Larry Holmes best performance?

Shavers 1 was an absolute clinic - but if you factor the overall quality of the opponent, then it might not cut it.

The Norton fight seems to be among his best - one way to look at it, which fight best recommends Larry’s competitiveness and viability against other ATGs?

Holmes might not have been quite prime and Norton past his best, but, atop his skills, Holmes displayed a lot of the all important ATG intangibles in that fight.

His injured left arm and its alleged impact needs to be put to bed.

Larry pumped the jab exclusively for about the first 7 rounds, without fear, favour or apparent discomfort.

It was a brilliant, fast, super accurate and hurtful jab in that fight - perhaps the best advertisement for Holmes’ jab. I really can’t see Holmes jab being any better.

Holmes did have an injury to his left bicep but by fight time, any impairment to Holmes was negligible if there was any impairment at all. I think the vision clearly attests to that.

 

Cooney because a lot of people were picking Gerry.

 

Top post. When Holmes himself doesn't spotlight it post fight in a close one you know it's negligible at best.

If pushed i might choose Norton as well. Holmes - Ali is somewhat akin to Ali -Williams. You have two greats at the pinnacle of their game but their opponents had nothing, really.

I steer away from Mercer (and it all boils down to what people consider "best" in a performance, we will all differ) because Holmes is so far away from his peak self. I want to see Holmes in his prime, in or around top form and with someone pushing back. Mercer is somewhat akin to Duran's win over Barkley but far lesser obviously. Some might call Barkley Duran's best performance and in some ways it is but for me it's SRL. Some might even plump for De Jesus II or III.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder in this one as it's open to interpretation.

 

Earnie Shavers I - boxing clinic against a limited but a dangerous man, especially seeing how he troubled other pure boxers
Ken Norton - incredible performance and the showcase of skills against another all time great heavyweight, with an injured arm at that
Leon Spinks - the best demolition job of Holmes' career in my opinion
Ray Mercer - a schooling of a highly regarded contender in his prime coming off of his best career win, at age 42

 

Agreed John. Citing Holmes's performance vs Mercer as his best relative to his age and/or pre fight expectations, is a reasonable shout.

Citing it as his best performance in absolute terms is madness, imo.

 

Holmes was booked to lose the Mercer fight. He was to be a name to boost the resume of a guy on the way up. It clearly wasn't as crazy as if he'd beaten Tyson, or if Louis had beaten Marciano, but it still was totally unexpected. You pay the old champ a solid purse to show up and lose.

It's the shock of the old champ brought out to lose not just winning, but winning decisively, that made this one of his best.

 

Personally I’m convinced both beat Holyfield.

 

Well I can think of one punch Holmes couldn’t nullify that night. & it might be the biggest regret of his career!

 

I do aswell but you have to remember Holmes fought a very defensive fight vs Holyfield mostly fighting off the ropes, that's not how a prime Holmes would fight Holyfield. And also Holmes was a bit fortunate to badly cut Holyfield with his elbow, which turned the momentum in Holmes's favour allowing him to make it a bit closer in the end.

But yeah i still think a prime Holmes could out point Holyfield.

As for Foreman i think early 90s Holyfield would engage too much and would be knocked out, i actually think the Holyfield who beat Tyson has a better chance because he was smarter and had bulked up more making him physically stronger.

 

Heh - I saw the fight on Closed Circuit at the Springfield Civic Center; when that shot landed, about 1,000 men in the theater collectively gasped and cringed. We felt that hook 2,000 miles away ...

Ow.

 

I wonder if Holmes could dodge one punch in his career again it would be that nut shot from Cooney or the right Shavers put him down with.

Might even be the Snipes knockdown for the embarrassment of not just being floored by him, but crashing face first into the turnbuckle afterward.

 

I pick his press conference after the first Spinks fight! I also think he put on a clinic against Berbick also

 

As I said, reasonable to claim it as his best performance relative to age and/or expectations.

It obviously wasn't the best ever version of Larry, though.

 

Mercer, factoring in the quality of the opponent, and his state at the time.

 

My read on that was that by that point, he'd fully adapted to being older and figuring out where he'd lost the least. And he'd lost the least in terms of ability to read opponents, find openings, reaction time, and hand speed (even in his very last fight, his hand speed never slowed down beyond "decent"). He'd lost the most in terms of ring mobility and stamina. So he'd do things to try to get guys to just stand there in front of him -- which was usually to go stand in the corner. It really wasn't anything like the rope-a-dope.