Greater Heavyweight - HOLMES or LEWIS ?

To me, the story of Holmes is largely a story of the upsets which did not happen. He defeated a number of former and future champions. Larry was also a 15 round performer. An all time great does not lose twice in the prime of his career to a single punch from two different mediocre challengers, let alone for a count of ten.
Lennox would have lost the title defenses Holmes had against Shavers and Snipes (especially Snipes). Larry's superior schooling of Mercer and Ocasio is telling.

No, Holmes did not give rematches, nor did he take on everybody he should have, but the flip side is that he gave more different challengers title shots than any other heavyweight champion in history.

Except for the knockdowns, he dominated both Shavers and Snipes. He adapted brilliantly to unexpected surprises, such as his late round body attack against Carl Williams. Holmes circled right as well as any orthodox HW ever has. (Just check out the first Shavers bout.)

Head to head, peak for peak, Larry decisions Lennox behind the greatest overall jab in HW history.

 

You have to wonder if Larry wasn't the house fighter just what those outcomes of the Snipes & Shavers knockdowns would've been. If he was the guy in there taking on the King fighter, I'm certain those bouts are stopped. He might've even been stopped on that cut in the Smith bout. Different ballgame when one guy is the protected fighter in his matchups.

 

I doubt the Snipes one would have been fine, after he hit his head on the corner post, his legs were fine. Smith's cut was worse than Larry's, and Larry still in control of the fight, so there wouldn't be much reason to stop it on Larry's cut.

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl

 

Translation: I'm going to give undeserving, unqualified challengers titleshots while keeping the real contenders away from a shot at my belt.

No, the fight (just like Weaver) was taken because he was inexperienced and seemed like an easy defence. Of course when it turned out completely the opposite, he refused a rematch. If he wasn't afraid, then why didn't he give a very rightfully earned rematch to Witherspoon, or Norton and Weaver for that matter? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. But he fooled you thrice.

 

The only way this statement in any way is true, is that if the referee of the Lewis-McCall fight was during those fights on King's paycheck as well, then it would've read Shavers TKO7 Holmes and Snipes TKO7 Holmes.

 

An all time great shouldn't freeze out the deserving challengers for the last 3 years of his reign either in favour of fighting kids, mugs and light heavyweights.

As far as claiming Lewis to not be an ATG (and reducing his career to the same old Zakman style junk/rhetoric), well

atsch

 

I know exactly where you are coming from

:good

 

the way the poll is going id how i think afight between them would pan out

lewis takes an early but close, close lead. with it all in the balance in the last 3 where holmes comes on strong and sarts to pull away

 

Well it's pretty close - 25 for Lewis to 30 for Holmes .. not my personal opinion, but certainly a very balanced view that shows the quality of the assessment of the average ESB'er. :good

 

It is close, but I prefer Holmes with the chief reason being he was not starched by two average top ten fighters.

 

It's very, very close. But right now, the fact that Lewis beat almost everyone that mattered during his era and destroyed/dominated several top contenders in impressive fashion swings it in his favour for me.

 

So in other words, King apparently told the referee, " I'll award you with a bonus in the unlikely event that Lewis gets knocked flat on his ass, gets up, staggers all over the place and falls toward you, IF and ONLY IF, you stop the fight without making it look like a fix....."

You have a real eye for conspiracy theories Chris.

 

Overall i'd have to that its a stand-off. Holmes had the longer reign but the fact that he ducked certain deserving opponents and failed to give rematches takes away from his standing.

Lewis, on the other hand,ducked no one fought everyone around that was deserving of a title shot.