Why didn’t Holmes ever unify?

He split the title in order to pursue a unification fight w/ Coetzee, which is exactly the kind of fight that you're criticizing him for not going after. That fight was all set to go until it was cancelled by the venue just weeks away from its date.

 

Uh, that would still leave one extra title, and the proliferation is exactly what is killing boxing today.

And, that unification never happened. I know that there is a narrative around it, but you can't give him credit for something that he didn't do.

Again, this is all denial. Holmes is what he is.

 

So funny. In a thread bashing Holmes about why he didn't unify, I post article after article showing how he tried to unify ...

And the response changes to "he never should've tried to unify ... he killed boxing by trying."

You just can't win with some people.

 

Posting hundreds of articles about failed negotiations with Gerrie Coetzee ( one man ) doesn’t account for why he avoided multiple challengers, dropped a title, and never gave rematches to guys who gave him tough fights then later re-emerged as belt holders. I mean seriously… fighting David Bey and Carl Williams when Pinklon Thomas was meandering around ?

 

Nice try but Holmes didn’t “ pick up “ anything. He was HANDED a belt from a start-up organization that was all too happy to get their name known by having a fighter with notoriety wearing it around his waist. And you can call his dropping the WBC title as “ Vacating “ all you want but the fact is he dropped a belt to avoid a mandatory. I wonder if you call Riddick Bowe dropping the WBC belt in the trash rather than fighting Lennox Lewis as “ vacating. “

 

Are you seriously comparing Lennox Lewis and Greg Page?

Greg Page lost to Berbick, Witherspoon, Bey, seventh-ranked Tony Tubbs, was koed by journeyman Mark Wills, lost to newcomer Buster Douglas and was beaten by ancient Joe Bugner ... all while Page was in his 20s.

 

Hes comparing the situation not the fighters I thought that was plainly obvious.

 

The IBF bestowed their recognition on all the top champions of that year ... Holmes, Michael Spinks, Marvin Hagler, Donald Curry and Aaron Pryor.

For those of you who clearly weren't around then ... the idea at the time was the IBF was a US-based sanctioning body. The WBC and WBA were corrupt foreign bodies. And the IBF was going to take over boxing ... because all the "experts" insisted the sport needed a US-based sanctioning body because all the big fights were here. And the top boxers shouldn't take orders from dictators like Sulaiman and Mendoza. (Of course, the IBF didn't take over and became just another corrupt org.)

But the top guys all readily welcomed the IBF strap.

 

No… I’m comparing the fact that they were both mandatories for the same belt and both champions dropped it. Also the only fighter who Page lost to PRIOR to challenging Holmes was Berbick. Those other defeats came AFTER it was already a dead issue. The fact that he lost to those men in hindsight is irrelevant to the events that occurred in late 1983.

 

Larry also was an imperfect human being with a big ego.

 

1. Of course they gave out free belts to every known champion around. It’s called “ marketing. “ they were trying to legitimize themselves. They were basically the 1980’s version of the WBO.

2. If that were the case then how come Marvin Hagler Michael Spinks and Donald Curry were happy to retain ALL of the belts and Holmes wasn’t ?

3. Yes while retaining the ones they had already earned by fighting mandatories. It’s called being a champion

 

Larry Holmes had the option of fighting Page, who had already lost to a guy Holmes had beaten (Berbick) ... or he could take the IBF belt and unify against Coetzee, who'd already lost to another guy Holmes had already beaten (Weaver).

The Holmes-Coetzee fight promoters gave Holmes a $3 million signing bonus to sign to fight Coetzee, and promised him much more for the fight.

The signing bonus was more than Holmes was getting to fight Page ... and it was just the signing bonus.

So, of course, he took it. He'd had big event fights with Ali and Cooney, and Holmes took far less than his challengers.

Was he going to pass on a unification where the signing bonus was more than the purse he'd get for Page? C'mon.

The WBC didn't recognize Coetzee or any fighter from South Africa. Even if he fought Page, the WBC wasn't going to let him unify with Coetzee next.

Larry Holmes was the world champion, as far as all the fans were concerned.

HE was the constant.

The other side of the aisle was always turning over. Nobody except Weaver made more than one successful defense. Most made zero successful defenses.

 

Now Holmes wasn't a champion because he didn't defend against GREG PAGE?

Jesus Christ.

 

Holmes did what he did for financial reasons. The same way that Michael Spinks later opted to fight Gerry Cooney instead of Tony Tucker. But you can’t have it both ways by chasing bigger pay days AND receiving recognition for greatness decades after the fact… you seem to be on both sides of the fence with that issue

 

No. He was a champion and a great one at that. But he didn’t ALWAYS act like it