IMO, Tate stays competetive through out the whole fight, but gets out classed from about the 5th round on. If its a champion ship fight, Holmes TKO 13-15, or a ud. It depends if Larry lands a real good punch or not. If he lands an uppercut like he did Weaver, or a straight right/right hook like he did to Evengelista or Shepard, then, IMO if it doesn't KO Tate, Larry jumps all over him and it is stopped. Good match up.
At that time, Big John Tate had fought good quality opposition coming up, and he fought with a sound game plan.I don't see Larry even hurting John, but with his jab, mobility, and boxing skill, he might be a shade ahead of John.Larry by close unanimous decison.
I also give the nod to Holmes in this matchup but it would be a pretty good fight. Tate was moving along at a good clip in the HW division up until the ko by Weaver and it makes you wonder how good Big John would've been had he not been stopped by Weaver. That loss did it for Tate who was never the same after it but before that he was becoming a force in the division with some good wins under his belt. That ko was brutal. Physically and psychologically so for Tate.
At that point in time Tate had a very good chance to win this, he was big,strong and had stamina, he was outpointing Weaver over 15 rounds but got caught in the 15th with a wicked shot followed by another and was ruined forever, the Berbick fight was a fight where Tate was already ruined mentally, very sad but prior to that fight Tate was formidable and would have fought Holmes on even ground IMO and may even have pulled out a W15
Holmes 10-5 in rounds, pulling away in the second half of the fight by virtue of his jab and footwork. Big John was very good until he lost confidence after the Weaver fight, but Holmes was great.
larry holmes avoided page, pinklon thoommas, a rematch with spoon, a peak tonny tubbs in 1985, larry holmes always is talking crap about another fighters but he should close his mouth