No, he said it to Peter Marciano. He made the comments to Peter because Peter was very open about wanting Holmes to lose, so at the press conferance after making his infamous Rocky comment he looked at Peter, and forgot if it was Sonny Marciano or Peter Marciano, so he said "And if i hurt your feelings back there Sonny...is your name Sonny? (Peter says that his name is Peter)...If I hurt you feelings back there..so..****ing..what?"
Holmes was a tough mofo, its just his type of style usually didnt require it or emulate it, but he was a badass.
*We're talking about the same guy who lost two to Light-heavyweight Spinx, right? The guy who got blasted when he fought Tyson... The guy who fought in the weakest heavyweight era in history..? The one who's only super-fight was against Cooney.. Cooney,really. Holmes was good, but far from great. *Tuff..yea, he was tuff...
yes the same guy who beat Norton, got off the floor to defeat Shavers. The same grandfather who almost ****ed up a prime Holyfield.
"Sonny" Marciano and Peter Marciano are the same person, I think. I think Holmes' comments were ill-judged but probably justified. Usually when some athlete or boxer is trying to equal or set a record he is not openly opposed by the record-holder or the family thereof. All these old white guys came out to say Holmes doesn't compare to Rocky, fair enough, but some of them went on about it too much, and then they all come out to gloat when Holmes got beat. And that's why Holmes had issues. They'd already built Gerry Cooney up as the All-American hero against Holmes on a black/white thing. Holmes was no angel either, but I think some of the American sports media were a bit rough on him. Holmes was a cocky, confident black champion but he wasn't Ali so he couldn't really win.
Peter was one of the ones openly saying his disaproval of Holmes and was pissing Larry quite a bit, which is one of the reasons Holmes made it a point to look at Peter and insult his brother. I think Larry's comments were completely understandable, but it was still very wrong of him to say them. He has appologized to Marciano's family many times and recently even said that Rocky would've been his most difficult fight.