How good/bad were Holmes's title challengers?

Page actually told the WBA at some very early point he wanted to learn his trade before fighting for their title. Trying to remember, they may have already been going to install him number 1 before he'd ever beat anyone at all. This is pre Berbick.

 

The WBA made some crazy decisions. Apart from one guy, every challenger to that belt became champion. Even so, the other organizations made crazy decisions too.

I think at the retirement of ALI, had the WBA simply said They would also recognise WBC champ Holmes providing he flight their top WBA contender in 1979 it would have saved so much nonsense.

All those guys would have then fought Holmes and we would know if Larry really would duck them or if it was the rediculous political and promotional dificulties to blame. For one thing those guys would have fought eliminations and would not be 19-0 or 10-0.

I look upon the WBA champs as a revolving #1 contender spot that kept eliminating itself.

At no point was anybody better than Larry.

The only predicted threat to any title during the period was Gerry C00ney.

 

Holmes left the #1s to eliminate themselves against the #2 and #3 contenders while he fought a bunch of guys ranked #9 or #10. He fought a WBC/IBF #1 twice in seven years, and never fought a Ring #1 or #2.

Claiming he was better is hollow when it's a matter of record that he ignored these guys, preferring to take the path of least resistance and leaving them to beat each other while he took on some lesser light.

 

We read all this two weeks ago on the Holmes cherry picking thread.

 

It was an interesting and frustrating time. Some interesting fights didn't happen through no fault of Holmes.

Holmes - Young likely would've happened if Young wouldn't have lost to Ocasio twice. Instead Larry fought novice Ocasio.

Holmes - Norton II was in the works, but Shavers put a quick end to that.

Holmes - Tate was an anticipated future super fight, but Weaver got in the way. I bet John Tate wished that 12-round title fights would've been the norm earlier. Later Tate was signed to fight Holmes - he was viewed as no threat by that point, of course - got injured and cancelled, and never got himself back in the game with any seriousness.

Mike Weaver didn't do himself any favors by defending his strap only once a year. To top it off he has a closer-than-it-should-have-been defense against Tillis, a novice on the level of many of the Holmes opponents we're denigrating. In the period of time Weaver had two defenses, Holmes had seven.

The ****ey fight was supposed to happen in March of 82 (and maybe before, but my memory is unclear) but ****ey kept getting hurt.

We know about the Coetzee cancellation. What I don't think has been mentioned is that the WBC refused to rank South African fighters for a while due to apartheid. So Holmes - Coetzee wasn't going to happen any time between 1979 and 1984.

I seem to recall Holmes - Page being discussed, but Page blew it against Bey, who Holmes did fight.

Holmes (and King and Suliaman) aren't innocent. There were fights that could have been made in place of fights that actually were. But I'm still a big Larry Holmes fan. For the five years between the beginning of 78 to the end of 82 there was no one around who I'd pick to beat him.

 

This is true, and you can repeat it like a broken record, but some (Choke) will never acknowledge/understand it.

At some point we all have to agree to disagree.

 

Was that around '82? That may have been one of his biggest mistakes.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19810626&id=Y49eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HFENAAAAIBAJ&pg=62

(Page 11)

 

May have been even earlier, in that article he's ready to roll the way it reads. He absolutely told the WBA at one point he wanted to learn his trade and actually be ready by the time he got his shot.

 

Whattttttttttt :?

 

This article is from June '81. Page was a consensus top 10 guy by then, but had not fought any contenders yet.

He had only been a pro less than two years

If he had beaten Berbick, I think he would have gotten a title shot in the second half of 1982 - if Holmes would have taken the fight. I have my doubts since post ****ey Holmes fought many light threats.

 

I'm not encouraging him anymore lol

 

:good

 

As typical with every time period all the true details get lost as time extends beyond the period in question.

That time period was THE WORST in terms of getting together the paper hwt champions to unify the paper titles. The commissions were milking the new cash cows....THEIR OWN HWT CHAMPION, and we're doing their best not to give it up.

 

Greg, IIRC, was #3 both WBC and WBA around that time. He always was ranked high by the WBA, and actually was in line to fight Weaver mid-to-late '82, according to this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/02/sports/page-unfazed-by-controversy.html