Joe Frazier in the Larry Holmes era

Answer is yes

Frazier is a movers worst nightmare. Holmes was tough but he doesn't absorb the body shots to the level that Ali did. Plus, I always found Ali to be a more creative fighter and combination puncher than Holmes.

I rank Holmes in my top 4 but Frazier is a bad stylistic match up for him. It would be competitive but I see Frazier winning clearly. Frazier cuts the ring better than anyone else.

I think Frazier beats all of them. Cooney had power only in his left and didn't have the durability or toughness to stand up to him. Coetzee has a better chance but I still don't see it. Young Spoon is terrific but doesn't have the work rate to beat him.

Dokes is a boxer with fast hands and a limited punch, no way he beats Frazier. Ditto with Page.

If Frazier is 26 in 1980, he would reign from 80-86. He might split a couple of fights with Holmes but he beats everyone else, and I do favour him over Larry.

Young Tyson ends Joe's reign in 1986.

 

I don't think he had the style or temperment to reign like Larry did. He'd probably get pissed off with someone and go all FOTC on them and throw himself off the edge. That said, half a Joe Frazier is still good enough to beat most people.

 

Probably looks like the Foster fight, Calamity Cooney would quickly find you don't trade hooks with Smokin' Joe!

 

Smoking Joe Frazier was a real blue collar champion, a hard worker in the gym, good concentration, really good body and head movement. And most of all he had that hunger and tenacity to be a great champion. His body punching and left hook is legendary. He is good enough to give a prime Larry Holmes and others bad dreams. Do not forget he had a great manager and trainer in Yank Durham that taught and looked out for his fighter. Eddie Futch also resided in that corner as well. A fight between Joe and Larry would turn out to be a fight fan's dream to watch.

 

Good post. He'd go very well.

 

Frazier becomes Champ again. Joe was very good and a special fighter.

 

Holmes fought a lot of joke contenders like evangelista,occasio, zanon,lucien Rodríguez, cobb,ledoux,leroy jones etc Frazier would destroy every ****ing body, cooney,spoon and berbick included

 

Oh and Frazier would **** Holmes,stylistical nightmare and physically was much stronger and hits harder with even more stamina and Even more heart than Holmes

 

Frazier is the one guy I would 100% pick against Larry. Hed either get a UD or maybe TKO over 15. As far as the rest he'd wipe the canvas with them.

 

I agree that Frazier would have almost been custom built for the era. The biggest obstacle, of course, would be Holmes, and there is a possibility that those two break each other down over multiple fights. But, if we assume that Frazier gets past the Easton Assassin and remains at his best, I'd concur that he runs the gamut until Tyson rises up. By the late 80s, though, bigger, heavier hitters start populating the division, and a war with Holyfield would likely finish off whatever Tyson didn't take out of Frazier. Until that point, however, Smokin' Joe likely does a demolition job on the majority of the top names of the time.

 

All respect to Iron Mike fans (I'm one), I consider FOTC Joe far more of a nightmare to prime (and far from prime) Larry than Mike, mostly in terms of championship heart. Joe had just as much a heart as Larry did, which makes him the greatest fighter Larry ever fought by a good margin (I don't count the Ali fight).

I think Larry at his best was better than the Ali who fought Frazier (not the 60 Ali of course, though I don't think he was particularly far from that level). So I believe Holmes would actually give Joe a better fight than that Ali, and that this fight itself would be the actual Fight of the Century in terms of competitiveness. Larry would come out and basically make Joe eat a lot of ugly jabs, and that punch alone would have a lot to do with Frazier losing the early rounds. Plus, I imagine Larry would be doing like Shavers I, moving and holding a lot. It's later that I see the tide seriously turning. I don't see Larry getting dropped (though Joe getting dropped by a Holmes uppercut is more than conceivable to me)..Holmes was a lot better at blocking and moving his head away from hooks than he was the overhand right (and Joe's right on its best day wasn't anymore powerful than Norton's, though that still qualifies as a no-joke punch). I do see Holmes getting really hit in the middle rounds (which is always when Larry took his little break) and getting staggered and almost stopped a couple of times. I believe he would suffer really bad in the judges' eyes there, from roughly rounds 4 to 10.

The later rounds would be contentious, as Holmes would probably get his usual second wind, and the rights would sooner or later start landing for him. But Joe isn't just going to lay down for all that, exactly the opposite. The body shots to Larry would take their toll, the hook would start landing more regularly there, while the hook to the head would still be much more rare landing flush (except for a few dire moments where Larry has to hold and unscramble his brains). However, just as he did in the distance against Berbick, he would reassert the jab and seem slightly more in control starting in the 11th through 14th.

The fifteen round would be probably even more exciting than the round with Norton (!), but Larry I think would get staggered mightily again, almost dropped, but he lands the uppercut and Joe for the first time makes a misstep, leading Larry to fire a volley of right hands that do what was before the unthinkable: make Joe slightly more cautions. Right before the final bell Joe lands the hook again and this time his right lands right behind it and it's one of his best with that hand, Larry is wobbling all over the ring until he grabs Joe and holds on for dear life until the bell ends the fight.

One judge score the bout a draw (mostly due to Frazier getting dropped once, plus the early round boxing excellence of Holmes), the other two have Joe winning by three points apiece.

Past prime Holmes runs the risk of getting stopped in 4.

 

He'd beat everyone Holmes beat and probably in more entertaining fashion. I'd also favour him over Holmes himself and the men Holmes never fought like Page and Dokes. Joe's biggest problem will be durability. He had a punishing style and in his real career he was running out of steam after four or five years at the top. Warring with big hard hitters like Coetzee, Cooney and Weaver is going to take something out of him, so not sure how much he'll have left by the time Iron Mike rocks up.

 

He gets utterly wrecked by Berbick. I don't even see how that is a question