Larry Holmes (Cooney Fight) V Mike Tyson (Spinks fight)?

Sounds like a lot of excuses. Barely getting by Witherspoon doesn’t excuse the gaps in Holmes’ resume if that’s what you’re trying to claim.

 

It's no excuse that Witherspoon felt relieved to lose the second time to Bonecrusher to get out of his contract with Don King who ripped him off.

 

I have a bridge to sell you.

 

Even Bob Hazelton???

 

Oh, really? Well, I might be interested, but only if it comes with a free view of the river and a discount on tolls.

 

I agree, even in the Douglas fight Tyson was not himself and looked off.

So when you talk about movement that would give Tyson a problem, do you mean someone like Muhammad Ali? George Foreman was never much of a mover, yet if we took a poll I'm sure the majority would say Prime George Beats Tyson.

 

This is a highly debatable issue. Whitearspoon had great difficulty defeating several guys whom Tyson easily destroyed, and even lost to several. What's more, Tyson didn't have as much trouble with any of his rivals in the 80s as Larry Holmes had with Tim Whitearspoon or Snipes.

1. Holmes called Berbick the strongest fighter he's ever fought

2. Holmes had very hard, even fights with Williams and Spinks while Tyson needed about 10 minutes total for all of them

3. Holmes was destroyed in a direct fight with Tyson.

The facts speak very, very much against Larry. Of course, this doesn't mean that he had worse achievements and would have definitely lost to Tyson, but everything points to that. I think that in 8 or 9 fights out of 10, the fight of the best Holmes with the best Tyson ends more or less like it did in 1988. It could be shorter, longer, Tyson is definitely more at risk, but sooner or later he catches up with Larry.

 

If it falls down, you can blame it on Don King.

 

In another thread you wrote we all saw what we saw when Tyson brutally dispatched of Larry Holmes. That's one way of looking at it. How much credence do you give to context? What would you say to a poster who said we all saw what we saw when Buster, Evander, and Lennox dispatched of Tyson?

 

One difference is that Holmes almost got knocked out by Snipes in the fight before Cooney by the same shot Tyson landed.

 

Fair enough. As long as a person is consistent that's all one can ask for

 

I think Douglas had excellent lateral movement that he coupled excellently with his jab. In fact, he had one of the most beautiful footwork I have ever seen.

Holyfield also had good feet and was able to roll efficiently with Tyson's punches. His movement thwarted Tyson's attacks because he didn't allow him to generate power from mid-range.

At the time Lewis fought Tyson, he didn't rely much on his footwork but controlled range very well ( and he also knew how to spin out of some Tyson's punches like his left hook ).

 

It wasn't, actually. Thomas was the clear winner in a reasonably competitive fight. There was actually more noise about Holmes - Witherspoon. I've seen cards for Witherspoon or a draw vs Holmes, both in here and via professional writers when it happened. There was no such thing with Thomas.

 

Tyson generally was more dominant in his peak in my opinion but Holmes had no Tyson Douglas moment.

Does a 12 rounder or 15 rounder effect the result?

 

Tyson's management tried to curb his post fight vernacular after the Jesse Ferguson fight so that he wouldn't make outlandish statements like "I tried to push his nosebone into his brain!!"

You could see Steve Lott get in Mike's ear to coach him on what to say right before Merchant and HBO pushed the mic in his face against Holmes.

No way were we going to hear Tyson claim that Holmes couldn't carry his mouthpiece.