What if holmes got spinks 2 and fought tyson in feb 1987

Larry Holmes gets the rematch victory over michael spunks

The money hungry holmes is told by don king he stands to make a packet on a retirement fight with tyson but don tells holmes lose th3 spare tyre get in shape cos this young lion will murder you...and take a high profile warm up to look good again restore some prestige after losing the 0.....

Don decides theres no point in larry fighting retreads berbick,witherspoon,williams,bey ,smith or doin a rubber with spinks...

So don has a choice of
Young tyrell biggs gold medalist
Gerry Cooney
Mike weaver

Who would u have holmes fight in a warm up...and how do u assume that and the tyson fight go if larry comes in at 218 lbs in shape and active?

 

A rematch with Cooney
Holmes wins ko 8
Rematch with Weaver .
Holmes wins ko 10 .
He then meet s Tyson .
The fight would go slightly similar to there 88 meet but Holmes more successful with the jab and he'd survive longer . The end result
Tyson w ko 7

 

Perhaps.

Weaver was at a win one lose one type run. It'd be tough to sell. Maybe Gentleman Gerry. Then a soft touch like a duplooy or someone of that ilk or caliber. then a disaster against Tyson. Holmes never did mention anything about wanting a rematch with that guy, did he?

 

Tyson obliterates him

 

Tyson by brutal early rounds KO - just like in real life.

I don't subscribe to the theory Holmes only lost because of rust.

 

Larry lasts a round or two longer and actually lands the right a few times. I987 was still four years into Larry's decline, I can't see him taking it (and he's my favorite fighter).

Spin it back to 1980 and Tyson either gets TKO'd or quits by whatever means in 10.

 

So Tyson at 15 years old would last 10 rounds with prime Holmes. Not sure if this is an insult or compliment

 

You knew what I meant.

 

"The money hungry Holmes"? Poor Don King must have disgusted to have to deal with such a shallow guy.

So I guess Tyson beats him in similar fashion. It was his time. JMO but Holmes besides being past his prime was also maybe burnt out from a long title reign. The time he took off recharged him mentally even though he had the extra weight. Pressure was off him and seemed to start having fun.

 

I feel Larry during his comeback was both a better fighter with a remarkably better attitude (and more power in the right) than the one who fought Mike.

 

Well, a heavyweight elimination tournament was going on. So it had to be someone who would agree to compete in the tournament. That may have eliminated Cooney, because he didn't want to enter the tournament. Although he did just score a win over IBF top-10 rated Eddie Gregg in '86.

Mike Weaver lost to Bonecrusher and Razor Ruddock in the spring and summer of 1986, so Weaver wasn't getting a title shot in the fall of '86 against Holmes.

Tyrell Biggs had just nine fights and broke his collarbone against Jeff Sims in March '86, so I don't know if he'd have been offered a title shot. He wasn't rated by anyone at the time, either.

Actually, before Larry Holmes lost to Michael Spinks, his last two fights to get to the magical 50-0 mark were supposed to be against the light heavy champ Spinks (49-0) and the WBC Cruiserweight champ Alfonso Ratliff (to put Holmes at 50-0).

However, Holmes lost to Spinks in their first fight, and Ratliff lost to Carlos DeLeon on the undercard.

So, there's a good chance that if Holmes had gotten the decision in the rematch with Spinks, King would've matched Holmes with the WBC cruiserweight champ next, as was planned earlier, and that would've been Carlos DeLeon (who was like 40-4 at the time). King was DeLeon's promoter.

Razor Ruddock, who had just outpointed Weaver on the Bonecrusher-Bey undercard that summer, would've been a possibility. Holmes sparred with Ruddock to prepare for Spinks.

Ruddock was 13-1-1 at the time. Holmes fought a lot of guys with records like that toward the end of his reign. And Holmes might have been comfortable defending against a guy he'd just been sparring with for his "tuneup" fight.

Where would Holmes be rated if he had wins over Michael Spinks and Razor Ruddock, too? I don't think we'd ever have seen him in the ring in the 90s.

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Doesn't matter Larry's legs were gone and his reflexes and timing were bad. All he had were his Jab and smarts which served him well in his much more serious comeback. His success then shows just how good he was in his prime as he was giving the top men all they could handle.

 

Nothing to do with age either I bet.....

 

Sure, Holmes was long in the tooth in 88. But, this thread posits what would happen in 87. He would still be long in the tooth, but would have a year less inactivity. Some posters have made the spurious claim that Holmes was done in more by inactivity than age against Tyson in 88. They note that an active Holmes was able to beat Ray Mercer in 1992. The elephant in the room is that, of course, 1988 Tyson was just much better than 1992 Ray Mercer. In the post you quoted I mentioned inactivity because I don't think it would matter in this case.

 

Age was the ultimate factor, everything else is window dressing.