correct me if i am wrong but Holmes did not appear to be dropped or seriously hurt vs guys with big left hooks. What did he do defensively that made him sound vs left hookers? He defended well vs Cooney. Or do you think that apart from Cooney, he just didn't face as many great left hookers as Ali or Lewis did?
Mike weaver had Holmes badly hurt with some of the lefts he let loose on him. But I agree that he didn’t face that many of them
Tyson had a good left hook, but I don't remember how many he threw in the 4 rounds their fight lasted Holyfield also had a good, possibly even underrated left hook, but again I'm not sure how much it was utilized in their fight I guess with Tyson and Holyfield it was about on par with their other punches as opposed to being known for it solely, Norton is another similar case
Holmes was always open for an overhand right that's why Shavers, Snipes and Tyson all dropped him. Left hooks he wasn't particularly vulnerable too. Cooney had a big left hook but he really didn't get to land it much on Larry, the ironic thing is Cooney like many natural southpaws was forced to fight from orthodox. The guy that beat Holmes up in the amateurs was a southpaw, perhaps had Gerry been allowed to be a a natural southpaw, might have had a different outcome.
Holmes got hit and hurt with big hooks, it's just that he was never dropped by them. Ali got caught with some big right hands, but again, the more dramatic events were caused by left hooks i.e. KD's. A booming left hook from Witherspoon in that round 9 was part of some great action. This content is protected After Holmes had gone hard trying to end Weaver in round 4 Weaver came back with a booming left hook which did damage and was followed up. A sizeable amount of people thought this ended in a knockdown vs a slip. This content is protected
I talked about this on some thread (I think it was Holmes Vs Frazier related) a bit back on why Holmes was more susceptible to the right compared to Ali, and it mostly comes down to how their held their hands/kept their posture. Ali typically kept his left higher and was more lax with his right, and the opposite was true for Holmes. Go to any fight from either of them and you can start to see the openings, I watched the FOTC again recently and I saw it, I also saw it with Holmes when I rewatched the Tyson fight (a lesser example, but still). And as others have said above, obviously both men could be hit hard by either hand, but if you take a look at what dropped each of em, you're gonna see a pattern.
The positioning of Ali's left hand compared to Holmes and their right hand positioning is a great observation. Great post. And this makes sense why Holmes wasn't knocked down by a left hook but Ali was. And vice versa for right hands.
Doesn't it make sense for a southpaw whose biggest punch is a left hook to fight orthodox? Especially when he can throw it real hard from that southpaw stance? I always took Cooney's stance to be to maximize the utility of that big left hook.
It makes more sense for a natural leftie to fight as a natural leftie because back in the 80's, most right handed heavyweights were not used to fighting left handers at all. So, for example, if Cooney was fighting southpaw, Holmes would have struggled to pick the angle of Cooney's rear left hand. Yes, having your power hand infront gives you more power but most right handed heavyweights are good at defending right handed fighter's left hooks. The punches you don't see are the ones most likely to hurt you. A 8/10 power left hand shot from a southpaw that a right handed fighter doesn't anticipate or see is likely to do more damage than a 9/10 left hook from a right handed fighter that the other guy can anticipate. Left handed heavyweights were such a rarity back then, that even if Cooney had lost to Holmes, he likely would have picked up a belt at some point.
Great left hookers in Holmes time include Frazier, Cooney, Morrison, Tyson an Ruddock. Holmes only fought 2 of those. He was hurt by Weaver an Witherspoon with left hooks but both were better known as having powerful right hands rather than left hooks.
