Do you hold it against Larry Holmes for not fighting Greg Page

Not just Page. He strategically dumped the WBC title so he wouldn't have to face King's best heavys and could fight for other promoters. It was a smart move financially. Larry is not a dumb guy. I do think it hurt his legacy among hardcore fans like us.

 

Not at all. Those wba guys couldn't get their acts together. They either were inconsistent, didn't train properly, or had drug problems, and none of them particularly garnered any momentum or public demand for a shot. Plus Holmes beat guys like weaver, berbick, witherspoon and smith, who either became champions or beat past champions.

 

Yeah, though not as much as 2 years ago. Page had as much to do with it, in many ways, as did Holmes.

 

:rofl:huh!

 

Not at all. Larry is from my home state so I always routed for him. However he tried to pad his record to beat Marciano. He would have beaten Page anyway. Witherspoon, Frazier and Spinks were supposed to be easy fights for him to win.

 

This is a sane way to look at it.

BTW I got the second volume of your Jack Johnson biography "The Reign" today, it looks tremendous, absolutely crammed choc full with facts and photos.I cant wait to get right into it!:good

 

no i dont hold it his fault ...if page didnt loose to berbick he woulda gotten a title shot .....if page didnt loose to bey he woulda gotten a tiltle shot ....page had 2 chances ad he blew it on don king undercards to larry holmes

 

Yes, but our relations are slowly improving.

 

So basically the thread is asking if Holmes should be penalised for having the fortitude to tell King the parasite to fuk off.

Answer.

NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST.

 

At the time marvis Frazier was a bigger payday. Holmes regarded Page as a better challenge than Marvis. Perhaps Holmes thought if page could win that vacated title it would make Larry the super fight payday he thought a Page challenge deserved?

The end result was Page messed that up losing to Witherspoon.

I think Page was a better contender about the time Holmes fought co0ney and Ali anyway. No way Larry could have turned down big fights like Ali and C00ney to meet Page.

I still think Page was the best guy Larry could have fought but didn't. Coetzee too. I am not sure they were ducks in the Harry Wills sense though.

Larry should have got WBA recognition right after Ali retired rather than them making Tate v Coetzee for their strap. I have never understood that.

The WBC broke with the WBA over Spinks not facing Norton. The WBA could have gotten credibility out of saying "we stayed with Spinks, Ali won the title back but once Ali retired this man Coetzee breat the champ we stood by". Coetzee should have challenged Holmes then. Bringing Tate into it was silly.

Tate was contender material but not Automatic title shot material. Gerrie was automatic title shot material as soon as he beat Spinks.

 

I don't blame Holmes. I blame Don King and the sanctioning bodies.

 

:good Larry was the guy I thought would fight the best but he did not, In fact there are just too many he avoided, did not unify and never rematched. We can not mention Dempsey-Wills if we do not use that same measuring stick against Larry.

I lived the era and was very disappointed, a lot had to do with Kings navigation and manipulation but there come a time when Larry is accountable. If we can blame Larry's transgressions on King then why not Blame Dempsey-Wills on Rickard

double-standard?

 

What about pinklon thomas?

 

I think Thomas was out with an eye problem he got sparring with Ken Lacusta. When it wasn't an eye problem it was a drug relapse or music engagement.

Holmes fought Bonecrusher just weeks after Thomas won the Wbc title. On the same bill as Holmes v Smith, Mike Weaver was knocked out by Tony Anthony.

Ten months elapsed in the time between Thomas v Witherspoon and Thomas v Weaver. In that time Larry beat Smith, Bey and WIlliams. So by the time Thomas was ready to fight after winning the WBC strap the Holmes v Spinks fight was already under negotiations.

By the time Pinklon was ready to fight again Holmes had fought Spinks twice and was an ex champ.