To win Lewis needs to press and make a fight of it, throw his weight around in clinches and rough Larry up on the inside with his holding and hitting tactics. If he gets in a technical boxing jab match with Holmes he will lose.
I wonder how much of this opinion is based of the fact that Holmes is your hero and favorite fighter. There is nothing out there to suggest that Holmes was the "hands down better fighter". Both men had their strengths and weaknesses and would match up quite evenly.
I pick Lewis. My reasoning is that Holmes had close fights or losses to Williams, Spoon, and Spinks (and arguably ducked Pink). Sure, he may have been past his best for those fights, but Lewis was also a better fighter than all of them.
I"d pick Holmes, closely, but at the same time, he never fought anyone with the size/skill/power combination that Lewis had. Larry would have to be at his absolute best to win.
Lewis by stoppage, Larry was hurt and finished vs spoon, Lewis did everything better than spoon plus Holmes did not have the power to score a Lucky ko with a lucky punch, Lewis would hurt the peanut badly
Vintage Holmes by UD,in a good,tough fight. I choose Homes because of his sterling jab ( best ever among the heavies) superior footwork (lateral movement). And overall ring generalship. He,d snap that piston like jab into Lewis face,mix in enough sharp right hands and uppercuts and establish a safe distance between Lewis and himself. if Lewis could get to his chin ( a true possibility) Holmes could weather the storm and climb off the deck when he needed too...I,m not talking about the older version of Holmes,( Spoon, Williams etc). But,`78`-`82` version,who could go a hard 15 rds.
I have been watching a lot of Holmes fights and I am convinced that he would outspeed Lewis. I think he would fight him like he fought Cooney(I realise Lewis is better than Cooney) ; plenty of movement and making Lewis lead and using counters. Both had good jabs but Larry's was more consistent. Speed and stamina would win it for Larry, in my opinion.
I like the way you think ! I also feel Holmes jab was faster and had more snap on it,so he would beat Lewis to the punch with it ...
The more I watch Holmes, the better he gets. Even in his 30's he was very quick. He must be rated with the best, surely? I think he would have tough moments with big Lennox, for sure, but he would come through them to win on points.
Larry on points. Considering Lewis was known for his jab, he couldn't handle jabbers himself. Even Frank Bruno with his ponderous jab was able to outjab Lewis, although, to be fair to Lewis, it was the reckless & Right hand happy Lewis of 1993 & not the more cultured & cautious Lewis of 1995 onwards. Larry Holmes had one of the best jabs in HW; in fact, in boxing history & he used to control fights with that jab. I just can't envisage Lewis being able to deal with that jab.
Holmes fought spoon in 1983 he was close tohis absolute PEAK in 1982, stop making bad excuses, the fight would have been similar with 82 Holmes, and Lewis was much better and powerfULL than spoon
Holmes struggled against good jabs as well. Witherspoon, Norton and Spinks all gave him trouble and Lewis's jab was as good or better than theirs. Personally, I feel however this fight would be resolved it wasn't going to be decided by either man's jab.