Fantasy Fight Friday -Peak Larry Holmes Versus Peak Tyson Fury

Who

 

Holmes for me.

 

Larry would win over the distance over his tall,tricky and rangy opponent. Larry's jab would make the difference and his in and out movement. Would n't be a particularly entertaining fight unfortunately.

 

How well does Holmes take to getting grabbed and leaned on constantly by a dude who weighs 50lbs more than him? You guys think Fury is going to just box in a situation like this? No way.

If there's a ref who doesn't let that **** happen, I'm confident Holmes could pull it off. If the refs let Fury do his thing though, might be a real issue. This is a problem any of the 70's sized guys would face.

 

I went with Holmes by a narrow decision because his exceptionally long career warrants receiving the benefit of the doubt. But make no mistake this would be a very hard fight and he’d have to bring his “ A” game. Fury has about six inches in height and maybe four inches in reach. And even though Larry has the better Jab, Fury’s isn’t bad at all. Larry would have to work very hard for this win.

 

Very awkward fight for Holmes but at this stage i'd favor him. If Fury looks impressive and beats Usyk in reasonably convincing fashion we might need to reassess and look again.

 

Holmes by decision hes one of the older fighters who I think match up well vs Fury, he wouldn't be hesitant like an old Wladimir Klitschko. He would be ram rodding that jab out, and landing laser like straight right hands.

 

I agree. I'm not quite as impressed with Holmes as others here but the same goes for Fury as well.

It seems to me most fans of Fury rank him as a H2H monster while simultaneously dismissing Deontay Wilder as a bum (I know a few posters here off the top of my head) which doesn't even begin to make sense considering Wilder gave Fury hell in 2 of their three fights, dropped him 4 times, had him in serious trouble on at LEAST 4 different occasions, and absorbed hellascious punishment from Fury before succumbing (and in their third fight, he honestly looked more exhausted to me than anything).

So this guy who was dropped 4 times and given hell by this unskilled bum is actually a H2H monster?

I'm no mathematician but something's not adding up.

 

At first, I accidentally voted for Fury because I thought this thread was prime Mike Tyson vs Prime Holmes. That's what I get for reading too fast.

Holmes boxes Fury's head off. He's the exact type of boxer who could give Fury nightmares. The big Brit is surprisingly quick for a man who regularly enters the ring over 260 lbs, but we must remember he is fighting other rather large men who aren't very fast themselves. How many technically skilled boxers did Fury beat? An ancient gunshy Wladmir? C level Cunningham? Fury looks good against plodding sluggers like Chisora or the athletic but very 1 dimensional Wilder, but his resume is shockingly thin for a guy who regularly boasts about how amazing he is.

Fury's belly is wide open. That laser like jab of Holmes will rack up points faster than rain drops unless Fury figures out how to use actual proper defense. Fury's head movement looks ok in short, cherry picked clips and cute sparring videos, but in his actual fights he gets tagged quite a bit and has ended more than a few fights with bad bruises and cuts. Holmes would be both the fastest and most skilled boxer Fury ever faced and he has approximately 0% chance of knocking out Holmes. Fury quickly gets frustrated having to actually be the aggressor chasing the cagey, tactical Holmes who never stays in one spot for more than 2 seconds landing flurries, counters, and laser right hands on Fury. I heavily favor Holmes to win as wide as 8 rounds to 4 unless we see Fury convincingly beat some skilled, fast boxers of his era such as Usyk, Parker, etc.

 

Yeah i agree and we've had this conversation a few times aswell.

Remember how Wilder was considered a joke for a long time that hand picked opponents. Now after the 3rd Fury fight he seems to have sky rocketed in quite a few people's minds which is a bit puzzling for me. It would be equivalent of Holmes getting dropped by Shavers multiple times, except Holmes pretty much dominated Shavers in both fights apart from the 7th round in their 2nd fight.

For me Fury has never looked like this unbeatable H2H GOAT, he's gone life and death with Wilder 2 times. He was dropped heavily and behind on the scorecards vs a Cruiserweight Cunningham, was badly cut and struggled against the unknown Wallin, dropped heavily by Pajkic who has only 5 stoppages. And lets forget that Fury should have 1 loss on his record against McDermott, a decision that was considered so bad they altered the rules for referees deciding decisions for British title fights.

 

The math ain't mathing.

I ignore anyone who says Fury is an amazing h2h threat but regards Wilder as a trash fighter. That's almost as bad as saying Frazier is garbage but Ali is amazing. Fury went life and death with Wilder and had to seriously dig deep to win 2/3 of their fights--1 of which he should have honestly been stopped in.

 

Excellent post. I'll add this. People scoff at the chances of guys like Liston, Foreman, etc for being to small when Wilder was 212 in the fight he had the most success in, which is actually just under a prime Liston's weight and considerably less than Foreman's.

I don't know if it's a case of Fury being overrated, or Wilder being underrated, but I think it's a bit of both.

 

Your last comment is how i feel personally aswell, maybe i didn't give Wilder enough credit. It's just he's so crude at times and looks amateurish, but he is tall/athletic with a dynamite right hand, so maybe he is better H2H than what i first believed. But again i agree with you overall i think it's a bit of both aswell, Fury is overrated H2H and maybe we underrated Wilder H2H aswell somewhat.

 

But what are they fighting for? Benjamins, clams, all the gold in South Africa or fun? We need to know.

 

I really like Wilder and feel he could've been an ATG had he got the fundamentals down. But he started very late in the game (21 I believe) so it's actually very remarkable how far he's gotten in spite of his late start.