drug addict age 12 year bad kid. quit heroin & success to box all way winning WBC title! then back with the hard drug heavy user abuse. ruined career . with Berbick appears 38 aged boxer, with Tyson 42, with Holyfield looks like 50 year fighter!
Thomas had THAT jab, but Larry still had a very good jab and nearly decade of fighting those in and around the top of the division, and always winning... Holmes WU12/15.
At his best Thomas had no business losing to Berbick, it was the first sign his time as a top heavyweight was rapidly ending.
Do you have a link to that quote, please? Asked respectfully. Thomas could have beaten him from late 83 on. Before that he wouid have been stopped late. I doubt Thomas could have withstood the Holmes of the Witherspoon fight for long, he would have lost a 12 round decision or been TKO'd if the fight were 15.
The quotes will come from mags not online. I can absolutely verify them. Thomas beat an in shape Witherspoon with a lot less trouble than Holmes the next year. I'm not saying this equals Holmes losing but it would have been a very tough fight.
That was a very impressive performance by Thomas, perhaps his best .. I felt Tim was a bit timid in the fight but Thomas deserved the decision .. by 83 on Holmes was past his best ... still very good but simply past his best .. the Witherspoon fight was very tough for him as Tim pounded him with rights to the body all fight .. I feel Holmes certainly deserved that decision but he was no longer the 1978 - 80 vintage .. I still feel he'd have edged Thomas as I don't feel Thomas matched ups as well against Larry as Tim did .. take away that serious Jab and Thomas didn't have that much in my opinion ... a tough guy for sure but not as talented as some of the others of that lost generation of heavyweights ..
It's certainly an open bout IMO. I think it would be very close at any rate. Holmes winning wouldn't surprise as he was a winning type of fighter and had all that experience. The thing is tho Holmes declined more post Witherspoon and they would have fought around 85 and Larry had noticeably slowed by then. As a matter of fact i think he'd dropped quite a bit even since the Witherspoon affair and that really opens it up for Thomas. The Holmes jab had lost quite a bit of snap. I'd accept debate either way. I feel that Thomas was repelling Tim's attacks with aggression of his own and stifling him. Late on i remember Witherspoon resorting to the odd right hand haymaker in an effort to turn the fight with one punch.
Nope. We have discussed it any number of times and someone else posted something similar that he said, but I read it in a boxing magazine at the time. Holmes said that that he wouldn't be fighting the young guys, and if he was going to come back again, they would have to give him someone that he could beat.
If Spinks beat him, Thomas would have gotten him worse in 85. In fact, I don't see even an 84 Holmes beating peak Thomas.
