How does prime Larry Holmes vs Mike Tyson go?

I'm inclined to agree. That was something else. Peak Frazier would be an absolute nightmare for Holmes, win or lose.

They were in survival mode by then, though. Especially Smith.

Have to say, the fight didn't look unwinnable for Tucker but he didn't really go for it. It's easy to say of course when you're not in there with peak Tyson yourself, but it wasn't much separating them in most of the rounds Tyson won imo. I had it 8-4 to Tyson on last viewing, many rounds being pretty close.

Anyhow, we very rarely got to see Tyson in fights where it was a proper fight in the mid rounds. Thomas had a go, definitely, but faded quickly. Otherwise it's Tillis against a green Tyson and Douglas and Holy. Smith was just surviving and Tucker didn't push the issue much either after the early rounds.

 

The vast majority in here solidly favor Frazier. Even if Holmes did turn the trick it would take a monumental effort and Holmes would have been to hell and back. It's blatantly obvious really.

The average fan card has Tyson beating Tucker 10 rounds to 2. 4 rounds would be the absolute maximum one could possibly give him and the big majority stop short of that. Tucker was obviously too scared to put himself out there and he'd been in there feeling the force of Tyson's bombs, the ferocity of his attack. I think it's pretty safe to say he in no way felt he could push the envelope and survive. Holmes would be in survival mode for 3 or 4 rounds at least and Tyson would have plenty left if he wanted to ramp it up and try to claw back the rounds. Being a determined winning type fighter Holmes would IMO lay it on the line and that would be when Tyson has his moment.

 

The vote has Tyson with 52.6% at this stage and i think the closeness of the polling is a decent reflection on the open ended nature of the matchup.

 

Yeah I agree.Tyson wins. No man ever beat Tyson on points. Holmes though could be outpointed

 

10-2? Is that Eye on the Ring? He won two out of the first three and I think you would have to be a bit stingy not to give him at least one more, but there are a lot of Tyson fans out there of course.

Yeah, both Smith and Tucker was scared of exposing themselves because of Tyson's power and countering ability. Smith was quite right to since he was way out of his depth, but Tucker had a bigger chance of doing something even though the likely outcome would have ended with him being stopped or counted out.

You have to give it to Thomas that he gave it a go, even after being badly rocked in the first round. For those who claim that all you had to do was to stand up to Tyson can see in that fight the most likely outcome of doing that.

Holmes at his very best was a level above even peak Thomas, of course. But even in the best case scenario for him he would have to tread a very fine line to do enough to win but not enough to expose himself and be taken out.

Peak Frazier would be a somewhat different challenge, but also one where he would have to give absolutely everything to have an even realistic chance.

 

No outcome would shock me, in order of likeliness I would go
1/ Holmes UD
2/ Tyson KO
3/ Holmes KO
4/ Tyson points
Gun to head I think Holmes gets off the floor to win, builds up a lead early, survives an onslaught in the middle rounds and then wins the championship rounds.

 

That's because he didn't last to the final bell, otherwise he would have lost to both Douglas and Holy on points.

It's not like Vitaly who never ended a fight behind on the cards.

 

Yep. RORSCHACH who is a top shelf scorer had 1 even, Tucker winning 3 and 12. Giving Tucker 3 rounds would be fair from memory. Tyson stymied him pretty fast.

Smith's best moment in the fight came in the last ten seconds when he finally found the balls to let something go knowing the bell was about to ring. Of course Tyson would have been easy to catch unawares at this point as Smith had done nothing previously.

The likely outcome was certainly Tucker getting stopped which is why he didn't go balls to the wall. He still fought quite well despite barely winning any rounds.

Oh absolutely. Thomas still had a granite jaw at this point.

Absolutely on all counts. Both Tyson and Holmes would have to be on point via their own styles.

Holmes? Yeah he'd have to go to the well and perhaps he'd have to go there to see the finish line. Peak Frazier was hell and he was blitzing both your body and your head so if you couldn't punch him out of there you had to be able to withstand his non stop blitz of both body and head.

 

Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder?

 

On my own personal all-time heavyweights list, I have only two people ranked higher than Larry Holmes, their names were Ali and Louis.

I was not a huge Holmes fan in real time, there was something about him I just didn't care for, but with the passage of time I appreciate him more and I think people are selling him short in this thread (and, as usually, putting the warrior/gladiator type on too high a pedestal).

I think Mike has his moments and certainly has a chance to connect and take him out, but I see absolute peak level Holmes busting up the bully really badly and winning a UD or a late stoppage.

 

Even Tillis's own family couldn't see 7-3 for Tillis.

I've never actually understood how anyone thought Tillis beat Tyson, don't get me wrong it was a competitive/good fight for the upcoming Tyson. Similar to an upcoming Ali having a competitive fight vs Doug Jones. But for me with the knockdown Tyson was a clear winner by atleast 2 or 3 points in my view.

 

You left out Roy Orbison. You got it?

 

Tyson stops Holmes I don't want to sound like a broken record as I've said it many times before but Holmes is one of my favourite Heavyweights but he could be vulnerable. Holmes had great recovery abilities but he never did it against someone like Tyson who was a clinical finisher with dynamite in both fists.

Tyson was trained specifically to beat Holmes to counter over the jab with the right hand which actually happened in their fight in 88.

For me Holmes would get caught again and unlike vs Shavers, Snipes, wouldn't be able to recover against a devastating finisher like Tyson.

 

I just watched it yesterday, Tillis fought like he was on drugs or his life depended on it. Ive never seen someone throw punches like that off the ropes while out on his feet except for bradley vs provodnikov.
By far the best performance of tillis'
career.

 

It truly was...if he'd fought that way against Weaver he might have had the WBA title.