Larry Holmes is underrated H2H

So many excuses. Holmes best win was from a borderline great Norton. Many thought Norton won anyway.

Holmes fought In the weakest era, and had to pull out squeakers and split decisions against them....when he fought true ATG fighter's like Spinks and Tyson he lost badly. If he gets in against most prime ATG champions he loses. He is game and skilled enough to survive many H2H fights, but winning them is unlikely based on his actual performance.

Just accept it.. Holmes is overrated

 

Don't bother, man. He still hasn't recovered from the schooling I fished out in this one.

 

Again he had a recorded injury going into the bout that was serious enough that he was recommended to delay the bout. He also hadn't quite reached his peak. Even so, Norton beat Muhammad Ali and is arguably 2-1 against him.

Many of the men Holmes beat went on to be champions. Even more impressive he was "an old guy fighting young men" as he put it.

If you're going to bring up his losses to Spinks and Tyson and hold it against him, it's only fair to bring up his win against Muhammad Ali where he dominated the GOAT like no other. Not a bad performance at all.

Holmes is a H2H monster and is one of the more well rounded ATGs, and I'm not even a fan of his.

 

I didn't go all out as he still seemed groggy from the ass-whooping you gave him.

 

He's underrated among casual fans who only really know Tyson, Ali et al, and overrated among more serious boxing fans like the kind you'll find on this forum.

His jab is egregiously overrated. Very fast and snappy, but often poorly implemented. It's a top ten ATG HW jab based on how well thrown it was, but I stop short of ranking it in the absolute top tier based on how spottily Holmes would use it in fights he could have easily won had he deployed it a bit better. If you take umbrage at that statement rewatch his earlier big fights and observe how often his jab falls short or fails to dissuade a fighter from closing distance on him.

H2H I give him a good chance against most due to the overall range of attributes he brought to the ring. He wasn't necessarily the most masterful tactician ever, but he had a ton of skills to burn, good speed, good stamina, a decent chin and a ton of dog in him. In his later years he became extremely crafty and finally started fighting more at range like he should have done in his earlier career. I still think any version of Tyson beats him, and I think fighters like Wlad and Fury beat him as well, but he doesn't give anyone an easy night's work.

 

I agree with your overall take on Holmes but not with the list of names you think beat him. Did you have Jim Jeffries beating him in an earlier post? Come on now.