[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m861f99Nkvk[/ame] I've always called BS on Larry's claims that he took the Tyson fight "for money" and only had a "month" to train. Larry had a TON to gain from beating Tyson. It would have completely rectified his career after the Spinks losses, which Larry took very hard. You know he wanted it badly. His interview here, after the Tyson/Biggs fight (three months before he would fight Tyson), supports my assertions.
Holmes has always been a first class excuse maker. He trained hard for Tyson I'm sure. He just got whipped!
What a buffoon!!! I like Larry Holmes as a fighter, and I admire his honesty on a lot of things. But the guy could be a total moron at times! lol
Tysons post-fight comment is equally telling IMO; 'That wasn't Larry Holmes in there. In his prime I wouldn't have stood a chance in Hell' I'm paraphrasing but that's the gist of it.
Holmes was a big fan of the money in boxing. While I'm sure he trained for Tyson, he was 38 and coming off a layoff with no warm up fights.
Yeah i've seen an interview where he explicitly states that he had been training for months and was fighting Tyson for legacy and status, not for money which he didn't need. I wonder if Bill has already come to terms with that..
He said that out of respect. Cus always told Tyson he would beat Holmes and in fact trained him for Holmes beacuse Cus belived Holmes will still be a champion when Tyson was going to go for the youngest ever title. Tyson would always KO Holmes regardles, if anyone had the tools for it, it was Tyson (as much as I hate his guts).
In every interview I've seen, and what he's told in the gym was that he trained hard for a month and a half. He was obviously in the gym, but as far as training camp he was there for a month and a half. There's a huge difference. Also, is Larry supposed to say before the fight "I feel like making another few million, so I'm going to fight Mike Tyson." Do you think that would get him the fight?
I've posted the interview on YouTube, but the video got deleted due to copyright issues, so i can't show you again. But trust me, this was several months before the fight and he said he was in the gym daily, and saying the same stuff that he does in this video here, namely that he wanted to show the world who the real champ was, this was about his legacy, he was already loaded with money, etc etc. Those are the facts.
Holmes benefits from a lot of revisionist history on this site. He is a great fighter and was under-rated in his own time but there were also some good reasons why people were skeptical of him.
That's one of my fave Tyson interviews, just shows his level of respect in his prime (for great fighters i mean). Right away it's one of the first things he says i think.
He was in the gym daily long after the Butterbean fight, but does that mean that he is in fighting shape? Again, how many fighters have gotten fights saying "I'm going to take this fight for the money."? Of course Larry wanted to win, and truly believed he would, but let's face it, he wasn't going to take the fight unless he got millions out of it.
Yep, he's lying when he says he was only given a month to train. I remember January 1988 was pencilled in as the date before Tyson fought Biggs on October 16, 1987. He had 3 months at least. He was past his best, but if he only trained for 4 weeks that's his own fault. He had 3 months to get ready.