Larry Holmes best Performance with Poll

You don't Holmes in your top 10 heavyweight do you or was it someone else? Might be mistaken.

 

Holmes is my number 6 off the top of my head.

 

Another poster must have been no problem.

 

To be fair Swag Norton was poison for boxer types as Ali even said he never quite worked out Norton's style.

Witherspoon fought the fight of his life and would arguably be a top 5 Heavyweight of the 80s or not far off it.

I don't think Holmes really struggled with the others on the list ? Shavers knocked Holmes down once in 23 rounds but lost every other round outside of that.

Cooney was competitive but well beaten.

Cobb, Spinks, got dismantled.

Mercer was befuddled and well beaten.

 

I wasn't referring to Mercer. I was referring to his five prime fights. Three of which, were Spoon, Norton, and Cooney. Cooney actually gave Holmes a good fight until rust and fatigue set in, and actually would've been (admittedly unfairly) ahead on two cards without the fouls.

 

Yeah but Norton and Witherspoon are very good fighters even a very good version of Ali in the 2nd fight vs Norton had a very hard time beating Norton

Cooney was competitive I agree but I always felt Holmes was in control of the fight and was never in danger of losing per se.

I understand what you're saying but pretty much every ATG Heavyweight has had a struggle against lesser opposition at some point.

I agree Holmes doesn't dominate other ATGs but his consistency and never losing in his prime does make me a formidable and IMO highly ranked H2H threat.

 

I went with Cooney and I’ll stand by it. But Ray Mercer is a good pick too. Mercer was a legit top contender in his prime. Olympic gold medalist. Undefeated. Battle tested against quality comp. And Holmes was 42 years old on the comeback trail yet put on a master class.

 

Perhaps Mercer is the most impressive, given his age at the time.

 

Cooney in the sense that everyone was expecting Gerry to win and Holmes bossed his ass.

 

"Everyone" is a mile off. Holmes a a reasonably solid favorite going in.

What i would give you is that a surprising amount of people were picking Cooney. Some of the experts lost their mind over the hype.