Larry Holmes: Klitschko has no jab, no heart and would be beaten by Wilder or Stivern

So true.

 

Let's just say I'm surprised at how willing people are to listen to Holmes but not to Mike Tyson, the noted boxing historian.

I'll leave it at that.

 

No worries :good

I actually think Spinks tends to get sold a bit short. I do think Holmes underestimated him in the first fight and narrowly won the rematch, but it's not fair to just write off Spinks for surpassing expectations. Even if Holmes wasn't prime, Mike was a significantly smaller fighter- essentially, a Cruiserweight fighting a slightly faded, but still damn good Hall of Famer. People still had minimal faith he'd do as well as he did.

I wish we had another 5 fights of Spinks at HW to gauge him by. The sample size isn't there for me to really gauge how he'd handle having a multitude of fights against rated fighters at Heavyweight today.

 

That's just circumstances.

Wlad had trouble in the late 90's/early 00's, when he was in his 20's.

Although he's been undefeated for the past ten years, he hasn't shown me that he could have gone undefeated for as long in other eras.

 

Douglas didn't beat a prime Tyson.

People only say that because of his age.

His life was a chaotic mess when he fought in Tokyo, and Douglas had a will of iron that night, due to the sad passing of his mother.

A fit, focused version of Mike, fighting to his full capabilities, where he was still willing to learn and better himself, was a different guy to the one that fought Douglas.

Again, if you're going to be objective, look at each fighter whilst they were at their best.

Otherwise we'll look at Tyson vs the Purrity/Sanders versions of Wlad.

The weight difference could have been overcome by speed, power, shot variation and angles etc.

There's no reason why Mike fighting to his full capabilities, couldn't have beaten Wlad.

 

:good

 

I think people are thinking of the old,fat Holmes who could not pull the trigger in the Spinks fights.

We are talking prime Holmes, 1978-1980.

Also people are selling Holmes a bit short here.Holmes is widely recognized as a Top 5 ATG.

Wlad s fighting in a very weak heavweight rea.There are no Nortons, Alis, Shavers, Witherspoons, Spinks around.

 

Great post!

I respect your opinions.

I agree that five fights isn't a lot to judge him on.

But they're enough to tell me that he wouldn't be hammered by all of today's guys.

:good

 

:good

 

WHO cares about the klits..WIlder has arrived and heavyweight boxing is interesting Again after 10 dark years...

 

vits was fun to watch, at least before his comeback. he liked to get stuck in.

but yeah wlad was only ever fun when very young, or when he was getting the **** kicked out of him by multiple journeymen.

 

Larry clearly beat Spinks in the rematch.

 

Lederman scored for Holmes by 4 points.

At the time, I think they wanted to get rid of Larry.Politics.