Could any version of Larry Holmes beat the Tyson that fought Holmes in 1988?

The version that fought Cooney, maybe.

 

Hard to say,I like to think that Whilst Larry was active he's always gonna give Tyson hell.

 

Holmes was actually starting to slip at that point. If he's gonna beat Tyson, it'd need to be his absolute peak version. Gun to my head, that right over the jab spells doom for any version of Larry. I'd give him a very live chance of 40% though.

Of course this new version of Holmes we've seen on ESB recently, who's capable of outslugging Foreman according to some could very well do the same to Tyson.

 

No chance, none in history are beating Tyson at his 80's best.

 

Even a peak Holmes would have trouble with the 1988 version of Tyson--he was so explosive back then and had thunder in both hands! I'd give Larry only a 50-50 chance at best--maybe slightly less.

 

I always asked myself dis too op, think I give Holmes at least one decision in a trilogy but I'm not sure, especially after all the work that Tyson did with Cus to study him in order to defeat him.

 

Absolute peak Larry, certainly.

 

If Holmes gets past the first 6 rounds then his chances of winning greatly increase as Tyson didn't really stop opponents deep into fights.

The issue is Holmes did get caught now and again and Tyson is one of the best finishers of all time. Holmes did have good recuperative powers but he never faced a finisher quite like Tyson so if Holmes does get hurt he might not be allowed to recover.

The thing is also is that Cus D'Amato had specifically trained Tyson to beat Holmes by countering over his jab with the right hand and that's the punch that caught Holmes in their actual fight. So Tyson might just be a bad style match up for any version of Holmes to be quite honest.

But I do give Holmes a chance if he fights a smart fight and gets into the 2nd half of the fight I think it's a winnable fight him but I'd make Tyson a slight favourite honestly.

 

Holmes pre 1983 was really great but max 40%, maybe even not. He has more chance with Foreman

 

To beat Tyson, you had to at least be able to neutralise him up close if you weren’t going to get the better of him, Holyfield got the better of him and Lewis was at least able to neutralise him through holding and pushing him off, you can’t just stay on the outside against Tyson, his feet were too quick at closing the distance and countering, and he’d back you up and close off the ring well, there was no escaping him, you had to fight him or deal with him physically at some point, and I don’t feel like Holmes had the capability of doing that.
But Holmes could beat guys who would beat Tyson, he’d beat Holyfield and Liston who would both beat Tyson prime for prime IMO.

 

For the record: 1988 Mike Tyson IMO was not the greatest heavyweight fighter ever to step into a ring. But as I have said repeatedly he was capable of beating any other fighter in history on a given night. I don’t think those statements are in conflict.

 

Theoretically, yes. Is it something I think would definitely happen ? Not necessarily. Larry Holmes showed glaring vulnerabilities to lesser opponents than Tyson even in the peak of his prime. Of course we saw the same thing for Tyson against Buster Douglas in 1990 but that was one isolated fight.

 

It's safe to say that the version to beat Tyson would have to be significantly better than the one who did fight him in 88.

Obviously prime Holmes would be better, but it's not one of those young vs old fights you watch and take away that the old guy would obviously win if he was in his prime.

So Holmes has to be sufficiently faster and sharper to weather the storm of the first six rounds, where he would be the favourite after that point.

Really 50/50 in my view. Easy enough to visualise either scenario.

 

I couldn’t even be irritated by that. It was just quality satire in my book.

Anyway, as with vs Foreman, I consider this a near 50-50 fight for Holmes. I don’t know that Holmes was fast enough to cope with Tyson…but I’m not sure either that Tyson had the composure to handle the much steadier Holmes keeping him at bay.

God, if only Tyson had been born even five years earlier…