Larry Holmes vs Povetkin

Rahman was shot to pieces. Byrd was shot, had no legs or output. Chagaev is an average fighter. Takam a journey man. Price, please, Whyte he is 1-1 and Whyte is in Chisora's league not exactly elite. ..

 

Lol what do you want the guy to do? Takam wasn’t a journeymen especially when he fought him. Think he only had one loss and some notable wins. If Whyte would have beat Povetkin would you have dismissed the win as Povetkin was shot? Byrd and Rahman were obviously still good fighters. Maybe not their best but whatever still good. I agree the era sucks and there aren’t that many great fighters but other then the best of the best (Wlad cheated like crazy their fight and old man Povetkin knocked down AJ!) he beat everyone in front of him. What more would you like him to do? Most of these guys he beat like Takam and Price were up and comers with maybe one loss on their record. They were considered decent prospects at the time. Every era is the same there are old lions and young ones the good young ones are supposed to beat the old lions if they’re not good enough they don’t. I challenge you to find me ten better contenders in the history of boxing at heavyweight. You can micro analyze anyone’s record all day long no ones is perfect except maybe Archie Moore’s as far as contenders go.

 

Rahman was totally shot at age 40 and grossly overweight!!! He only had one fight later and lost against a fighter with a 3-3 record.
Chris Byrd was 37 years old, did you even see that fight??? He lost to Shaun Goerge a journeyman in his next fight. He alreaday was done when he fought Wlad when he got knocked out 2 years earlier. Byrd had more left than Rahman but he was far away from his prime IMO.

Takam and Price, please....you bring up those names when talking about a prime Larry Holmes.

The Wlad fight...fact is Povetking lost every round...Now I agree that the home town referee was a disgrace...but the result does not look good...a lopsided loss

All, in all, Povetkin is decent fighter with obviously some good skills but based on his record he has done nothing which would suggest that he could have beaten prime Holmes IMO

 

I didn’t pick Povetkin over Holmes. I pick Holmes to win but I disagree that he’s overrated...judging from this comment section Id say he’s vastly underrated. He would be Holmes best win imo right up there w Spoon. Also I’d like to hear of these better contenders? Who are they?

 

"I'd like to listen to Classic poster's opinions as they are usually far more knowlegable than the guys from General forum."

I donno about that, man. A lot of these dudes in this ole peeples forum don't even respect Broner.

 

What about Norton? I rank him better than Povetkin for sure. And then the likes of Cooney and Mercer, not so sure why you think a Povetkin win would rank higher.

 

Norton was ancient and when you talk about overrated I usually think of Norton who has far fewer good wins then Povetkin. Get past Ali and he’s got very little other then a shot Quarry. His style faired well over Ali and Holmes

 

Just gonna correct you on one thing here: Rahman was ****ing awful when he fought Povetkin. There might’ve been 100 more dangerous heavyweights at the time.

 

he was ancient? he nearly defeated prime Holmes, losing only a SD in an epic heavyweight battle.That was Norton's last great effort. The Ali win is way better than anything Povetkin has done. I also rank the Young win higher than the Povetkin win over Byrd. Chris had no legs by then and detiorated reflexes. Judging by your comments, I am not sure you really watched these fights.

 

I'm actually surprised Gazelle rates Norton so low. Ali ended up beating Foreman after getting soundly beat by Norton, and Holmes was coming of a sensational, artistic destruction of Earnie Shavers when...well, more than a few people actually thought Norton won that fight. Though the Jimmy Young fight was close...look at who Young beat in that time frame.

I have Norton at #20 ATG, of today's heavyweights I have only Fury ahead of him, and then only by a few grades. He had fantastic heart and was one of the most effective body punchers in history. So he got knocked out by three of the top five greatest heavyweight punchers in history, wow.

Still, all respect to @Gazelle Punch, a more than knowledgeable member here.

 

Oh I did and let’s not pretend that was a prime Norton. Norton also got a dubious decision over young according to some. Norton has two good wins on his sheet....two. Ali and shopworn Quarry. Put up a terrible fight against Foreman. And has some dubious losses. Povetkin has only lost to champs. Even as an old man the loss to Whyte should have no bearing on his career much like I don’t really count the Cooney loss on Norton’s

 

You are leaving out the Young win, I do not think that is justified. Norton is a legitime Top 20 ATG. are you arguing Povetkin ranks higher that Norton??? I hope not

 

Never said Alex wasn't

 

I have Norton in anywhere 25-35 area. I just think he gets slightly more credit then his contender peers do because of his one (albeit really good) win over Ali. I like to rate fighters on who they beat...his resume is paper thin after Ali. Young wasn’t a hard win to get he lost plenty (and it was a super close fight). I really changed my opinion on a lot of fighters after I did the five best wins of each contender thread...really kind of laid out an average of each fighter (good wins). Most great ones only had two or three good wins. Really good ones had five good names and the best had five plus. Men like Loughran, Moore, Witherspoon, Terrell, Bivins, surprised most by their quality wins. I was disappointed by the likes of Norton and a few others who I thought would show better. I used to have Norton top 20 till that thread.

 

Cooney better than Povetkin? Please. That's not even close.

You can argue Mercer but I ain't biting on that either. Mercer hangs his hat on good losing performances and whacking out a hype job.

Norton in general is supremely overrated. The version Holmes faced was on the precipice of a hard run down the hill. Did Larry get some last glimmer of his prime or was Larry simply not good enough to put away the fighter Shavers and Cooney would soon turn the trick on?