Larry Holmes - In Your Top Ten?

And Corrie Sanders.

 

3

 

#3.

 

Top 4 for me.

 

#4, and ahead of Tyson.

 

I dont see why people rank him so high who did he beat? Cooney and a VERY old Ali

 

Norton, Shavers, Witherspoon, Cooney, Smith, (Carl and Roy) Williams, Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks (most think he won the rematch), Mercer, Weaver, and Ferguson.

 

Norton, Shavers were Ali's left overs

Witherspoon only had 16 fights I thank and took holmes to a SD

Spinks anouther Ali left over and he never beat Micheal Spinks

Mercer lost almost every time he fought a worthy fighter

 

Shavers has said he felt he was in the best Shape of his life from 1977-1979. Witherspoon put on, arguably, one of the best performances of his career, and Larry was past his best. I've always felt that fight gets overrated in terms of closeness. Sure, Tim did better than expected but that doesn't mean he deserved the nod. Norton fought just aswell in the Holmes fight as he did in previous fights. It should also be noted that Larry had a torn bicept muscle in his left arm in that fight. Leon was in his prime when he fought Larry, and Larry was 42 when he beat Mercer and Ray was in the prime of his life.

 

He is my No. 8, head-to-head.

He scores top grades in these departments:

SKILL: that left jab was powerful, accurate and never stopped firing with authority -a nightmare. His right was a formidable weapon in the form of a jolting cross or uppercut. Plus, Holmes knew how to use ring movement to control the fight, whether going all out on offense or taking rests and getting out of harm's way. He was a fast performer and could keep it up for 15 rounds.

MENTAL TOUGHNESS: he was hardly ever sidetracked from his goal: victory. Neither psychological warfare nor killer shots nor less-than-perfect health nor the passage of time stopped this man. He was extremely confident in his abilities and harbored great pride, all essential tools at crunch time.

He truly beat the odds.

 

Yes

Above Mike.

 

Comfortable top 5 position, I'd say.

The arguments against him - never or rarely giving rematches, so-called weakness to the rigt hand, fought some not-yet-ready contenders - are legtitimate. But for all that, he was the best heavyweight for the vast majority of his era, and one of the best of all time.

For me, the only guys who I'd consistently rate above him are Louis and Ali.

For me, guys like Lewis, Tyson and Holyfield rank lower. All are great, but they all had losses on their resumes that could have been avoided. Holmes' losses were due mainly due to old age rather than anythng else. That can be excused.

 

Number 1 in my book...his only ko loss was against a prime Tyson ...

 

The Black Cloud was shockingly underrated. He is a top six Heavyweight of Queeensberry rules and would be a few places higher, if not for the shadow of Ali.

 

He's in my second tier together with Johnson, Marciano and Lewis. So somewhere 3-6. I think those four are all very close.