Larry Holmes failing to take on # 1 contenders

So was it the IBF's decision to deny Thomas the shot or Holmes'?

 

Thomas wasn't sure from what i picked up.

 

I certainly agree that there were no apparent reasons for him denying Page a title shot, but the rest of the guys you listed are questionable. On the surface it may appear as though he flat out ducked them, but some of these issues are not so clearly written in black and white as some would like to think. Politics and circumstances were cloudy during that era. While, I can't blame Don King for everything, he was definately pulling a lot of strings that were convuluting issues. He had blatantly destroyed the career of Tim Witherspoon as well as a few other fighters, and his conflicts with Holmes complicated matters even worse. Personally, when I look at the long and illustrious career of Larry Holmes, I have a hard time believing that he purposely avoided multiple challengers out of simply having cold feet. Also, chosing to proceed forward by promoting his own fights without a promotor or manager probably had a bearing on some of these things as well. From what I've been told, he was actually calling up Joe Frazier over the telephone himself to arrange a fight with Marvis. This is not what I would call orthodox practice.

 

Mind you he'd already said he would never fight Thomas, ever.

 

Did he attempt to give any reasons or excuses?

 

Well yes, first (think it was first) off he used the excuse that it was because Thomas fought Coetzee, tho Larry signed well later to fight him, and Snipes had also fought Coetzee pre Holmes, so make what you will of that one.

At another time he said he was a junkie and what not and he wouldn't be fighting no junkie. Thomas of course was rehabilitated by this time.

 

"I aint gonna fight no cokehead"

Larry showing his class again.

 

BIG DEE HERE= Holmes ducked the top contenders to fight the ducks of the division. When he fought Mike Weaver it was such a joke that HBO would even buy it as Weaver was ranked 15th to 17th in the world by most boxing
organizations. ABC`s Wide World of Sports took it and put it on and Holmes went thru life and death with the 15th ranked contender. THIS IS FACT NOT FICTION. Holmes fought only two No.1 contenders in his title reign that being
Earnie Shavers and Gerry Cooney who didn`t belong at No.1. Larry Holmes ducked top contenders Mike Dokes. Gerrie Coetzee, Kallie Knoetze, Marty Monroe, Tony Tubbs, Tony Tucker and others in the top 10 over his title years. Holmes never gave anybody a second chance ever. Ali gave every body a chance at the top at leased once. LARRY HOLMES DID NOT DO THIS EVER. PERIOD.

 

Suzie Q,

This is an old thread. As you can see Holmes pretty much fought plenty of top ten guys. I count NINE TOP TEN GUYS in the ratings you posted from 1982-1984. This is enough, don't you think?

Fighters can't fight everyone. If you research it, I betcha Holmes beat more top ten ring magazine rated guys than Marciano, Liston, Frazier, Tyson, and others.

 

So it was 8 top ten ranked guys from 1982-1984. This is a lot.

Here is the 1986 rankings:

Heavyweights [url]Michael Spinks[/url], Champion

1. [url]Mike Tyson[/url]
2. [url]James (Bonecrusher) Smith[/url]
3. [url]Pinklon Thomas[/url]
4. [url]Tim Witherspoon[/url]
5. [url]Tony Tubbs[/url]
6. [url]Trevor Berbick[/url]
7. [url]James (Buster) Douglas[/url]
8. [url]Tony Tucker[/url]
9. [url]Frank Bruno[/url]
10. [url]Tyrell Biggs[/url]

Spinks was champion. Tyson was #1. Smith #2. Witherpsoon#4. Holmes fought them all later in his career.

I think if you count up the top ten wins, Holmes rates very high. In hindsight, Spinks, and Witherpsoon were better than Page or Coeztee.

 

So you see, Thomas vs Holmes in 1986 might have been Holmes fight to win. As it was Holmes picked Spinks, and Spinks had no drug problems. Since Holmes retired after the Spinks fights for a while, the window to fight Thomas was not a long one.