Larry Holmes is 75 years old today...

I didn't appreciate Larry when he was young. He is probably in my top 5 favorite fighters to watch now. I can watch him flick the jab all day long

 

Happy birthday Champ.
The Easton Assassin, what a fighter he was.

 

Not necessarily true Barrf. Jim Jeffries set the record for former Heavyweight Champions when he passed in March 1953 just a month short of turning 78. His record was then broken by a morbidly obese Jess Willard who died two weeks before he would've turned 87 in December 1968. (Willard had an older sibling, Marion, who lived to be 89.)

Both were in perfect mental health when they passed. Jeff had suffered a stroke seven years earlier, but instructed his housekeeper to call a doctor right before the end. (The old Boilermaker passed in bed before the doctor could arrive.)

Incredibly, photographs show Big Jess standing and smiling in spirits during 1968, but he was hospitalized with congestive heart failure around December 6th. He checked himself out against a doctor's advice, but then suffered a stroke and returned, dying 12 hours later. If he'd kept around his fighting weight in retirement, he might've easily been good for 100. Physically, Big Jess was an absolute beast. (His conqueror Dempsey broke Willard's record by living within a month of turning 87, Jack Sharkey smashed Dempsey's record, living just long enough to recognize his IBHOF induction at age 91 in 1994, then Schmeling lived within six months short of his objective of reaching 100, always enjoying discussions about boxing, signing autographs and mentoring the Klitschkos. Max Schmeling is widely considered to be the greatest character ever of any boxing champion.)

There certainly is that stereotype of big dudes not living that long, but NBA players often defy that generality impressively. Bill Russell lived to be 88.[/QUOTE]

 

Until after Larry's reign, I believe the only two southpaws who ever challenged for the HW Title were Karl Mildenberger and Richard Dunn. (Much earlier, there was some discussion about Bettina challenging Louis.)

I wasn't really following boxing anymore when Moorer dethroned Holyfield, but was MM actually the third southpaw after Mildenberger and Dunn to even challenge for a HW Title?

 

You also forgot Rocky Balboa fighting Apollo Creed.

Joking aside yeah from the 90s onwards there's been alot more prominent Southpaw Heavyweights Usyk, Ortiz, Zhang, Sanders, Moorer, Chagaev, Thompson, Anderson.

 

Yeah, I'm very well aware that the southpaw floodgates have no been opened to a torrent of southpaws in all divisions, just wondering if MM was the first to succeed at HW, and the third overall.

I think southpaw success was held back a bit because of how Arguello typically ate them for lunch and snacks (especially future champions).

 

Watching him use it in the fight puts it to bed for me.

 

It’s a myth that he was fighting hurt, whatever happened earlier. The video is damning.

 

Nobody is going to persuade you differently,and I certainly would not try.
So continue calling Holmes ,and Giachetti liars ,it's safe for you to do so.

 

I've had a muscle tear before I'm a bit of a gym guy for me it was putting my arm in certain position is where I would get a sharp pain.

Maybe because Holmes relaxed his arm when he jabbed that the injury didn't play much of part in his performance I believe it was the left arm aswell correct ? And there certainly didn't appear to be anything wrong with his jabbing.

Obviously Holmes might of still felt pain and some discomfort but I don't really think it made much of difference to his performance, he pretty much schooled Norton for the first 7 rounds with the jab.

 

he official prognosis was -

On Wednesday, Garrick examined Holmes, confirmed the injury and said Kleven's treatment was perfect.
"Can he fight?" Giachetti asked.
"If he wants to," Garrick said. "When the fight starts, his arm should be 100%. It's later the trouble will come. In the late rounds he will lose 6% to 8% effectiveness. And if he gets hit on the tear he could lose as much as 40%."

 

It might of been smart for Norton to hit Holmes on the arm similar to how Marciano would or even RJJ did to Harding.

That's of course if Norton knew of this weakness prior to the fight of course.

 

Do you know of some fights that he commented?

 

woah.. 75? Almost makes me feel old.

Happy B-Day, champ.

 

It’s very telling that you place the focus on a story, & don’t point to evidence in the fight on film to signs of this injury. You don’t because you can’t, since he demonstrably wasn’t in any pain at all.