The moment Holmes got up on his toes to move around the ring was the moment it all went wrong for him. Even prime Holmes will always invite Mike to cause serious damage inside due to how often he pops out jabs. I think Mike is all wrong for Holmes.
With more dedication we could be talking about Douglas in a totally different way. That night he could stand with anyone ever. His bottle taking it to Tyson was very admirable !
Calling Holmes a "master" of the uppercut is a stretch. If anything, he's better off not throwing it against Tyson.
Basically, Tyson beat a slew of fighters with stylistic similarity to Holmes including an older version of Holmes. Holmes beat nobody like Tyson and showed vulnerability to overhand rights in his absolute prime. It takes an imagination to pick Holmes.
Roberto Duran is always the answer! Job Interviewer: Why do you think we should hire you as a nuclear engineer/chef? Me: Roberto Duran! Job Interviewer: You my friend are hired!!!
I think he was a master of the uppercut. Even the old Holmes landed a very nice uppercut on Tyson. But Tyson walked straight through it. Holmes wasn't a massive power puncher. But a prime Holmes would land plenty of sharp punches and that causes accumulative effect.
It's not a matter of being able to land a punch or not. An uppercut is a short punch meant to be thrown in a quick and crisp motion, but Holmes threw them from his hip and they had a massive arc. If you rewatch the knockdown he suffered against Shavers, this is exactly what he did. Tried throwing an uppercut and left himself wide open.
Williams, Biggs, Thomas, Tillis, Holmes, Spinks, Tucker, Tubbs, to a lesser extent Bruno. I used the term "stylistic similarity" not "Holmes-like" if you're about to twist it. Basically, these guys could all move around ok and shoot out jabs and right hands. Some had good durability like Holmes too (i.e. Thomas, Tucker).