How Good Was Larry Holmes?

Holmes was a genius inside the ring and outside the ring too. Possibly the cleverest boxer ever- he kind of reminds me of BHop

 

Seriously **** you and your worthless existence with that comment.

 

Spinks was pretty good.. I would rate maybe Bob Foster higher

 

Holmes was a brilliant fighter but sometimes his own bitterness is all too evident.

 

Larry is top three to top five heavyweight champs ever,his big mouth,surly personality and coming straight after the myth of Ali prevented him being more popular.He was better than Ali,a more complete fighter/boxer.He could do everything Ali could do but with more power,greater veriety of shots/combinations and without the silly bouncy bouncy power robbing stamina waisting foot work.

 

Well, he did take a fight against HW-"champ" Brian Nielsen in his later years (1997) and lost (SD 12).....

 

One of the best jab's in heavy weight history.

 

larry just had the misfortune of having to follow ali & to a lesser extent being the one to proceed tyson,so he was sandwiched between the 2 most famous boxers of all time.

 

Larry Holmes was one of the best HWTs of all time, superb jab, quite quick on his feet, wasnt a KO puncher but had a reasonable dig, good stamina, a good finisher, good chin, superb recovery powers & in a textbook sense might have only been 2nd to Joe Louis.

I rank him in my top 10 HWTs ever.

I think he outpoints both holyfield & Lewis tho the Lewis fight could go either way due more than anything to the size of Lewis, Larry was the greater fighter IMO.


Holmes was greatly under-appreciated because of the era he fought in tho he seems to get most of his due credit these days. Im glad of that personally.


:thumbsup

 

Larry Holmes was not a boring fighter, he had several exciting fights. The fight with Norton is classic, the fights with Weaver, Witherspoon, Cooney, Spnipes and the second time wtih Shavers were great fights.

 

He was good fighter, but did not fight some guys more deserving than Snipes, Cooney, Oscasio, and Cobb. He never fought: Dokes, Coatzee, and Page. Witherspoon gave him tough time in Witherspoon's 15th pro fight, never got rematch. Weaver was beating him before stoppage, never got rematch. Don King protected Holmes. I'm not calling Holmes coward by any means, but he did not fight best of his era as champ.

 

Snipes and Witherspoon were not suposed to be exciting. Weaver was kicking his ass, ref stopped it too soon. Shavers could never beat top contenders, and even lost to some club fighers, like Stander. Don King controlled Shavers, which is why he kept geting chances, including title bouts (Holmes and Ali)