January 22, 1988: Larry Holmes outpoints Mike Tyson (UD12)

Holmes either fights Tyson again or does a third Spinks fight.

 

Throw him into the top 5 if that were the case.

 

To me Holmes is already only after Ali and Louis.

I imagine the Tyson rematch would have happened, but Larry quite possibly would have taken it easy at least at first...like Qawi.

Actually, I'm betting he would have been most interested in George Foreman, who was kind of still breaking back into the ranks at the time. The money for that would have been bigger than for a young kid who already got beat, or Spinks, who wasn't anywhere near as interesting or colorful as George.

 

George is the third greatest HW of all time!

 

I have a hard time arguing that, since for me after Ali, Louis, and Holmes comes Foreman. I mark George down just one only because he really didn't hold the title that long (though I HATE how he got robbed against Briggs). Holmes had...what, 20 successful defenses? Ali, not much under that, Louis I think had 25. They seemed to have longer, more enduring reigns.

But oh yeah, Foreman at number three is still a perfectly good call imo. He was terrific, my second favorite fighter after Larry.

 

Don't you have Primo Carnera as #1??

 

Holmes would be the oldest heavyweight champ, wouldn't he? Or at least the oldest man to win the championship. That might raise him to #2 all time. Maybe even #1, but that's pushing it.

I currently have Holmes at #3. He deserves that. Losing close decisions to Holyfield and McCall brought him there.

 

If Holmes was looking for an excellent pay day, with relatively low risk before a Tyson rematch, then maybe he could have gone Wembley that spring and had fought the top contender of a couple of the alphabet titles, Frank 'Bomber' Bruno.


But if the upset did happen, I am pretty sure DKP gets them back in the ring by May at the latest. Maybe Holmes might tell him to stick it, and fight Spinks again for a unification of the Peoples Champions....

 

Lol you have him in the top 5? I don’t think he belongs there personally. Plenty have a lot more quality wins that didn’t duck their best competition.

 

You are talking about the legacy of Tyson? Then he would be rate much worse of course losing against a finished Holmes.
And Larry would be higher but i suspect that the people would say "Tyson was an overrated guy that could not beat a shot Holmes"

 

Early 90s Foreman was a much more dangerous fight for Tyson than Holmes was.