If Larry Holmes had beaten Oliver McCall for the WBC title in 1995

Foreman, the lineal champ.

Holmes beats McCall and the fans would clamour for Holmes-Foreman with Tyson fresh out of the pen.

 

No, probably not. Holmes had gone on record saying he'd never want to fight Mike Tyson again.

But who knows. With King in the mix it would have to happen.

And 7 years older Holmes still isn't beating a 7 years older Tyson.

 

If Holmes beats McCall he probably fights Foreman and gets robbed because Foreman is so much more popular with the public in general. He still continues to fight trying to get a rematch with Foreman.

 

Man, I go back and forth about what would have happened had their old man battle actually happened. I'm currently of the mind that Holmes mixed it up too much at mid-range when older and that doing that over an entire fight against Foreman is not the best idea. Although part of me says "well, that's because he was fighting young guys -- against Foreman he'd be fighting a guy the same age, so maybe he'd be able to fight more of the type of fight he did when young". Hard to be 45 and dance around a 25 year old, but around another 45 year old? Maybe?

How about the dirty trick battle between them? Imagine the battle of the pushing that would ensue. The guy who two-hand shoves everyone straight on vs the guy who one-handed (or one-forearmed) shoves opponents faces while stepping past them. Would be kind of funny.

I have no idea who I'd root for there. I'm big fans of both!

 

I actually had Holmes edging McCall 115-113. So, in my opinion, he did beat him. I had Larry winning rounds 1,2,3,5,6,8,10

 

Holmes win over Ray Mercer would still be the highlight of his comeback fights IMO. Larry's comeback run was pretty damn impressive overall.

When considering who the #3 heavyweight all time is quite often its between Lennox and Larry. Thinking maybe Holmes comeback edges it his way.

 

As old men Holmes would have embarrassed George. Foreman was too smart to take that fight. Larry would have talked trash and might have gotten ugly.

 

True, who could pass up a bald man smiling on television selling grills.

 

I don’t see much in his comeback. Win over Mercer (who was pretty green), close loss to McCall, and loss to Holyfield. Not that much there.

 

He gets a lot of credit for how good he looked against Holyfield for the first half of the fight. I had him ahead until he started running out of gas. It was enough to convince me that the only reason he lost was due to his age, and that if he'd have been 10 years younger, he'd have beaten Holyfield.

 

They were actually signed to fight when they were both 49 years old, had received their advances on their purses, and then the financing for the fight fell through. It was going to be called The Battle of the Ages.

It's too bad they didn't have Don King promote it.

 

I think Holy matured with the George and Larry fights. Imo he peaked shortly thereafter.

 

100% agreed, they meet both at 30 years old Holmes wins a decision. In my opinion its pretty clear when rewatching Holmes-Holyfield.