If Holmes Whups Spinks Does He Retire Undefeated Or Goes On?

Good point. 50-0 sounds nice, and he can call himself the GOAT

 

If he got 50-0 to beat Marciano’s record, I think he would have announced his retirement.

Then he would have got a massive money offer to fight Tyson, he’d come out of retirement and bang goes his unbeaten run and his record!

 

This.

 

Spot on.

Sure Larry cared for his boxing record, but he cared even more for his bank account.

I suspect Larry would gladly come out of retirement to fight Joshua, Fury, Usyk, etc. if the money is right.

 

Even if Homes had gone into retirement, it would only have been a matter of time before King came knocking on his door, flashing the $$$.

Holmes would fight on.

 

Haha! Can you imagine it!!
Mind you, a few years ago I would’ve probably backed him to outpoint AJ!

But now AJ wins by SD. Arf arf

 

I agree. If Holmes had beaten Spinks, he was supposed to fight WBC cruiserweight champion Alfonso Ratliff in his 50th and final fight.

But not only did Holmes lose to Spinks, Ratliff also lost his title on the undercard.

Had he gotten to 50-0, though, I think Larry would have come back and faced Tyson ... a few years down the road. Not right away.

The money would've been too much to turn down.

 

I agree about 80s Mike doing that. But I honestly don't see the mid 90s Mike stopping the Larry of that same time. I think Larry would have taken him the distance (probably losing a far from disgraceful UD). In fact, I think it's a little weird he DIDN'T take that fight again, at least for the money. Mike was definitely declined, and Holmes handled Mercer (who wasn't far away from Mike in terms of raw strength).

 

No. He liked making money too much to stop while he was still winning. Plus I think he would have shot for 50-0 or even tried to go after Louis’s title fight record

 

He absolutely would’ve said he’s retiring…and then fought shortly afterwards. Larry had about 6 retirements in his career

 

He does. And he would lose with or without time to have some tune-ups and shake off the ring rust. That older version of Holmes post Spinks was never going to beat Tyson.

King would have offered an undefeated 50-0 version of Holmes a crazy amount of money to come out of retirement, maybe even twice as much as he originally did. The promotion would have been insane and Holmes wouldn't say no. Holmes would probably come out of retirement to fight a kangaroo for 100k, he loved making money and that was his best asset outside of his boxing skills. It allowed for him to have a comfortable life after boxing and avoided making the same mistakes as countless athletes who squandered their earnings.

Holmes was also extremely confident and competitive and wouldn't be happy seeing another confident young HW destroying the division just a year after his retirement. He'd want a piece of him. They were destined to fight.

 

Granny Clampett fought a kangaroo. Sixty million viewers tuned in — and the entire U.S. population was only about 190M at that time.

Holmes vs. Kanga = ratings bonanza.

 

How many of you consider Holmes Spinks a robbery? Didn't more people think the rematch was a robbery than the first fight? Do you consider these fights hard to score? We talk about a lot of the biggest robberies in history, but Holmes Spinks, the first one, seems to be one of those fights that some people think was a robbery and some don't. Are there people who think Spinks deserved the first fight but not the rematch? Are there people that think Spinks won both? I think a lot of people were upset by the decision because how Spinks fought which was a smart gameplan, they didn't think Holmes deserved to lose his undefeated record against a fighter who fought how Spinks did. But Spinks was slippery and timed Holmes, in the rematch Holmes was better prepared and fought a better fight but lost the decision. I really need to rewatch those fights because there were 2 classics.

 

The other thing is what do you think would happen if the Spinks that fought Larry Holmes fought Tyson. Or of course if the Holmes that fought Spinks the 2nd time fought Tyson. When Holmes fought Tyson, he wasn't the same fighter he was against Spinks, even though he lost against Spinks, I think the Holmes who fought Spinks in the rematch might have been able to go to the distance against Tyson and maybe even win a decision with the jab. The Spinks who fought Holmes didn't freeze like he did against Tyson and that Spinks might have been able to outbox Tyson or at least go the distance.