Larry Holmes decision to fight Mike Tyson.

I am glad he noticed, Larry’s corner was an absolute embarrassment. I remember them screaming at each other between rounds!

 

Yeah, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that he would have done better and he not taken the fight on the heels of 2 1/2 years of an activity! Is pretty silly to claim that he had not been inactive due to having been involved in an exhibition during his layoff!
Larry Holmes was trying to have a music career tending to his business interest. Don King knew how to identify a target and he was able to identify Larry’s weakness. Cash!
At this point, Larry had been on a slide for a while as evidenced by the Spinks fights..

 

No legs? Holmes was flying around in there. His movement was pretty good. Tyson certainly didn't land anything significant in the first 3 rounds. It wasn't until Larry opened up his offense did he get in trouble with that right hand.

 

Holmes was absent for 20 months, not 2 1/2 years. You're almost a whole year off.

 

You are right, I got that one wrong. Silly mistake I relied on Mike Tyson's math.

Tyson: "Larry came off 21/2 years of inactivity. He was pretty much robbed of his title. He pretty much gave up boxing. He didn't have time to prepare properly. He didn't have time to get ready.

No excuse, I should have verified it

However, I still stick to my point that Larry Holmes ready to fight Tyson.

 

I watched the fight again yesterday. I´m not sure if he looked that terrible, here´s why:

In this fight he got into some sort of double-edged sword situation. He barely risked to open up with punches, even with the jab, but seemed very effective to stop Tyson from hookin his punches. After some time he just loaded up his right hand and trying to nail Tyson rushing in. On the other hand, Tyson didn´t find his jaw as good as Pinklon Thomas and many others for example in round one.
And this is exactly what he said in the interview. In round 4 he started to open up and make some show with his jab, then standing midrange and throwing punches. He definately had legs and movement there. At the same he got vulnerable and got cought. His plan was to make it round 5.
The problem for Larry was, with not opening up and thowing much, he´d barely land anything of that already less punches.

So yes, compared to what he did in his prime, he looked terrible. But I think that night he fought good on instinct, fighting extremely cautious and getting into the rounds without taking too much on the jaw.
Just watched the right hand in round 4 on 0,25x speed. Tyson set his guard aside with a left and timed the right hand perfectly on the buttom, Holmes not seeing it. I´m not sure if he could prevented that one. He didn´t move for a second that time, but he wasn´t an endless moving fighter anyway.

For Holyfield and Mercer: Thats a totally other kind of fight for Holmes, without dangerous power coming in a way Tyson could deliver.

 

I need to watch it again, it has been awhile. I remember at the time I found a few things very odd.

He looked terrible. His movement appeared awkward and his once dominant jab appeared to have abandoned him. Understandably the two were likely related. His jab undoubtedly could have bought him some time and given him confidence. Just plain physically he looked bad. Larry never looked like a specimen but he looked relatively worse for this fight.

It seemed like the fight itself happened in a hurry. Sure he had lost his last two fights but I thought it lacked the build up I would have expected given his not so distant accomplishments.

His corner seemed uncharacteristically chaotic especially given the fact they where not new to the dance!

I should also acknowledge that I was not a Holmes fan. He always seemed to reveal himself to be a jerk. Yes, fighters need to look out for themselves but dropping a belt so he could fight an undersized inexperienced Marvis Frazier instead of Greg Page and just his opponents overall seemed weak. It shouldn't be a surprise that he would take a rush job, cash out fight since he was so focused on the buck. It just seems to be a contradiction when he complains about not getting respect. I thought he often just lacked class.

I think his subsequent improvement was due to more then not having to face Tyson's power. Holyfield and Mercer could both swat but Larry seemed to have regained some of his old form that would have served him well against Tyson. I agree that he showed courage against Tyson, but he was not the best possible Larry Holmes at the time.

 

Larry has said himself that he knew entering the ring he was not ready for this type of fight. He did it 100 percent for the money. That aside, as great as Holmes was and to me he’s top five, he might not have ever beaten that prime Tyson. That Tyson was devestating, at his absolute best.

 

The fact that Holmes took such an uphill fight sorta goes against the grain of opinion that he lacked courage in selection of opponents. I thought he displayed great courage that night.

 

Once he didn't have the title and unbeaten streak to worry about Holmes took on anyone and everyone. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

Holmes has been accused of ducking plenty of fighters during his title reign

 

That is a more positive way to look at it. My amateur shrink take is that it’s unfortunate that he always sought the expedient buck. I think it diminished him, or at least his legacy. I think he would have beaten a prime Greg Page and won rematch with Tim Witherspoon.
He strikes me as being a little bit wounded.Muhammad Ali had his edges but I think was big person As angry as Joe Frazier may have been when it came to Ali I’ve only heard about what a genuinely big hearted person he was. George Foreman has proven himself as a nice guy as well.Larry still seems to have a bitterness about him.

 

Mike was forcing him to work at a pace Holmes does not want or like. He got Larry off his pitcher's mound and that's where he wants and needs to be.

The other thing Tyson did was to throw a ton of right hands to the body early. Looked like Frazier in there by never going to the head with that right hand. Then he comes out in the 4th round and Holmes' left hand was low already. Comes over the top with that fast shot and Larry is on the deck. Bang. another thing Tyson did--in this fight anyway--was to set things up for a few rounds and then fire it early in a round. Not towards the end of the round like other guys had hit Holmes with and hurt him. That way Larry has to kill a ton of time and not just 30 seconds.

So he had the time left in the round to finish up on his good work & he made it pay off. We saw Joshua do something similar to Povetkin last night----single jabs to the chest, not so much the head. Then, fire off a straight right hand when the opponent drops his hands & is acknowledging the body shots.