Assessing Larry Holmes's all time heavyweight standing

I nominate you for King of the Pedants. Wlad, unfortunately for him, was not gifted a title shot against a belt holder as limited as McCall during his forties.

I'm also reading into this that you find it upsetting that you can now see why Wlad should rank higher Holmes, which is why you're behaving like a paid editor instead of seeing the forest.

 

Wlad hasn't fought for the last 6 years hence why it's such a daft comparison point.

Read into it what you want, I often rank Wlad above Holmes, that's not the issue here. The issue is you are the very first poster in forum history to use the McCall loss against Holmes, and I felt it noteworthy enough to comment.

 

He had a chance to beat Marciano's record and be the oldest champion. Neither happened because he ran guys close but lost twice.

 

I have Larry at #3 when considering his skillset, logevity, and how well his style holds up today. I think he would be an issue for nearly every heavyweight to exist at his best. I have him behind Ali, Louis, and closely above Foreman and some others.

 

Pretty much agree 100%. I would say 7 but we all approach these rankings with slightly different weighting of criteria.

 

He had nothing like the backing Ali did as an amateur. He was working all day as a delivery truck driver, going to the gym at night, and riding the bus to fights. Maybe he wouldn't have been any better than he ended up being, but he certainly didn't have the opportunity to find out.

 

Beating McCall would have hardly made him world champion. Just a title holder.

But that fight should never ever be used as a negative against Holmes. I'm still shocked you tried tbh.

 

Holmes lost his last 5 title fights. That means something and go ahead and name some other ex-champs with that distinction. And if you choose to add the Neilsen result, make it 6 title fight losses in a row.

 

People on here would praise Holmes to death for beating McCall if he'd pulled it off.

 

Of course.

 

Robinson failed in his final four attempts at a 'world title', it never did his standing any harm.

 

Not sure he makes it in my top 5 but somewhere in 10? And since we're on HBO you can kiss where the sun don't shine if you disagree.

 

Great tough fighter with a lot of heart and skill, did not fight the best of his era
he would have always had trouble with the great pressure fighters like Marciano, Frazier and Tyson, Dempsey? but his jab was one of my favorites.

Top 10 -

 

This is one of the shortest, yet most effective, "counter" posts I've read on here. There is no credible comeback to it.

 

Five strikes and you're out?