Larry Holmes speaks in The Ring Magazine January 2020 Issue

Larry Holmes was invited as guest editor, and he made a writeup on the current heavyweight landscape. It's pretty insightful and interesting to hear this from one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

"In my day, we would fight anybody at any time, and we were always ready to fight. Today's heavyweights worry too much about who they're fighting, and that's what's wrong. When you're in the top 10, most of your opponents should be in the top 10. In my day, we fought for money, of course, but we also fought for glory.

In terms of skills, most of these guys can't put their punches together. There's hardly anyone at heavyweight using combinations. The guys who are around today are just too big and slow. They need to lose some weight. When I fought for the WBC heavyweight championship of the world (against Ken Norton on June 9, 1978), I was 209 pounds and I could do anything.

Larry Holmes had the jab, the right hand, the combinations, the quickness, the movement - there was no one else out there who could do that. When you talk about the jab, nobody jabbed like me. Muhammad Ali had a good jab and good combinations, but a lot of those combinations were slappy. His jab wasn't like mine. When I hit you with the jab, you know you've been hit with the jab. My jab was like a right hand; it wasn't just a setup. I can't even compare it to other heavyweights' jabs; you've got to look at the little guys. Sugar Ray Leonard could jab in his weight class, Tommy Hearns, but they obviously didn't the power I had. At my best, nobody could beat me. Not only that, but if I did get hit, nobody could take a punch like me.

Anthony Joshua is good, strong, but he doesn't know how to jab. And in that last fight, it didn't look like he could take a punch. It's hard to keep track of what's going on on at heavyweight these days. Everyone thought Andy Ruiz couldn't fightbecause he's heavy, but that was probably an illusuion. When I met Anthony Joshua, I wanted to teach him how to jab, how to mix up the jab, how to follow the jab with a right hand - bing, bing.

Ruiz will be motivated to win this rematch. He'll be just as determined as he was last time, but he'll be even more confident because he's done it already.

Deontay Wilder is a good fighter, a good puncher, tall. He's got the stamina. He's got a lot going for himself. But he's got to keep working on his skills. If you don't work on your game, someone will figure you out. Wilder's got the right hand, and that'll continue to work for him, providing he keeps knocking everyone out. He's doing OK, but whenever he meets anyone who can move who can duck under the big punches that he throws, he's got a problem.

I haven't seen much of Tyson Fury recently, but I hear good things about him. He's good, but he's not fighting anybody right now.

The big problem is there's no one around to teach these guys how to fight. I had Richie Giachetti, Eddie Futch and Ray Arcel around. These guys didn't make me fight better, but they would remind me of things. You would have confidence with guys like that in the corner. "Throw that left hook! Throw that right hand! Keep ypur hands up!" These guys were the best trainers in the world. That's how you learn in boxing. Great trainers are there to remind you what to do at the right time.

If I was around today against these big guys, my thing would be not to let them get close. You've got to be able to move your head, see the punches coming, block them, jab back and get your punches off. If I was aroundtoday, I would be the heavyweight champion of the world for 15 years. I could still handle a lot of these guys when I was 52 years old. Just imagine me at 22, 32 or 42. These guys today wouldn't stand a chance."

This was published before the Ruiz/AJ rematch and before Wilder vs Ortiz 2. The captions next to two pictures (one of young Holmes striking a pose and one of Holmes vs Ali) say "Larry Holmes says today's fighters need to work on becoming complete fighters." and "Heavier isn't better, says Holmes, who weighed 209 when he dethroned Ken Norton and 211 when he beat his idol, Muhammad Ali.", respectively.

 

I agree, but it does seem AJ fixed mistakes and adjusted, while Ruiz lost his hunger

 

Did anyone believe the "I weighed in 15 lbs lighter in the morning" story?