Great Fighters and the Men they Avoided...

I'm a Stratocaster guy all the way: Blackmore, Uli Jon Roth, Hendrix are my favorites, especially Uli for lead guitar. Huge fan of Iommi and Schenker, too, a little EVH and Rhoads.

 

Holmes most certainly avoided facing Page and a rudimentary knowledge of the era would encompass that. He thought he was too dangerous for the money offered and instead decided to relinquish his long held WBC title rather than go through with the mandatory challenge.

No amount of shucking and jiving can change the fact. Most try to dance around it saying he beat the men that beat Page but that is disingenuous at best.

The Triple Crown Affair featured a fight between the two top contenders (Page and Snipes) in order to sort out who would be Holmes mandatory defense. Page won and then Holmes declined to fight him and was stripped of the title.

Truth be told as I've proven before Holmes ducked all the top challenges after the Witherspoon scare. He told us he was going to do just that. He said just after the Witherspoon fight he would never get a rematch. He said he would never fight Pinklon Thomas as well.

This was just one quote from the time -

Larry Holmes


"I'm tired of guys like David Bey hitting me up the side of my head. That means no Pinklon Thomas, no Greg Page, no Tim Witherspoon."

Things became a bit of a joke at one stage and here was one writers take on it and the prevailing thought of quite a few articles -

RULE ONE - Larry Holmes will not fight anyone meaner than his accountant.

He doesn't want to fight tough anymore,but he wants to be recognized as a tough fighter. He's on automatic, attempting to break Rocky Marciano's record of 49-0. Holmes next opponent will be drawn at the Sisters of Everlasting Compassion raffle. Rocky Marciano's last fight was against Archie Moore, which sounds like a good idea to Holmes.

As for the beat the man that beat the man -

Foreman whupped both Norton and Frazier with disgusting ease and both had beaten Ali and had life and death fights with him. There'd be no reason for Foreman to waste him time with Ali yes?

Tyson won almost every round against Tony Tucker and beat Jesse Ferguson as well who both beat Buster so why bother with Tyson - Douglas?

History is littered with the same scenario's. Holmes was on the decline which made him a bit vulnerable to the best guys on their best night. The betting for Holmes Page was already up with Holmes an 8-5 fave which isn't huge. A fight with Thomas would have been close to even money.

One can only imagine the furore if poor old Rocky Marciano did similar.

 

Those quotes help a LOT. Many thanks.

 

It's all good. Holmes is a great fighter but he did take it easy at the tail end of his career. That was his choice and people can judge it how they see fit.

Part of the problem IMO was his bitterness and perceptions. He really did get a me vs many going and truth be told it helped make him the fighter he was. At the end from memory he just didn't want to give people the (perceived) satisfaction of seeing him possibly beat.

From basically all accounts away from the spotlight and in comfortable more private settings he was a truly fantastic guy. When in the spotlight he just got a bit of foot in mouth and mostly put on a certain front in these settings.

 

It's possible his getting compared to Ali and Marciano wore on him.

But I guess it could be said his tactics backfired on him. He was obviously convinced a light heavy couldn't take away his title and look what happened in the first fight.

 

Heavyweight south paws were VERY rare during Holmes prime years. Most were converted too orthodox during that era. I can't think of one that was ranked during Holmes prime years.

 

Yes it was tough to follow the footsteps of an Ali. It would have been quite aggravating.

Yeah Spinks was considered an easy beat. He'd never even fought at heavyweight. He fought an amazing fight ambushing a complacent and stale Holmes.

 

I was shocked beyond words when I watched Spinks win that fight. And outraged when the judges gifted him the second.

 

I was actually cheering Holmes on in the rematch. Before that i was down on him because of the late choices but after I'd seen him get beaten the mate and i were really cheering for him. I thought he was hard done by. It was a bit closer than some say but Larry was certainly the winner for mine.

 

After Byrd and Toney shared the same bill, and Byrd faced Davarryll Williamson and Toney fought Dominick Guinn, two absolutely dreadful fights, nobody wanted to see any of those guys ever again. (LOL)

The referee in the Byrd-Williamson bout actually had to ask them a couple times to actually "fight." They wouldn't punch each other. (LOL)

 

Mine are all Epiphone Sg's but I'm a lefty. Blackmore is my favorite, Iommi is up there also, I love Martin Barre from Jethro Tull, Pete Townshend, The Who and Purple are my top 2 bands, also love ELP and YES.

 

I take it from the guys you like you're a Strat through Marshall guy. What do you play through a JCM 800?