Larry Holmes W 15 Carl Williams 1985

144 to 142 to holmes very close....

 

I dunno, I did not score it, but it seemed Williams landed more shots.

 

Williams. Easy and going away.

Jabs were close to even and any advantage went towards the Truth. Right hands about the same. Huge advantage to the lefthooks of Williams. He landed a ton of them off the jab and didn't do as much of that later on in his career.

But Carl Williams did not have a big following going into the fight. He really hadn't fought that many top fighters and was pretty much on par with other holmes opponents like Bey and Frank and Smith going in. His only advantage was youth.

But it wasn't exactly a case of big $$$ behind a Carl Williams going into the fight, was it? And when it gets down to it boxing is easy--follow the money. Then look at any controversy. How often is the big money getting the short end of the stick?

Williams fought good enough to win, but to win a decision over a long reigning champ, you need some knockdowns or win about 11 of the 15 rounds cleanly to get a split decision victory. He didn't win by that big of a margin.

 

Williams was considered as easy defence because he had only 16 fights and only ONE quality win - over James Tillis. Of course, he was much more proven contender years later with wins over Bert Cooper, Fergusson and Berbick.

I scored it 143-142 for Holmes and could see it scored for Williams.

 

I thought Williams took it handily and was very disappointed. How do you guys think, if Carl had won, a fight between him and Michael Spinks might have gone?

 

The Spinks camp would not have taken the fight. They were not going to fight a youthful tall boxer type. For low pay? They wouldn't fight Tucker. Douglas was another similar type guy back then. They were young and Spinks was the old guy with the tired legs.

What we got instead was Tangstad and an out of retirement Cooney. Not enough to prepare for the juggernaut Tyson.

 

Zadfrak good points about money etc...wiliams won the fight imo...he looked a class act but rarely looked that good again..was susceptible to a left hook...which lead to his demise against weaver and tyson.
Wasnt that big a hitter for a big guy.
Died April last year..cancer.
He had lost his young daughter from leukemia...
He blew all his dough and ended up as a security guard.
He seemed a decent fella...very sad..

 

If Williams had let it all hang out in the 15th round and let his hands go then he wins it...but he didn't. I remember watching that fight and screaming at the tv set for Williams to do something because the fight was his but he chose not to whereas Larry showed more fighting spirit in that round and if nothing else let his right hand fly. That won it for Holmes in my opinion...but it was a close one.

 

144-141 holmes

 

I'd met his trainer Carmen Graziano well before the Holmes fight. They knew that was a style they could deal with. They were confident they could do very well.

So Williams had confidence going into the bout & didn't show it that much against future opponents. But in the first round you saw him beating Larry at his own game. And it was easy to tell it was going to be a tough tough night & it was going to be a Witherspoon type fight all over again.

But that's a faded Holmes in there. Here was Williams dropping those hands after every punch. There was a window there. But Larry just didn't have the reflexes to land. the 79 guy sure would have. But that's deterioration and it sure is a tough sport to remain champ as you deteriorate.

 

Yes. Do you guys thing Holmes had any other gift decisions?

 

I do not think it was a gift decision.

I thought it was very close, but the difference were some body shots Larry landed somewhere in the later rounds that seemed to sap Williams, allowing Holmes to rally and pull it out.

 

Outside Tyson, Tucker, Carl Williams and Douglas were the best of the late 1980s heavyweights. We just did not know it.

 

The Truth had some great skills and was good to watch. The Tillis fight was a good one. He whipped in body shots like he was Ray Robinson.
He would expose a lot of guys if he was around today.