How good/bad were Holmes's title challengers?

I would have to say that his reign sells itself more on depth and longevity, than the quality of the contenders who were around at the time.

 

Slightly less than average overall for title fights.

There were few very good opponents though. He defended his title against former/future titlists Spinks, Berbick, Wiherspoon, Smith, and of course, great Muhammad Ali.

That's 5 of his 20 defences. And there were also ****ey , Carl Williams, Ernie Shavers

 

Were Ali's challengers much better ?

Apart from a 1975 past-prime Joe Frazier and a 1976 Ken Norton (who Ali didn't even beat really), I can't see any reason to say Ali's challengers were better.

 

most average, several (Shavers, Weaver, Williams, Witherspoon, and Spinks), pretty good.

 

They were decent, the problem was, after he beat ****ey in his money fight there was always someone better than the people he defended against.

 

Holmes did seem to choose a lot of green/novice fighters, get them before they developed and learned too much.
But that strategy often backfired because a few of those young undefeated c0cky fighters came to fight and gave him hell.
Witherspoon and Williams most notably.

 

He beat some challengers who were legitimately good heavyweights and others who were pretty mediocre.

 

He beat a poorish to average to good bunch up until after ****ey. Some turned out to be decent wins with hindsight e.g. Berbick, Witherspoon, Weaver. 2 or 3 stronger choices when winding down would have rounded them out better for him.

It's a shame he didn't have a Liston, Frazier or a Foreman as he would be a good chance against anyone ever. Would have been interesting to see how high he could rise vs another ATG. Bloody good fighter.

 

A bunch of them would have been tough outs for quite a few ATGs...underrated group.

 

Holmes biggest problem is that he followed Ali ( and beat him badly ), and was very consistent in the ring. When you win as easily as Holmes did people tend to underestimates his opponents.

While Holmes didn't face a man on Foreman's or Frazier's level, he beat a good collection of fighters in Norton, Witherspoon, Shavers, Weaver, C00ney, and Smith. If the scorecards were fair, add Mike Spinks to the list in the 2nd fight.

Holmes also fought some decent tier two types in Snipes, Berbick, and Williams.

So that's ten title fights that range from very good to good opponents.

Like any long-tenured champion, Holmes fought his share of easy marks in LeDoux, Rodriguez, Leon Spinks, those types...but he easily outclassed them.

I have said before if Holmes fought Foreman instead of Jimmy Young and beaten him, he's be universally accepted as a top 4 ATG at heavy.

I have Holmes in my top 3. He had perhaps the least amount of weaknesses on any lineal champion, and most would not go 48-0 vs the same competition Holmes faced.

 

They ran the gamut from pretty excellent to completely unworthy.

 

I think Tim Witherspoon and Mike Weaver would have been tough opponents on the right night for some greats.

 

Average overall. Lots of Lorenzo Zanon/Alfredo Evangelista level opponents in there. Even his biggest opponents, Norton and C00ney were hardly all-time greats, and Ali was completely shot. It was quite fortunate for his legacy that the likes of Mike Weaver, Tim Witherspoon and Bonecrusher Smith went on to have successful careers and win titles because none was seen as anything special when he fought them.