Why Didn't Larry Holmes Ever Unify The Title?

Excellent post! Too many people are all too willing to overlook Holmes' questionable parts of his reign. Holmes didn't fight at least one of the leading contenders during his reign (the second half of his reign), and Holmes didn't unify once. I mean, come on! Yeah, politics happen, B.S can get in the way, but not like it did for Holmes. He dropped the WBC belt when he was mandated to fight Greg Page....Why didn't Holmes just fight him like he was SUPPOSED to? Holmes blatantly admitted to ducking fighters and crowed about only wanting to fight "small, slow fighters" that he could beat up on towards the last few years of his reign. Holmes gets criticized for a lot of that -- as he rightfully should!

 

Love how guys talk crap about events they know little about ... anyone who lived through Holmes reign knows the story of the politics ... the rest are simply talking out of their asses.

 

Well, the next time I'm leaving work for the day on a Friday afternoon, I'll think that somewhere on the otherside of the country, an all time great champion is sharing my pleasure....:cheers

 

People are talking crap when they say Holmes' didn't want to unify the title against Weaver, or that "Holmes should have just done what Tyson did" ........ but some of the other criticisms of Holmes are valid.
Holmes did openly duck hard challengers from 1982/'83 onwards, he was very open about it at the time.
And some of his challengers before then were very poor opposition, although as someone pointed out he was fighting to get paid and remain on TV schedules, being busy.

 

For Christ Sakes............ Holmes had already beaten Mikey Weaver in 1979 up in New York in a epic war that exceeded the original build-up.... Weaver was tuff / game in his challenge to Holmes........ And Larry Holmes was looking to unify in 1984 against Gerrie Coetzee in Las Vegas, but the promotion fell apart and Coetzee and company took a flight to Africa to lose to Greg Page...... Larry Holmes also was being somewhat manipulated by Don "The" King in them days as well........ Who cares if Holmes never got to unify the titles, he was an active champion......

MR.BILL

 

I think that I would have really like to have seen him clean out the entire division if it were possible.... Beat every upcoming fighter, unify the belts and preferably retire undefeated.... And had he not been so complacent, it would have been a very real possibility that he could have reached around 50-0.... The thing however, is that can you really see him as being rated any higher if he had the names of Greg Page, Pinklon Thomas and Gerrie Coetzee on his record? Given that he defeated fighters who beat all three of those men, I'm not so sure that I can ...... Especially looking at the eventual decline of all their careers.. Holmes had the misfortune of being a big fish in a small pond, which I suppose was also advantageous in a way, but not when it comes to shooting for charisma.... He had no archrival who's popularity and fighting abilities matched his own, the way that Ali had Frazier, or Louis had Schmeling.. That is where his career and resume fall short....Not because he didn't fight Greg Page or Pinklon Thomas...

 

Pinklon Thomas, Greg Page and Gerrie Coetzee were formidable for a few scant yrs only............ "Page and Coetzee" finished up ugly as sin in losing to the likes of Iran Barkley and Dale Crowe....... Page was almost killed by Crowe........... And Pinky Thomas strung together a buncha' meaningless wins in 1992 by going on the "Bum of the Month" club circuit to pad his record and secure some rent money before retiring....... Yes, all three were good fighters---for a while, but NONE of them come close to the greatness of Larry Holmes......
-(

MR.BILL:hat

 

There was nobody in those days who was on his level, until the arrival of Mike Tyson, by which time Holmes was gone anyway.... Most of the alpha champions of that period were past their sell by date at the ages of 29 or 30, with the possible exception of Tim Witherspoon, who went on to being rated in the 90's.... The rest of those guys swaggered in and out of semi-retirement while keeping their records growing against the big foot Martin's of the world.. people can say what they want about Holmes, but without his prescence, the 80's heavyweight division would have been as bad or worse than it is today.. Hell, renaldo Snipes might have picked up a strap had it not been for Holmes standing in the door way.... Now, that's a scary though...

 

Does anybody here think that Holmses thinly veiled contempt for the sanctioning bodies, combined with his recognition as the champion, played a role in fragmenting the titles and eroding their prestige?

He basicaly established the principle that they didn't matter.

 

People do it all the time when knocking on Dempsey for not fighting blacks or Willis particularly, and Johnson for his reign as champion too. Nobody was around for that, though. Their are often blockades in a fighters career that we should consider and try understanding... however it always generally ultimately hurts the legacy of that fighter regardless. To what extent or how much effect is the real question.

 

Magoo,

I tried SO HARD to be a fan of Renaldo "Mister" Snipes, but he let me down too many times........ I saw Snipes lose more than I ever saw him win in the 80s.....

MR.BILL

 

And , ironically , gave the IBF credibility.

 

Holmes and Aaron Pryor did indeed give credibility to the "I Be Felonious" organization in 1984, but I'm not so sure that was a good thing now that I look back.... It was tuff enough jumping back and forth with the WBC and WBA....... And now, here today, we have the WBO, IBO, IBC, WBU, WBF and that **** title Hector Camacho is fighting for in Denmark shortly called the WPBF bogus title at middleweight......... Thank Christ the late Pat O'Grady's lousy WAA group went to hell after a few scant yrs of obscurity...... O'Grady's WAA had 'Monte Masters' as world champion next to Larry Holmes and Mike Weaver back in the early 80s........ Jesus H. Christ.......

MR.BILL

 

Mike Weaver was a 19-8 trailhorse who was lucky to get a title shot, he was Ko'd many times before this fight but gave Holmes hell and made his bones in this fight. This fight gave him confidence and he improved from this point on when he won a title it was a natural but Holmes did not want the rematch. I think he learned enough about Mike in fight 1 and did not want the rematch.

Thing is you have to fight all styles and I saw Larry get KO'd 3 times in the amateurs against pressure fighters and was not sure he ever got over it.

One was DQ loss to Bobick and 2 were to Wells but Ali commented about the Bobick fight that Larry caused the DQ to prevent the KO

Holmes avoided certain style fighters that he knew would trouble him

Even though he was old, Tyson and Wells were short pressure Punchers and history repeated itself so I have to think there was a lot of navigating around the certain styled fighters in Holmes era.

I have to take point off

 

Bummy,

**** the amateur bull**** altogether............ Larry "The Homer" Holmes is a TOP-5 heavyweight champion................... The dude's skills' were top-notch between 1978 thru 1984.... 'Nuff said..........

MR.BILL:hat