What boxers did Larry Holmes consciously and deliberately avoid, if any?

George Foreman wanted to fight Larry Holmes around the time he fought Scott LeDoux

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He openly said when Thomas was champ that if they wanted him to come back, they would have to give him someone that he could beat.

There as also a deal on the table to fight Coetzee in South Africa which Holmes nixed, ostensibly because of apartheid. We can give him a pass on that one.

Page of course. Gave up a belt.

Dokes I never heard. Hope you or someone else has the story.

Norton and Witherspoon rematches.

 

This is outright delusional...he openly admitted to doing it.

 

Where?

 

"If they want me to come back, they got to give me someone that I can beat."

"I like fighting little guys for big money."

Read through the thread. He outright refused to fight Thomas, Page and bragged about it.

 

My understanding is Foreman wanted NO PART WHATSOEVER of Holmes and his jab, because that jab would have kept the Big George at bay.

 

Right but nobody cares what your "understanding" is. I told you a fact. Foreman called out Larry Holmes around the time Foreman faced Scott LeDoux and Holmes management said they weren't going to let Larry get in the ring with Foreman.

The first was that Holmes’ trainer at the time, Richie Giachetti, wanted no part of matching his fighter with Foreman. In August 1976, Foreman stopped Scott LeDoux on CBS in a bout that was called by Jerry Quarry and Tom Brookshier. Quarry passed along to Brookshier that he spoke to Giachetti a couple days before Foreman fought LeDoux and asked him what he thought about shutting up Saddler and matching Holmes with Foreman. According to Brookshier, Quarry said Giachetti told him “There's no way I'm putting Larry in there with that Friggin’ Animal Foreman.”

 

Like I said. They weren’t “ bad “ fighters but they weren’t the best available

 

Umm…. No.. you don’t get stripped of a title when you fight “ everyone. “

 

That in no watch constitutes a duck.

Foreman ‘calling out’ Foreman —

Did you even read your own link? What you’re saying is a fact is not, in fact, factual.

What the link says is that Saddler (which according to same article, Saddler and Foreman parted ways and now it was Clancy and not Saddler in Foreman’s camp … but it doesn’t explain how many months later what Saddler says matters) said he wanted Foreman to fight Holmes. It says that Holmes’ trainer, Richie Giachetti, wanted no part of that fight.

But fights aren’t made by trainers. They’re made by managers and promoters.

And the article clearly states that Don King, who promoted BOTH Foreman and Holmes, didn’t want to make the fight.

If the promoter who has contracts with both doesn’t make the fight, the fight isn’t made.

That’s not Holmes ducking Foreman. You could equally say Foreman was ducking Holmes for that matter. Because neither had the power to make the fight if their promoter has other ideas, which clearly King did.

 

What does ‘come back’ mean here? Who is ‘they’? Exactly when did he say this and what context?

Because if he’s retired, you don’t duck people by being retired. You have left the sport.

(Not to mention when Holmes did come back it was to face Tyson, and while Holmes may have believed he had a chance to win he surely didn’t take that fight as ‘somebody I can beat’ like Tyson was some tomato can.)

 

Did South Africa have anything to do with that? Can't see any reason he would have been worried about a guy who had no chance to beat him.

 

Would have been good fights but yeah, I love the hell out of Holmes but he should have shown more love for the fans and not taken so many safe fights.

I'm not sure if a Dokes fight was ever in the works or not. It might just be my imagination confusing who was big at the time with who Holmes was supposed to fight. Dokes was certainly a worthy contender. It's worth checking to see if there is a story on that.

 

Holmes signed to fight Coetzee. The financing fell through.

I think the original idea was to hold it in South Africa. Then there was an attempt to put it together again in Las Vegas.

But the reason it didn’t happen was the promoter couldn’t come up with the money promised.

 

It was during an interview in which they were discussing his potential opponents and he said he was not interested in fighting Thomas. He would only fight again if they gave him someone he could beat. I had the magazine. It was either KO or its sister publication, I can't remember. He wasn't retired yet, but was threatening it, openly saying that he would only fight if he got soft opponents.

There was no ambiguity to it whatsoever.