Interesting that Larry Holmes...

Larry wasn't exactly a powder puff puncher. He could really commit to his punches. Going into the Spinks fight 34 of his 48 victories were stoppages. And even though he didn't have A+ power, he often fought for the knockout. He had a real mean streak and took umbrage at being stung.

 

That was the difference, attitude, Ali was a boring watch because his mind was always on his feet - Holmes didn’t avoid being in front of someone, he was an irritable guy in the ring who wanted to shove his fist down your throat.

 

Holmes fights were more exciting than many of Ali’s fights imo. The difference was the media loved Ali. Ali was a cultural figure and Holmes personality paled in comparison to put in mildly. It was crazy that Holmes could have so many good fights with back and forth action and his entire run he was labeled as boring.

 

I always thought he had a cracking right, but when we had the Ali-Holmes power thread on here, more people picked Ali for power, and some where outright calling Holmes a feather-fist, in so many words.

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He was rubbish.

 

While he didn't hit hard enough to be labelled a "boxer-puncher" Holmes was a bit of a boxer-fighter. He wasn't the pure boxer people seem to envision. Sure he could box, absolutely, but quite often after a handful or so early rounds he was off his toes and willing to exchange on a semi regular basis. He had a fine chin but it wasn't iron which led to some surprise knockdowns and mini crises. To balance this out excitement wise he had excellent powers of recuperation, a huge fighting heart and most times a willingness to get in there and swing not long after being in trouble. This made for plenty of exciting fights.

Ali at his best was a lot more mobile, harder to hit and less vulnerable and didn't get dropped or seriously hurt for a long long time post Cooper 1. For some years second career Ali had some great fights, not the least those against Frazier and Foreman. During the late stages he had some bore fests.

 

Where are these people? In all my years i don't think I've seen anyone make such a claim. Boring personality compared to Ali maybe but I've not seen accusations of boring in the actual ring. He had a lot of exciting fights.

 

Again, I've never seen such claims. If i have there's been very very very few of them.

 

Yes, when stung and/or with his back to the wall, Holmes’ instinctive fight backs could be very exciting.

Even when badly hurt by Witherspoon, Larry stopped Tim dead in his tracks with some beautiful straight right hands to even the score in round 9 or at least come close to doing same.

I recall some fights where Larry sat on and controlled the fight with his left jab alone for quite a few rounds - beautiful jab but that could be a bit boring (at least for me).

But why wouldn’t he? - a very sound strategy, employing the least compromising punch in the book - make ‘em drunk with the jab before lowering the boom - which Larry said more or less in his own words.

 

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Nery everytime someone mentions Holmes

 

I would say Holmes had enough of a pop to keep his man honest.

 

That would sum it up.

 

Same as Hearns, it’s because they’d always start trading with opponents when they’d fire back, they’d always feel the need to throw back after the opponent threw rather than getting out of harms way, more so Hearns than Holmes, but they’d both do this often.