Larry Holmes STILL gets no r-e-s-p-e-c-t...

The greatest damage to his image was his willingness to beat up a helpless Ali.

 

"It was me or him."

Larry Holmes

 

OK .. so you rate him in the mid top ten .. I'd say that's reasonable .. cannot argue with that . There's been many great heavyweights. I have no idea who was #1 all time head to head .. too many styles and match ups ..

 

What was he supposed to do, take a dive?

That whole thing was / is stupid. Ali is to blame for putting himself in there.

 

Ali put himself there, absolutely. Nobody twisted his arm, in fact there were people close to him whom said he was extremely indignant whenever the idea of him cancelling the fight came up. Responsibility where it's due. Holmes defended his title, period, and he loved Ali.

I personally thought Holmes could have stopped Ali beginning in round 8, but he carried him a little. Notice how Larry didn't start up his usual bludgeoning right hand finishing ritual on Ali, he backed off more than once.

 

Holmes was in the worst possible position.

He was fighting a past legend, who was clearly over matched, but it was still a heavyweight title fight.

Whatever he had done, some people would have criticized him!

 

Holmes doesn’t get respect because of the things he said and did during his career. He had a very cold relationship with the boxing media he wasn’t a likable guy, he wasn’t a super exciting fighter, and he fought a lot of questionable opponents during his title reign. Holmes to this day shits on all fighters not named Ali or Gerry Cooney

 

It's not that he wasn't likable .. he was awkward .. he'd try and be funny and charming but he just couldn't pull it off and he got visibly upset over some of the treatment he received .. also the complaining can become a self fulfilling prophecy .. that said, it turned out pretty ok for him all and all ...

 

This. Holmes wasn't keen to fight Ali. However Ali thought he still had it, his fans thought he could beat Holmes, and Ali went and talked a tankerload full of crap that got repaid in the ring. There's nobody to blame here, except for Ali himself (and whoever let him step into the ring with Holmes) ... certainly not Holmes who just did his job.

Lest we forget:

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Most people seemed to think Ali would settle Holmes' hash. Listen to the commentators. Listen to the crowd.

Holmes shut them up, that's all.

 

The things Larry said, the prison time Tyson did (and for what he did), the messes Liston got into, Bowe's scary kidnapping...none of those should change how we rate those men as fighters. There have been plenty of great fighters with not-so-great personalities and/or real world wrongdoings.

To me Larry's place in history is assured, there's nothing he could do now to change it (well, if he went out and beat, say, Tyson Fury I imagine things would change lol!). We can debate his greatness all we want, the cold hard reality is in the tapes.

That's why I try not to get too defensive over my favorite fighter. Larry doesn't need anyone to defend him, anyone whom places him out of the top ten already gets flak for that (and not just here).

He was a great fighter and one of the elite-greatest heavyweight champions.

He might have been the greatest heavyweight since Ali. I respect and often sympathize with people whom don't like that idea, however the arguments for are strong enough on their own and don't need me to wield a sycophantic shield to reinforce them.

 

And his trainers, management, and ultimately his family. Holmes did what he was supposed to do , and that was show
the world Ali was finished. He really didn't attempt to hurt Ali but he did enough to win the fight convincingly as he should've. And really Ali should've retired after Manila, and no later than the 2nd Spinks fight. But he had so many people around him that only saw dollar signs. And wasn't concerned with his overall health.

 

I have an ongoing series on Holmes on the Hannibal Boxing website, covering his title reign fight by fight. I post the links here, but they sometimes get removed by mods.

If anyone is interested, check out Hannibal Boxing.

Holmes, in many ways, is a fascinating figure.

 

Larry definitely carried Ali, who looked ready to go in the 8th right up to the end. At a couple of points it was obvious only a couple of more flush right hands would have been the end and Larry apparently chose not to do that (he would make the same judgement after the first Cooney knockdown, though I doubt Larry carried him).

 

I guess I'm most weirded out when Larry talks these days about being under-recognized. All he has to do is come here and know the truth. He doesn't have grounds for his pique anymore.

The Easton Assassin is THE MAN!