Snipes also got a ridiculous gift decision against Coetzee. That fight was memorable because of the woman who SCREAMED every time Coetzee created a "thudding" noise by landing his right hand. Coetzee also proved that night that he had power in both hands.
Snipes got a gift decision over Coetzee ( he was dropped 2 times) but was looked at as a weak challenger, In fact he was not known as a BIG puncher, even after the Holmes fight he never really showed serious power. I think that fight and decision was designed to get Coetzee out of the way.....He was one of Holmes many avoidences but Snipes almost turned it into a mistakes...Larry could be timed and hit with that right but the KD of Holmes was the highlist of Renaldo's career...he throw awkward punches, off tempo...a rythym fighters nightmare
Renaldo Snipes deserved another title shot after his performance vs. Holmes. Renaldo Snipes was a very good promoter who was not a top priority of his promoter.
Renaldo claims the term "Mr. Snipes" comes from the kids he worked with at the gym / youth center, etc..... I always called him "The Sniper." MR.BILL:thumbsup
The other guy Snipes wanted to fight back then was Cooney. Snipes claimed he was the best fighter in NYC and not Cooney and both guys bantered back and forth but the match was never made.
Jones and Rappaport were tight-ass dicks looking to over-sell Cooney to the public in order to make a bundle in the end... Cooney had talent, but he was far too protected and sheltered... No way in hell Jones or Rappaport would risk putting Cooney in with Renaldo Snipes...... Snipes really couldn't box for ****, but he had good right hand power........ Team Cooney knew that and ran like hell........ MR.BILL:bbb
Renaldo Snipes vs Greg Page was the first boxing match I ever saw, on TV, and thus as I was a small kid probably the first boxer i ever heard of apart from Ali, so Snipes always has a sort of interest for me
It was a bout I wanted to see in 81 instead of the Snipes--Holmes fight. That bout was looked at about as a competitive match as the Jones and Ledoux fights. So, nobody was thinking Snipes was going to last long at all and he showed in the Coetzee fight he could be hit easily by right hands. But he was a competitor in there and showed heart hanging in there with Coetzee and fighting back. But that Cooney management was not going to put their guy in with youth or contemporaries from that 76-78 timeframe. Just old fighters with a name for a final payday. But just what guys were Lyle and Norton going to beat back then anyway? At any rate, the match could've been made and sold out MSG. And maybe the better whiskers and oddball sneaky right hand from Snipes does get the win. A live underdog, but still an underdog in the fight. But Snipes always was pretty much an underdog. If he catches Cooney like he caught Larry, Gerry doesn't get up. And it'd be a lot easier to hit Cooney than Holmes as well.
Snipes was young, big, strong , fast with an awkward style ... a bit of a head case for sure ... Holmes was basically winning the fight easy when he got careless and got caught with a great shot ... I have spoken to Larry about this and he said he was off balance from the punch more than hurt but struggled to steady himself as the film shows ... Larry recovered fast and took over ... the stoppage was correct as Holmes was teeing off at will ...
I've always believed Lennox would have been down for the count from the right hand Holmes got up from. Snipes was just the sort of challenger a defending champion would have taken lightly and for granted as an easy title win. For me, this is the match which may separate Larry from Lennox more than any other. My father and I argued at the time about whether or not it was a good stoppage. Like Holmes himself (and his Pittsburgh fans), I wasn't ready for it to end, and wanted to see Larry at least return the favor by decking Snipes. In hindsight though, my old man may be right. Mr. Snipes had been completely dominated aside from the knockdown, and wasn't likely to recover despite his impressive conditioning. (Renaldo had one of the better boxing developed physiques seen on a heavyweight during that era-not weight trained like Jumbo Cummings, or a genetic gift like Mike Weaver's, or substance enhanced, but constructed through dedicated training.) The next time I saw Snipes, he badly out hustled Witherspoon on the inside, but got robbed of a rematch with Holmes by the judges, giving Tim the shot in which he produced his own best career performance. Then, he dropped Berbick with a first round right hand en route to a decision win in what was just the second and final flash of punching power I ever saw him display. (As Berbick was coming off the Page win, this seemed impressive, but then I saw Trevor sleepwalk through a pathetic decision loss to S.T. Gordon. I didn't dream at the time that he would beat Needles Thomas to become the WBC HW Champion and suffer his next defeat to Tyson!) Renaldo was continually moving his head and positioning his hands to pick off punches, providing a useful model for developing boxers. To me, he somewhat resembled a larger version of Ossie Ocasio with his defensive techniques. Larry's earlier experience with Jaws was probably a valuable advantage here, as that was generally considered to be a very unorthodox style.
To this day I have not seen Snipes versus "Coetzee or Page." I missed both fights..... However, I gave up on Snipes when he stunk and lost to Tyrell Biggs in 1986 up in New York........ MR.BILL
I saw Snipes get dropped 2 times by Coetzee and steal the decision but that was to block out Coetzee vs Holmes. Funny thing is that Snipes was not known as a puncher but did have an awkward rhythm breaking style and almost pulled it off against Holmes with his right hand. Styles make fights but I always felt that although much more inferior in boxing skill Coetzee had a good style to give Holmes trouble as did Page because of there unorthodox way of punching and right hand power. I am a big fan of the amatuers and I saw Holmes get Ko'd badly at the end of his amatuer career by Nick Wells and although Holmes developed well as a pro,I always was looking for the right hand test. Holmes proved his balls against Shavers and Snipes by getting off the floor to win but neither of those men were known as finishers and then when Tyson landed the right hand against the older Holmes I said Bingo but Larry was past his best. I still think Tyson beats him prime to prime.