Most shameless title defences of all time

Holmes had painkilling injections in the muscle.George Kimball wrote a piece on it.

 

Holmes defended against15 Ring ranked contenders, beat the number 1 contender for the title, and had previously beaten the no6 [Shavers],
"I'm an old man fighting young men."
He didn't fight Page or Thomas, but his resume is pretty decent imo.

 

Holmes’ sham title reign has been picked apart plenty of times in this forum, if the mood & time strike me I’ll do it as others have. But he had an allergy to no. 1 contenders & ruled over a wasteland.

 

“Pretty decent” is not the stuff of legends.

 

Absolutely, a lot of things went on. At the end of the day it was a non event in the fight, thankfully, as stated by Holmes.

 

Pass.

 

Are you in or out on debating, it’s time to pick a flavour instead of a pot shot. Make up your mind.

 

Nobody suggested,or implied Holmes title reign was ,"the stuff of legends",that's just a gratuitous remark inserted solely in an attempt to dump on a great fighter.
I initially thought you a good poster,age has obviously clouded my judgement.
Issuing ultimatums as though you have some kind of standing here,is quite amusing though.lol

 

Take it easy, it’s just a place to chit chat, this ain’t a Risk board where you win turf by “winning” arguments. This isn’t how you’d talk to someone about boxing in person, surely not it’s rude mate.

 

Neither Page or Thomas had win streaks generated huge demand … he also fought and defeated men that beat them in Bernice and Bey.

 

Al McCoy was the Real McCoy

 

Honestly I didn't notice anything wrong with Holmes in the Norton fight he was throwing the left jab just fine and basically won the first half of the fight with his jab alone which is supposedly the bad arm.

I'm a bit of a gym guy and I've torn my muscle and pulled muscles a few times and for me it was only if i put my arm in certain positions that I would feel the pain. So maybe if Holmes had to pull his left arm back or etc he would've felt it more, but Holmes has his left arm in a relaxed position and just flicks and pumps the arm out to jab so maybe it wasn't that much of a hindrance to him.

 

But really none of the names in Holmes's era would've made much a difference to his all time standing.

He should've fought Greg Page granted but really beating Page wouldn't of made much of a difference to his resume. And Page still would've been considered a hot and cold fighter and just another 80s contender on Holmes's resume.

A win over an undefeated Pinklon Thomas would've been a nice win but again how highly does the win look in hindsight ? The problem is most of these 80s contenders had a short window when they were red hot but then fell quickly back down the pecking order.

Don't get me wrong Holmes does deserve some criticism for his opposition after 1982 and atleast Page or Thomas should've got a fight at some point. But I'm not sure how much either name really does much for his legacy or really alters his standing in the long run.

And as I said Foreman is not without his faults either in regards to opposition just look at his title defenses after the Moorer win not a single top 10 ranked opponent.

Infact in Foreman’s comeback to my knowledge in a decade he only fought 3 ranked opponents and he went 1-2 vs them including a bad loss to Morrison which should've been an ideal opponent for Foreman considering Morrison has a weak chin.

 

Would he? If that's the case, then his actions in 1973 and 1974 would have been a decent marker. In the month he was about to make his 3rd defence, Holmes had made 6 title defences in roughly the same time period. So, 'if' George was going to do a 'Larry', he could have at least fought, for example Garcia in May 73 and, say, Middleton in December 73 (either side of the Joking Roman fight) but he didn't. So my guess is that if he'd have been champ instead of Holmes, the Spinks fight in 1985 would have about been his 10th defence overall, certainly nowhere near 20. An active champion, he was not.

More understandable had it happened, in say, April or May of 1973. Bowe has been brought up in this thread (fairly) for a couple of gimme defences after he won the title, but at least the Dokes fight was within 3 months of him winning the crown- not over 7 months like George vs Roman.

 

Great example. I have an interview with Leonard, from (i think) around 83, 84 and in it, he states how much he admires Hagler as a champion and how he treats his status, mainly for the fact he would get up for these fights- the training, the discipline, the attitude and all that comes with it, and Ray confesses he doesn't think that he himself could do this (or words to that effect)... and this is the example I think of, Marv is asked to fight an undeserving Obel, yet again, probably sits there thinking "FFS I want Tommy or Ray", but gets on with the job, wakes up at 4am to do his roadwork after farting though his silk sheets all night, flies into Italy, gets the job done, and flies back out (albeit planting the seeds of him becoming Jake in 'Indio' while there). I agree with Leonard, the mark of a great champion.