more AGILE in his PRIME. I think the truth that Larry was so damned good after his PRIME really mixes alot of the younger boxing fans up. His technique and ring experience was so good he could win fights well beyond his prime. The very first few rounds with Tyson we see HOW GOOD Holmes COULD have been against Tyson in his prime. Holmes in that fight created a BLUEPRINT of one method to beat a PRIME Tyson dispite getting blasted out a few rounds later as in my opinion Holmes REFLEXEs and AGILITY were NOT what they once used to be at that point. That said i am not saying a PRIME Holmes would of beaten Tyson, simply that Prime Holmes was superiour to the Holmes that fought Tyson. Regardless, i still have to take a PRIME LEWIS. Lewis did so well for a REASON. For a GIANT of a HEAVYWEIGHT Lewis was athletically very SOUND. Would be a HARD fight for Lewis for sure. Lewis in my OPINION would hurt Holmes but would have HUGE TROUBLE finishing him and would be in his greatest danger trying to finish Holmes and why? Because of Holmes ability to FIGHT WELL when hurt and recover witch was something special. Thus if Lewis gases without taking Holmes out i see Holmes having a good chance to beat Lewis by decision. If Lewis however, comes with this in mind IMO i see Lewis winning a hard fought decision against Holmes while hurting Holmes a few times and winning via far more big power shots even if Lewis looses a good few rounds here and there with LESS activity.
mccall said also that bert cooper did hit harder than tyson so i suppose that you will agree with it too.:hi:
lewis would beat holmes by decision or late tko. holmes was fighting for his life against spoon please... lewis was bigger,stronger,harder puncher , he had better skill than spoon, he was more aggressive, and holmes did not have the power enough to knock lewis out with a lucky punch... lewis was better h2h.
McCall is one of the few fighters I'd trust the word of, regarding whom he thinks hit him the hardest, since he's never even come close to going down.
Even that era of Larry is vulnerable. Were you alive and following the sport when the Weaver fight took place? He was such an underdog, the bout couldn't be televised. You couldn't even place a bet on the bout. That's how big of a mismatch the fight was considered to be. Weaver had been stopped by both Bobicks and a few other guy's. But going into that bout, it was supposed to be as competitive as the Zanon fight. 79 also saw Larry climbing off the deck against an opponent he flat out dominated previously. So the guy's in that 79-80 timeframe Larry did look good against was not stellar competition. Nobody thought much of Evangelista. It was hard to believe the guy was getting another title shot. Zanon was even worse than that somehow and and was coming off a ko loss to a retired Jerry Quarry. Occasio was a novice small heavy whose credentials were based solely on the Young upset. And even that wasn't exactly a Foreman-Frazier result to secure a title bout. Then you throw in Berbick, who was coming in after a 1 round blowout loss to Mercado. Old Ali who had been beaten by Leon Spinks and then had to go 15 to beat a Leon Spinks in a rematch. So maybe those were Larry's best years, but that is certainly no minefield he's walking through as far as opposition goes. It doesn't get any easier. Not really much of a gauge in the quality of opposition department to determine a fighter's greatness when you look closely at it.
I'd say Cooper was a hell of a banger. Big time power for sure. Lennox and Tyson were better at landing their shots though, and with more precision.
Don't know about the guts and heart part. I thought Lewis showed that in spaded in his fight with Vitali. Even against Mercer he was forced to fight and again showed plenty of heart.