Prime Larry Holmes vs Mike Tyson

Holmes won but he struggled greatly against a man who is recognized as being significantly inferior to a prime Tyson, with the exception of punching power and even there, Tyson is arguably a match for him.

 

Bonecrusher Smith is another good example. Prime Tyson, thought deserving of the decision in no way won an impressive decision. Larry (not prime), dominated him.

 

Mike was without question both as strong a puncher as Mike...and a much lesser fighter overall.

But I liked Mike, he was the underdog for a lot of his career and hey, he beat a very highly groomed and touted, undefeated John Tate and an at the time MORE than worthy contender in Coetzee (future, champ, too). He just had major concentration issues...not a problem with prime Iron Mike.

 

Larry did look pretty darn great beating Bonecrusher, most especially considering how far past his prime he was. David Bey too. But fights against Lucien Rodriguez and Carl Williams exposed how far he'd come down from the guy who made undefeated top contender Leroy Jones into a swoll up, staggering stumble-bum.

Larry would have wiped the floor with Williams and Rodriguez and his prime. Michael Spinks wouldn't have made it out of the 8th round.

 

Weaver was actually REALLY GOOD. He had a ATG jab and wicked body punching, he just didn't utilize them.

 

Well, Mike had a really hard time staying with the program. At times he appeared to be sleepwalking (it took him forever to wake up against Coetzee and Tate, granted he mule-kicked the heck out of them when he did). Watch the Tillis fight...where was Weaver? Tillis was probably in his prime and really was a decent fighter (hey, he gave a hot young Iron Mike the full term AFTER his prime). But Weaver should have conked him out, or at least done SOMETHING other than look like a zombie for most of that fight.

I have to give something else to Weaver as well: I thought he soundly beat Dokes in that second fight...in other words, he got robbed twice against that clown (no offense to Dokes fans, never thought much of him myself).

 

you're right. Mike never had his head in the fight vs. Ruddock or Lewis either. Mike was best when hurt/ behind. Holmes I, Pinklon Thomas, Truth Williams were fights he excelled in as well, even though he lost the 1st 2.

 

And what did I already say. Ever have the flu? Is so then imagine fighting someone. How good do you think your gonna look.

 

not like Larry Holmes for sure

 

What?. Simply no mate

 

So first you presented machine readings as fact but now they "can be sketchy"?

I'm extremely dubious Tyson and Shavers were measured on a machine, particularly the same machine. I'm not talking about any Archie Moore creation of course. I'd be very keep to see this list with Tyson and Shavers and these guys between them.

Shavers probably did hit harder yes. Earnie hit like a mule. He wasn't however a fraction of the fighter Tyson was and usually swung from the fences where as Tyson was much more compact.

I'd be wary of calling some of the forum "psychos running wild" from that sort of platform.

Firstly thank you for the enlightening. I've definitely seen some things I've never come across in all my years. I also think you are still short of "two dozen".

I'm particularly keen to explore the bolded, underlined and enlarged sentence so as to be enlightened some more.

Out of the below names (chosen from your list) i'd be keen to know the best examples in which they were "down, cut badly, or behind on points and come back".

Sonny Liston
Oscar Bonavena
Jimmy Young
Oliver McCall
Ray Mercer
Eddie Machen
Pinklon Thomas
Tim Witherspoon

I'd also be keen to know how many of the 22 named you think would beat Tyson.

 

Do you actually watch these fights?

Bonecrusher fought so negatively he was penalized twice for excessive holding. He didn't come to win he came to survive. Bonecrusher won but a single round at best. He only gave Tyson pause in the last round when being not far from home he mustered up the courage to let something go.

Without ever looking like winning he landed some big blows on Holmes and was put forth a spirited effort even is he was outclassed.

If he wouldn't have been so scared of Tyson and let himself go like he did against Larry it's hugely unlikely he would have survived.

 

Fighting an inexperienced club fighter who'd never been 15 rounds before and who no one gave a prayer of winning beforehand. Let's not go pretending all the disadvantages were Larry's in that one. Homes wouldn't go near Weaver again, even when he didn't have the flu.

 

It's funny seeing that list of men who were supposedly "tougher" than Tyson, even though a bunch of them were:

- KO'd in one round (never happened to Tyson)
- KO'd with a single punch (never happened to Tyson)
- KO'd smack cold and down for a count of 100 (never happened to Tyson)
- Dropped or hurt by men weighing 190lbs or less (smallest man to drop Tyson was 6'3", 215lbs)

 

Exactly, the Holmes fans want to believe that Larry would win but THEY KNOW(they never will admit it) that Tyson would ko him.