What if Holmes defeated Formean or Frazier in the 1970's?

Holmes may have had a better chance at beating Foreman but the knife cuts both ways and Foreman could stop Larry early as well. I can not see Larry beating the FOTC Frazier in fact Frazier stops him IMO....Larry failed to fight the best in his era and held on to a split title and avoided too many to his convenience, even gave up a title not to fight Page.

I see the same guys that crucify Dempsey for not fighting Wills and Greb give Larry a large pass and a high rating for not fighting the best in his era or unifying and never giving a rematch to a hard fight. Tate,Weaver,Page,Dokes,Coetzee,Thomas,Witherspoon,Williams,Norton....

too many avoidances and his best opponents timing wise were Gerry Cooney, (only fought 8 rounds) Earnie Shavers ( already lost everyone including Bob Stallings,Quarry,Lyle,Stander,Johnson,etc.) Norton (tail end)

What would make you think Holmes would fight them unless he had to for the title, based off who he avoided and who he fought I would have to say he loses to both or would find a way not to fight them if it was for his title.

History repeats itself.

 

This is how i see it; Holmes beats Frazier, Foreman, AND Clay if they fight 77 - early 80's. Foreman definitely wins if they fight 87 onward. Frazier likely wins pre-Manilla the majority of the time. I see 1976 as the wild card year between all 4 of them.

 

If someone starts a thread on Holmes buying a new car, you'll appear out of nowhere to regurgitate this same stuff all over again.

 

I currently have him five or six. The wins you describe would move him to 3.


As a curious matter of fact, a relatively green Larry Holmes did fight on the undercard of the Foreman-Young fight that night in 1977. His opponent was one Horace Robinson (5-2-0). At the time, Larry was an unheard-of former sparring partner of Muhammad Ali. Had he faced Foreman instead of Robinson that evening, he would almost certainly have been defeated. This might have prevented him from meeting Norton the following year for the title.

And Joe had already retired by that time. His time was past, he'd been beaten twice by Ali and twice by Foreman so any win there would have counted for little.

Besides, as I mentioned, Joe had retired.

 

Always amazed at how all the Holmes fans overlook an era where

1) a split title champion never unified,

2) gave up a title not to defend against Greg Page

3) never,NEVER defended a tough or disputed fight,or rematch a disputed fight,Norton,Witherspoon,Williams

4) would not unify title vs 6 men in his era Tate,Coetzee,Thomas,Dokes,Weaver,Page

I thought that Holmes may have been the best of his era but that is a guess because avoided certain styles and fought many weak contenders with 10, 13, 14, 15 fights

I suffered through the many fights that were not made in the era

I like Larry but cant put the blinders on for this

 

I have to agree with much of this. And I scored their fight to Witherspoon.

And I thinlk Larry was a ****.

(Admittedly, he's become less of a **** as he ages. )

All that said, I have him five or six alltime. He shares that distinction with Rocky.

 

Larry would have beaten Foreman in the 1970s.

 

in 1973-77 foreman would have destroyed him, plain and simple, holmes was very green at this time, so not, holmes would have not beaten foreman in the 70s, actually old foreman 90-91 was better than old holmes too. the only debate would have been 1980 holmes vs foreman 73-74

 

I definitely agree with your first point. Holmes would n't have been ready to beat Foreman until after his first fight with Earnie Shavers in early '78.