Mike Tyson had a better career than Larry Holmes.

Great post.

 

Ah ok I thought it was closer that that but my mistake.

 

Unless we are talking about how they fair may fair H2H I don't really penalize for size heavyweights were just smaller back pre 1990s so in my eyes I personally still count them as heavyweight wins.

 

Watch Larrys box masterclass against Shavers.
Then watch Wlad squirm flop bear hug and molest Sam Peter while also turning his back away from the combat multiple times.
Then you can see the levels between Larry and Wlad

 

There's no point lol.

 

Larry fought SIX times in 78 and 79.
Two of those fights were Shavers.
Silly goose you just owned yourself.

Wlad waited years till Peter was a washed up shell for the rematch.

And he still held on like an octopus every 5 -10 seconds.
Helenius dispatched the same Peter without any need for illegal holding

https://www.boxingnews24.com/2010/09/steward-was-telling-wladimir-to-stop-clinching-peter/

Wlad and Peter was only fought once when both men were prime and everyone saw the calamity of Wlads performance.

Larry produced two box masterclasses. Never once resorting to illegal holding

 

Insecurity alert.

 

What about his performance against Povetkin?

And people want to rank this guy as being the 4th greatest HW of all time?

Ridiculous.

 

I deserved that response I suppose.

 

Do you count all of the southpaws who Larry didn't fight??

 

I don't really have much to say in this debate.

But I definitely consider Witherspoon to be better than Haye.

Yes Holmes's win over Witherspoon is the kind of win that didn't look like a stand out win at the time and it's one of those wins that aged better with hindsight.

But I will say in regards to H2H ability despite Witherspoon being green he fought arguably the best fight of his career against Holmes.

Did Witherspoon ever really look better than he did against Holmes ? He was in top shape his defence and jab were on point.

In anything I consider Haye to be overrated at Heavyweight quite honestly.

I do like Haye's win over Chisora which aged well but outside of that ? A few wins against fighters past their sell by date like Barrett, Ruiz, who were not ranked.

Valuev should've lost his title to an almost 50 yeat old shot Holyfield prior to facing Haye.

Witherspoon for me definitely has a better Heavyweight resume than Haye and would beat him in a mythical H2H match up both at their best.

 

Sure the top 10 stat doesn't mean every win is equal.