Jack Dempsey vs Larry Holmes????

i think dempsey could catch holmes with a shavers shot with holmes' spotty defense. if he hurts holmes bad its all over from there. dempsey by ko8

 

Much as I rate Dempsey , Holmes would be a ***** to beat. Excellent jab and chin with decent power. But.. If he could catch Larry with a lightning fast cross and drop him as shavers did.. Then he has a chance. Holmes had great recovery powers and survived shavers and snipes, but jack would test that recovery to the max. If he did hurt Holmes he'd be all over his man. Money on Holmes but I'd be rooting for Jack.

 

Tough fight .

 

Holmes has the right stuff to beat Dempsey.

Great chin, excellent Jab and superb recuperative powers. Dempsey would push Holmes to the limit though. I don't see the lighter hitting Holmes knocking Jack out. I do see Holmes holding on the inside, keeping range with his solid movement and defense.

Holmes would be in a battle for his life, but he just takes this on points.

Holmes UD

 

I don't think Holmes would lose more than 2 rounds over the 11 or 12 it would take for him to top Jack. He wears Jack down with his jab and stinging rights and beats Jack in the clinches where Holmes was surprisingly strong. Too much skill, speed, footwork and the perfect foil to Dempsey's attack.

 

I'll say this, Holmes is a nightmare for anybody,the best jab of the lot imo, excellent, accurate right hand ,terrific uppercut,fantastic powers of recuperation ,and very big b*lls! Dempsey is my man, but Larry is a top5 heavyweight in his own right imo.

 

Interesting, McVey. My dad (long deceased) thought Dempsey and Holmes were the best ever among heavyweights. Ali and Louis right there in the discussion. It'd be very interesting (to me) to find out if nostalgia or reasoning would win out in dad's mind. Those childhood heroes are tough to pick against!

 

Dempsey by KO in three. He would be all over Larry, in and out, bobbing and weaving, throwing lethal punches, until the ko after a couple of knockdowns.

 

I rate Holmes highly but I do so I believe because I watched nearly every bout of his career in real time. Larry had a great jab but he was so confident of that jab, so sure it could not be effectively countered that he dropped it every time he threw it. Dempsey as a prime ATG fighter would capitalize upon this defect with his own blistering right hand. My pick would be Dempsey by KO within 7 rounds.

 

Can we talk about Dempsey's "defects" or do those merely not exist? Squaring up, low right hand, pacing...

What happened to this supposed dynamo when, smack dab in the middle of his prime, he went 12 and got hurt against a Brennan who had already been mastered by Miske and Greb?

What can possibly can be applicable to Holmes as an opponent in analyzing no hope heavies like Gibbons and Carpentier or, god forbid, Firpo. The one who at least brings some of Holmes' ability to the table, in a smaller and less talented package, is Tunney.

 

Holmes isn't fast enough to keep away from Dempsey.

Dempsey KO 2

 

Dempsey squared up when he was on the inside or beating the living **** out of opponents who were on **** creek. That wasn't his normal fighting stance.

Larry Holmes kept his right hand low, what about that? I'm positive that Dempsey's left hook is better than Holmes's.

Dempsey had a fast pace for the first rd or 2 but he was more than capable of adjusting. Look at the Gibbons fight. Pacing wasn't a problem at all for Dempsey.

Have you even seen how "hurt" Dempsey was? Dempsey was in complete control the rest of the fight. Must not have been that hurt because the rd by rd account of the fight barely shaded the rd to Brennan and didn't even mention that Dempsey was hurt.

The only fighter that fought in a bobbing and weaving fast pace that Holmes fought was Tyson. Holmes got utterly destroyed. We have like 6 Dempsey fights on film almost if not all are partial. We have more than enough Holmes fights on film. Easy to say that Dempsey never fought anyone like Holmes when we haven't even seen a quarter of Dempsey's fights.

 

Tunney was the far more talented fighter than Holmes.

A sign of all time greatness is the ability to win in tough fights. You could not deter Prime Dempsey for long.

Holmes may land on Dempsey but what will really count is when Dempsey lands on Holmes. Dempsey is the KO puncher.

 

I think by default people should clearly bifurcate their answers between what is most likely to happen (in their judgment) followed by an alternative devil's advocate hypothesis -unless they're willing to aver the answer really *is* that obvious, which it sometimes is.

Dempsey is far superior to Shavers in every respect except raw one-shot power, and has faster footwork and is better at closing distance than Tyson (yes I said it) so it is far from inconceivable that a fortuitous shot may be sufficient to trigger the avalanche of an early or mid-rounds knockout win for Jack.

But that's my alternative hypothesis. Something like what McVey adumbrated seems more likely to me, by about 4-1.

Incidentally I have Holmes at #3 of all time, behind Ali and Louis. Yeah it's banal, but some banalities are banal for good reason.