Reading this thread makes it quite obvious that there are a handful of posters on here who have never seen a Larry Holmes fight. Claiming that Haye is going to do something that Shavers, Norton, and Cooney failed to do is preposterous.
Holmes had an Iron Chin, great stamina, an ATG Jab. Haye has a Glass Jaw no stamina and no heart. Wow, hard to pick a winner here. :roflatsch
Holmes fought Shavers who at the time had won every fight, but one, by KO. Are you going to imply he hits harder than Earnie Shavers?
Haye could outbox Shavers, the guy had immense power but wasn't an incredible boxer let's be honest here, if he caught Haye he would KO him but chances are he wouldn't.
Chances are he wouldn't? Haye gets caught by Lolenga Mock and put on ***** street big time, he was also not skilled enough! to save himself getting tagged against Moremech & a 40 year old Carl Thompson, if his technical game is that open then i dont see why Shavers cant catch him and KO him. Foreman knocked Moorer out who was considerable slower than Holyfield whom he beat.
Man ,you have singlehandedly taken ESB to a depth of ignorance of boxing that I've never witnessed before. Holmes was a master boxer, with great experience fighting top HW competition. His only genuine 'loss' was nearly two years after he had retired, old and dreadfully out of shape, to another HOF HW.
Haye was pretty inexperienced when he got caught by those guys to be fair but I think he would be more careful with Shavers, who didn't have the greatest chin himself. Moorer got caught by Foreman because he stood in front of him, he boxed circles around him up to that point and could've continued doing so had he possessed a higher ring IQ, that said I'm glad Foreman sparked him out, I couldn't stand Moorer.
Okay, this is a fair post, even though I disagree. The problem with picking Haye however, is that he has never proven himself at heavywieght, and certainly not on the world level. Additionally, the cruiserweights that he fought were not of the Evander Holyfield or Dwight Qawi variety, but men who had limited skills, padded records and who's acheivements were nothing of note. You can say all you want about Holmes' opposition, ( which was not the greatest ) but his chin, stamina, and ring generalship was well tested against true heavyweights who could crack, and not all of them were unskilled either.