Larry Holmes...did he miss out on Greg Page and Pinklon Thomas?

All that changed once Ali retired with the title after beating Spinks. The second Ali retired as the real champion the world needed a new real world champion.

And it sure wasn’t either Tate or Coetzee.

When Spinks was beating Ali, Norton Young And Shavers were the next best guys. Larry displaced them all. Norton beat young. Larry beat shavers, he then beat Norton, ocassio then beat Young so Larry beat ocasio. Shavers beat Norton so Larry beat Shavers a second time.

Disregarding his WBC title, once Ali retired, Larry is the next best guy. He beat Norton, Shavers, and in place of Jimmy Young, Ossie Ocasio who beat Young twice.

Why the WBA looked elsewhere for a champion I would love to know.

At that point, 1979, no pairing to decide a new champion could ever be regarded as legit without including Larry Holmes. No way could anything without Larry be seen as a true championship fight after Ali retired.

 

In truth after beating Ali Holmes was the new champion. The WBA could not control Holmes so it went on it’s merry way. On the way destroying boxing as we knew it. Today complete BS boxing scene was created by the actions of the WBA during these times. Despicable.

 

Larry Holmes handles 1984 Greg Page with overall experience, solid left jab, and combinations. Page always appeared to be out of shape, and very inconsistent. Larry wins a unanimous decision in this encounter, Greg cannot hurt Larry. Pinklon Thomas would pose some problems with his lateral movement, and left jab. It all depends again in this bout, which Thomas shows up. An exhausted Larry barely pulls this one out, by narrow decision, if he fights a well prepared Pinklon. Holmes would have to cut off the ring, use good head movement to negate Thomas's solid jab, and fire combinations to win close rounds.

 

Page and Thomas weren't much better than Trevor Berbick if you ask me. Ali- beating Hollmes would have stopped each of them no later than the 13th round. I actually rank Weaver and Witherspoon higher overall.

 

I'd say that Page and Thomas missed out on Holmes. Those guys have the burden of proof. Not a great, courageous Champion like Lawrence Holmes.

 

Excellent post. Everyone back in the day respected Mike Weaver for his surprisingly good effort against Larry (yeah, I know LH underestimated him big-time), but nobody I knew in the late 70s right into the first half of the 80s considered anyone but Larry champion. However, there was a period, perhaps even a couple of years, where Mike was still considered the number one contender. The boxing fans I knew back then all felt Holmes would have wiped the floor with Mike if there had been a rematch. Holmes' tendency to underestimate his opponents was (along with the overhand right) his Achilles' Heel. It made fights like Witherspoon, Weaver, and Snipes much harder than they should have been.

In precious few circumstances I can live with the multiple title thing; for instance, I don't want to recognize Fury as the lineal or anything else champion of the world. Not after the WIlder fight (actually, I couldn't stand Fury before that, either lol).

Sometimes (most due to the showings of the current champions) I just pretend the Klitschkos are still champion lol. At least Wlad arguably qualifies as a top 10 great imo...hasn't been an ATG since imo (not even close).