Holmes's Title Opposition, as **** as they say???

He was pencilled in to meet his mandatory, Daffy Duck, in March '86 but he priced himself out.

 

Somebody once mentioned that a possible match with Tony Tubbs for an IBF/WBA unification was in the works, but I'm not exactly sure if it's true.

 

One boxing mag said only half jokingly that they expected him to take a very easy defense then offer Marvin Hagler big money for his 50-0 fight.

 

After hearing him say this four times, i don't know whether to laugh or to cry anymore :boohoo

 

Great post. And I think Larry would retire. He was an aging fighter and would be at that point 3 years past his prime. There would have to be a huge payday like the Tyson fight to bring him out. Of course, either way he would come back in the 90's to fight Foreman again.

 

So far, it seems to me, that everyone who likes Page *cough* JT *cough* ignores or forgets that Larry dropped Don King in 1983, and refused to deal with him after that. He dealed with King in the Tyson fight, and had to put up with the usuall crap. He had to go see Don after not getting payed when he should of, or not what he was going to get, and he had to curse King out to finally get the money. People blame Larry all too much for being a great buisness man, and being smart with the way he did things as champion. Its very clear and simple, if Larry was offered more to fight Page than he was to fight Frank and Frazier, then you would have seen him in the ring punishing his left glove with Pages face.

 

I'm not convinced he would have, although that's certainly the conventional assumption. Anybody could go 49-0 against stiffs, win a championship in their 50th match, and then retire. I really have to wonder if the opportunity to break Joe Louis's record for all time highest number of title defenses would have been too tempting an objective to pass up.

If Larry had been granted the judges decision over Mike Spinks, that would have been Holmes's 21st successful title defense. At 49-0, he'd be six championship wins away from 26 title wins, and perhaps going for 54-0 to break Louis's record would have been too great a temptation to pass up. (I believe he should already have been there by the time of the first match with Mike Spinks, having only defended once in 1984. It doesn't matter to me personally though, since I consider Larry as if he did indeed go 55-0. Mercer is merely icing on the cake.)

Nonetheless, winning over 20 consecutive championship matches as an undefeated boxer was an unprecedented accomplishment, and he did defend it successfully in eight consecutive calendar years. (Louis held his title for over eleven years, but Guinness should have placed an asterisk next to that record because of his inactivity during WW II. While I don't blame Louis at all for his title being on ice, the fact of it remains the same. Ditto Ali's going into exile. I though Larry should have been listed alongside Louis for his eight consecutive years of championship wins.)

 

And rightfully so! All Holmes had to do was fight Page and be done with it! And I'm not even saying that Page would have beaten Larry(although he stood a great chance), I'm just saying that Holmes owed it to the sport of boxing and to his fans to do the right thing: fight Page! I remember watching the Champions Forever video with Ali, Foreman, Holmes, Frazier, Norton. At the end of the video, each fighter gives a little talk on how they would like to be remember. During Larry's talk, he said that he would like to be remembered as a fighter who gave opportunities to fighters(shot at the title) when they deserved it. Well, he didn't mentiond Greg Page and why he allowed himself to be stripped! LOL

 

:good

 

You make some valid points, Mendoza, but Larry could've fought Greg if he wanted to. Instead, Marvis Frazier and Scott Frank. Scott Frank. Freakin Scott Frank. That is inexcusable. Holmes should have given Greg the chance at the belt. And in all probability, Greg had a heck of a chance of winning, provided if everything was on. Say what you want about Gregory Edward Page, but the man was definitely talented, and Larry knew this.Hence the avoidance.

 

Larry fought Frank because it was part of the contract with fighting Frazier. It was sort of a combo. Larry signed a contract that said he would fight Frank and Frazier for 5 point something mill. I think it was like 5.5 or something. Everyone is talented that is in the top 10. And yes Page did have more talent then most of the heavyweights out their at the time, but don't forget, Larry still had miles more talent, and he was an ATG. Page vs Holmes would have been the battle of the jabs and techincal aspects, both sections where Holmes was very near the top for all time technical fighters. Larry possesed the better jab, and he would win most jabbing battles. I think it would be close, but gun to my head, I would think Larry would beat Page by about 3 rounds. Another factor is how long the fight is. If its a 15 round fight, then IMO that increases Larry's chances of winning.

 

Exactly! And if Larry felt that he deserved more money to fight Page, then the next question should have been, why? What was it about Page that you felt you deserved more money for fighting? The money was ok to fight Frank and Frazier, but Larry felt Page was worth more? LOL......

 

Well, for one thing, Larry was the champion and in damn near all of championship fights before Larry was champion, the champ always got more money. But they never wanted that with Larry. He fought the politics for that. Then he went and fought the oppenents. I would say 85% of Holmes fights that didn't happen were because of politics or King. As for the other 15%, its more the fighters. Notice "fighters" is plural. Its almost never just 1 fighters fault. Usually the other fighter has something to do with it, or could have done something different. Like Coetzee-Holmes, if Coetzee agreed to fight in Vegas the first time, then they were going to fight. The 2nd time the promoter (I think it was something Smith) got sent to jail for basically stealing money from the bank, thus where he got all of his money for the huge paydays for Holmes and Coetzee. So then their fight fell apart. Larry didn't fight Page mainly because of politics. If Larry was going to get the payday he wanted, or close to it, then you would have seen him whipping Page's ass.

 

But why was Larry so picky about his purse when it concerned Greg Page? IF Page was no better than most of the other fighters that Holmes fought at the time, why all of a sudden decide to take issue with the money for a Page fight?

 

He was always picky about his purses. All of the other times he was able to get what he wanted, but not with Page. He made more money fighting low risk fights like Frazier and Frank, then he would have with a fight with Page. Thats one of the reasons he fought Frazier instead of Page.