Which marketable opponents could Holmes have picked instead of Spinks,to get by Marciano's record ?

Moore was Marcianos top contender and most deserving of a title shot. To compare that with Holmes cherry picking towards the end of his reign is ridiculous. He was fighting someone who had never previously fought at heavyweight.

 

Being a contender doesn't alter his age. As Holmes said referring to Marciano," Rocky was a young man fighting old men.
I'm an old man fighting young men."

 

For credibility, seems like Holmes should have fought the #1 Contender, then fought the next #1 Contender; instead of trying to "cherry pick" to assure the wins. As they say out in East Texas: "I feel like backing myself up to a butt-kicker" (Holmes, post-Spinks fight).

 

Some options...

The Ring - November 1985
(as of September 11, 1985)

Heavyweight
World Champion: Larry Holmes (IBF)

1. Pinklon Thomas (WBC)
2. Tim Witherspoon
3. Tony Tubbs (WBA)
4. Greg Page
5. Gerrie Coetzee
6. Trevor Berbick
7. Carl Williams
8. Mike Weaver
9. Michael Dokes
10. David Bey
11. James Broad
12. Tony Tucker
13. Bonecrusher Smith
14. Frank Bruno
15. Eddie Gregg

 

It depends on your definition of viable. If you credit to Floyd Mayweather Jr. for being 50 -0 then Bruce Baumgartner, The 1984 Olympic gold-medalist all time wrestling great or Hulk Hogan.

 

If we're talking guys that he hadn't fought before and wanted to break the record I would say Bruno, Coetzee, Broad, and Gregg. Tucker would be a dangerous opponent, also Page, Thomas, and maybe Tubbs.

 

Lol Moore was still past his prime and all of Marciano wins were cherry picking. But you are going to say Larry Holmes was a cherry picker? Typical biased fanboy. You know Archie Moore was a natural super middleweight by modern standards who moved up to light heavyweight? But you have a problem with Holmes fighting a cruiserweight but not Marciano fighting guys smaller than he was?

 

He did beat 6 of those.

 

Given Holmes never faced Tubbs Dokes Tate Thomas Page etc etc its difficult to see how he should get any sympathy. How is age relevant? A champions duty is to fight the best competition regardless of age.

 

Tell that to Wilder!

 

You can't fight everyone. Holmes had wins over the guys who beat Tubbs, Tate, Thomas and Page for the titles.

He had wins over five of the RING's top 10 heavyweights when he signed to fight Michael Spinks, who was rated as the WORLD CHAMPION in his division.

There was nothing wrong with Holmes fighting Michael Spinks.

He just didn't win the fight, that's all.

 

Archie weighed in at 196 lbs vs #1 ranked contender Nino Valdez (210 lbs) who he beat; then 1-1/2 months later he went down to Ltheavy and defended against Bobo Olson by k.o.; then 3 months later weighing in at the same weight of 188lbs as The Rock, gave Marciano a hard fight.

 

The toughest match up for an aging champion is often a much younger, and faster fighter who has never been beaten that has some defense.

An easier choice would have been Page, Broad, Tate or Coetzee. All would have been acceptable challengers.


1984 ring magazine ratings:
[url]Larry Holmes[/url], Champion

1. [url]Pinklon Thomas[/url]
2. [url]Greg Page[/url]
3. [url]David Bey[/url]
4. [url]Tim Witherspoon[/url]
5. [url]Gerrie Coetzee[/url]
6. [url]Mike Weaver[/url]
7. [url]Michael Dokes[/url]
8. [url]James Broad[/url]
9. [url]James (Bonecrusher) Smith[/url]
10. [url]Gerry Cooney[/url]

1985 Ring magazine ratings.
[url]Michael Spinks[/url], Champion

1. [url]Pinklon Thomas[/url]
2. [url]Larry Holmes[/url]
3. [url]Tim Witherspoon[/url]
4. [url]Tony Tubbs[/url]
5. [url]Greg Page[/url]
6. [url]Gerrie Coetzee[/url]
7. [url]Trevor Berbick[/url]
8. [url]Carl Williams[/url]
9. [url]Mike Weaver[/url]
10. [url]Michael Dokes[/url]

 

Your point is? Moore naturally weighed 160 pounds. Because he got fat as he got older proves what? Archie Moore was still way past his physical prime when he faced Marciano and was much smaller naturally. So lets try to build up Moore to make a 40 year old guy with over 150 bouts seem like he was still in his prime right? Just to make it seem like Marciano fought world class fighters who were in their physical prime.

If you want to use your sad little logic James Toney weighed 257 before. So he is bigger than Wlad, Lewis, or AJ right? So because Moore eventually put on weight and weighed as much as Marciano you think that means that was Moore's prime weight? So many casual fans on this site and so many people like you living in your fantasy world. Still believing 180 pound Marciano was a modern sized heavyweight and could beat modern sized heavyweights.

Larry Holmes on the other hand fought guys his own size or bigger when he was past his prime. With the exception of Spinks of course.