Holmes's comp... How highly do you rate it?

It's funny. I remember comparing Holmes, Tyson and Lewis resume a few years back and found the majority of Tyson's best opponents had blemishes from Holmes on their record and the same was true for Lewis and Tyson, make of that what you will.

Even if some of Larry's best wins where over past prime or very green fighters and missing out on a few fights during his title reign, I'd still say top 10. 1 man you could argue with a better resume, which may or may not surprise you is Langford. Obviously Holmes performed slightly better, but Langford fought virtually everyone of significance at heavyweight in his era.

 

Meh. H2H his resume is probably the best up until Frazier's/Ali's but historically it's pretty awful. Too many nobodies, too many notable challengers ignored, and didn't rematch close fights. He has those excellent singular wins though and his comeback IMO was better than Foremans.

Certainly not the worst out of the superstar heavyweights though.

 

Worse than Wlads

 

8/10

 

:deal

 

I was neither the best nor the worst. middle of the road to average.

 

Middle of the road in terms of quality ( Better than Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, ) and excellent in terms of longevity.

Witherspoon and Norton are excellent wins. I view them as all time top 25 heavyweights in a head to head sense.

Mercer, Shavers, Smith and ****ey are very good wins.

 

Berbick and Weaver should probably be added to that list. While neither had much name recognition at the time they were starting to come into their own.

 

Let's see, how was his competition?

Holmes faced Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers (twice), Ray Mercer, Mike Weaver (twice), Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks (twice), Tim Witherspoon, Gerry ****ey, Bonecrusher Smith (twice), Oliver McCall, Trevor Berbick ... a dozen or so heavyweight champs ... five hall of famers ... two of the biggest punchers to never win the heavyweight title.

Pretty good.

 

How many opponents has Wlad faced who will be elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame?

Holmes has faced five.

Wlad has faced, um, there's ... um.

Oh well, maybe he'll fight five future Hall of Famers in his next five fights.:good

 

I hope you're not including Muhammad Ali in that list and for obvious reasons.

 

Muhammad Ali isn't in the Hall of Fame?atsch

Of course I am including him. When Holmes faced Ali, Ali was 38 years old, he was the reigning lineal champ, and he'd beaten everyone he'd faced as a pro (having avenged all three of his losses).

When the bell rang, that was a pick 'em fight.

If Holmes refused to face Ali, he'd have become a footnote and the championship would've followed the WBA lineage .. not Holmes.

Of course Ali's on there.

 

I wasn't alluding to weather he was or wasn't in the hall of fame.. Rather the fact that he was approaching 40, retired for two years, in miserable shape and a shell of his former self. Its fine to say that Holmes beat one of the greatest fighters of all time. But to actually use THAT version of the man as a building block to argue that Holmes beat better comp than another champion is misleading.

 

How many of those five did he beat ?