Is Larry Holmes a consensus top ten heavyweight?

Holmes makes my top 10 as well. Sometimes he's higher (top 10), sometimes he's lower (top 10). What plays a role is there have been a number of guys since Holmes retired who you could argue also belong in the top 10 - like Lewis, Tyson, Holyfield and Wlad - which makes the top 10 harder to crack or remain in year by year. And there's a strong crop of fighters active now and coming up who could possibly contribute one or two further additions (depending on how their careers pan out).

 

5-6

Depends, as always, on criteria, what you emphasize.

It would be a bit of a stretch to have him outside the top ten, though.

 

Great point.

I think developing a criteria for how to rank certain achievements & being consistent with it is crucial to maintaining sanity through the process. The achievements among the top guys tend to be, by their nature, unique or rare to come by. And that cutoff can start around 20 or so, not 10. To top that off, there's no set way on how to weigh a particular accomplishment.

How those accomplishments get divvied up is all individual preference, but a ranker can drive themselves crazy if they don't rank somewhat consistently to their own guidelines.

 

Definetly.

 

Holmes beat Nielsen at least 8 rounds to 4. Also, McCall was coming off his KO 2 over Lewis. I for some reason watched this fight somewhat recently - I even posted it in the what fights did you watch thread - and scored it 115-113 for McCall. Close fight. I don't think those two fights should be knocks on Holmes when asking if he is a top 10 great.

My answer, yes, he's a top ten great.

 

Definitely in top 10 and in terms of matchup the only ones that I would not feel that confident in picking him against would be Lewis, Tyson, Ali and maybe Wlad.

 

I could see a prime Frazier beating Holmes in a 15 round fight