Holmes was stuck between Ali and Tyson, while Froch was stuck between Calzaghe and Ward.... Holmes was very bitter and it seems Froch is as well. Carl seems to be even more so based on the fact that he comes across as arrogant as hell on top of being bitter. To me Larry was just bitter but he seems to have mellowed with age.
to be fair to both holmes and froch, prime holmes probably would have handled tyson after a very nasty first half, he had the iron chin, the pinpoint jab and the survival skills to outpoint him. And he would have a fiar chance against prime ali too. But at the time he fought them both matches were worthless, and holmes tyson and ali all came out to face each other regardless. Slightly different with froch, froch was joes next mando and a dangerous one so joe left the division, so the fight which was about to happen didnt - shame for froch as joe was post prime, getting floored by old men by then so froch may have smashed him similarly. But he did get Ward, who was sadly just another level entirely.
Oh, in the sense the OP spells out, sure... but stylistically, if anybody is Larry Holmes writ small (about Froch's size) it was John Conteh..
No. Froch was tough as old boots but not an elite technician by a long way. His career is undoubtable good however
Kessler was also the division's CLEAR number two behind Calzaghe for the last couple of years of his reign...with a lot of distance between him and whoever number three was... (I don't even remember exactly, that's how insignificant everybody looked from the Mt. Olympus vantage of Joe & Mikkel)
and also number 1 SMW for 3 years, atfter Ottke, until he lost to joe. Kessler also had the advantage of several defences of the unified crowns in just 3 years to joes one unified defence in 10 years. Following the fight, Joe became number 1 SMW for a few months as long as he could avoiding making a defence of them...as soon as a defence came up, he gave up his number 1 status.
Actually, there were A LOT of people who considered Kessler number one until the Calzaghe fight (Kessler had two belts, and was not “scared” of unifying as soon as possible). He was also pretty much consensus number one when the Super Six tourney began.
I was really talking about there attitudes not there skill level. Skill wise Holmes is above Froch, I meant there attitudes because Froch sounds like a bitter old lady and Holmes used to be bitter.
I was among those people, actually, but we definitely were in the minority (and were humbled when they ultimately met, and Joe so thoroughly, as Mikkel pointed out in his post-fight interview "spoilt all of my boxing")
This is about as well put as it can get. Prime Holmes vs prime Tyson I got 50/50. I loved Froch as a fighter but he wasnt anywehre near Holmes level and obviosly wards level.
