Larry Holmes (1978-1985) vs. Wladimir Klitschko (2006-2014) the ultimate poll

Cooney's biggest threat to Cooney was his glass chin. For all his size Cooney has a poor chin.

 

If we’re talking about their careers as a whole, I’d vote for Holmes, but since it is just their title reigns, Klitschko deserves the nod. A longer reign against slightly better opposition.

 

What’s that got to do with the thread question though?

 

Hey someone’s got to under-rate the guy!

I essentially agree with this. Would be interesting to know how many who voted here are letting their thoughts drift to who would win a fight or taking their entire careers into account. This is just title reign, & Klitschko has it.

 

Hmmmm. I am in the paradoxical position of defending Holmes here, who, a you know, I believe to be WILDLY overrated, but who did Wlad beat that was better than Witherspoon?

 

Povetkin is about a 50-50 call there. Witherspoon was very inexperienced. Because people regard Holmes so highly, they naturally attribute the close result to meaning Witherspoon must’ve been great.

Maybe Holmes just isn’t as special as people think.

 

I know Holmes isn't as special as people think.

 

I see I’m not the only one to notice the pattern. Any time Holmes was given a close fight, the opposition is praised, with no reflection on the fact Holmes more than once had this happen to him.

One might even suggest that if Holmes knew he was as great as people here think, he’d have got back into the ring with Withe—-with anyone who gave him a difficult fight, so that he could erase all doubt.

Hmmm.

 

The thing is though every ATG Heavyweight has struggled against fighters they maybe shouldn't of.

Lewis had a close fight vs Mercer.

Holyfield was almost knocked out by Bert Cooper.

Louis got beat up and dominated by Schmeling in their 1st fight he also had a SD vs Godoy.

Marciano came close to losing to a journeyman in his 21st pro fight and almost lost to LaStarza in their 1st fight.

Ali was almost knocked out by Henry Cooper.

Foreman lost to Young decisively.

Dempsey got knocked out in the 1st round by a journeyman.

There's pretty much an example of every ATG Heavyweight struggling against a lesser opponent I don't see why its only exclusive to Holmes to hate on him consistently.

 

Maybe watch/rewatch the Homes/Witherspoon bout and be reminded it was contested at a level of quality we never saw from Povetkin.

 

Or Witherspoon again. Somehow.

 

I'm sure Witherspoon performed at that level again - albeit against lesser opposition than Holmes.

 

Maybe he just wasn’t that special if his best win heading into the Holmes fight was an MD over Snipes. Williams also cut it close against Holmes and was unmistakably not that good.

 

Witherspoon beat Page, Tillis, Snipes, Tubbs, Bruno, M.Williams, Bonecrusher. He has one of the best resumes of the 80s Heavyweights and is amongst the top 6 of that era I would say he was good.

Witherspoon vs Holmes was a high quality technical fight that would put most Heavyweight fights to shame now.

 

He also got tko’d in 1 by Smith and lost to Thomas plus had a bunch of close fights.

I can’t remember Haye, Povetkin, Pulev, Ibragimov, Thompson, and arguably Chagaev losing to anyone but Wlad around their prime years.