Underrated reason why Holmes was the best of his era

Agree!!!!

 

The lowest bar for greatness appears to be being a very brief two-time world champion. It seems most people regard a one-time long reigning world champion with multiple defences, ahead of a typical two-time very brief champ, the 2nd time in an era of split titles, with hardly any successful defences.

 

He could talk a glass eye to sleep.

 

I must have had a dream where he avoided his no. 1 contenders like it was a bodily function, had life & death with Renaldo Snipes, never rematched anyone who gave him trouble (so long as he got the decision), & tried to cherry pick his way past Rocky Marciano’s record, openly.

 

Let's not exaggerate. The chubby Holmes proved that even though he was very past prime, he was still competitive in another strong era, giving good fights against Mercer, Holyfield, Ferguson, McCall and a whole decade of being at the top. This proves that he was really strong, in fact his second career completely proves that the theory about HW's weak period in the 80s is a myth.

 

I entered this thread only to read your comments, ngl lmaoo

 

Also Foreman was born the same year and if not for his 10 year retirement he'd have been in the way. Jimmy Young didn't age well after enduring so many decisions in the 70s but he was one year older. Those guys would have been Holmes natural competition from a generation standpoint and they were gone.

Holmes entering stage left as Foreman was leaving stage right was incredibly good fortune on Holmes part.

 

x 3

 

Do you think so? I'd have loved to see Holmes v Foreman, either the young or old versions. I love George, and I think, an unpopular opinion I grant you, that old George was a better, more rounded fighter than the young one.

And I think old Larry comfortably outboxes old George.

You see where I'm going with this....

Young Larry's footwork, jab and chin for me means he brutalises young George. He's too shrewd to get into a firefight. His jab would have thudded into George's face and body for the first half of the fight before Larry administered the coup de grace around 8. Like Formean Ali but a sustained beating. The fight Ali would have loved to fight if he could have.

Hey, I'm not here to be popular...

Have a great weekend all.

Peace and love, Philosopher..

 

He was a consistent performer and always had that little bit extra than his opponents which is why he was able to get out of some major crisis against Weaver, Witherspoon.

Me and @JohnThomas1 have had this discussion before and I think Holmes against Witherspoon does sum up Holmes in a nutshell. Witherspoon gave Holmes a pouding in the 9th round but then when Holmes clocked him back at the end of the round. Witherspoon in the later rounds wasn't willing to go into the lions den and risk it all and Holmes won the later rounds hence winning a hard fought decision.

And for me that perfectly illustrates the difference between Holmes who is a great and Witherspoon who was very good. People make out what Holmes did was easy because he had "weak" contenders. But I'm sorry 20 world title fights in 7 years against 14 ranked opponents is very impressive.

If you want to put it into context the likes of Usyk who I respect has only had 22 professional fights in 11 years, the likes of Fury has only had 6 world title fights since his first world title win in 2015. The schedule Holmes had was kind of crazy TBH and none of the modern Heavyweights now could do it.

 

He had bottle, he had heart. Look at the Witherspoon, Norton, even Shavers fights. Larry never looked for a soft landing and never looked for a way out. Even against Tyson he had that 'big round baby' moment where he got up on his toes briefly and showed Mike what things could have been like. Now, I'm not dismissing Tysons win over Larry, I think it was one of his best ever performances, but as Mike himself quipped..

'That wasn't the real Larry Holmes in there tonight. If that was the real Larry Holmes, I wouldn't have stood a chance...'

 

the comments that he came from a weak era are somewhat untrue. His era had a bunch of guys with a ton of raw talent — I mean, Pinklon Thomas, Tim Witherspoon? ATG level potential.

it could have been a strong era. If the guys could have stayed sober, in the gym, and ate an athletes diet.

 

You’re the guy that feeds the dog from the table and then gives him a treat for defacating on the rug.

Don’t encourage the troll.

 

It ain't that serious bro, if you don't like the dude you can just block or ignore him.