Larry Holmes vs Lennox Lewis

Who was Holmes fighting during that 77 to 81 time frame? Scott LeDoux that Foreman slaughtered already, Ken Norton that Foreman slaughter already. Mike Weaver who was 19-8 at the time. I know Lorenzo Zanon? Washed up Ali, Marvis Frazier? Tim Witherspoon who was still inexperienced and most people think Holmes lost. If anything Holmes was the overrated one. He didn't beat anybody worth mention who was still in their primes his whole career.

 

Exactly right. You only have to look at Holmes fights to see his stoppages mostly came thru accumulation. He was miles better than most of the men he faced and was also fighting over 15 much of the time. Even if his earlier round stoppages he bangs and bangs and bangs before getting them out of there or the ref stops the fight. Rarely does he have a crisp clean stoppage even tho much of his opposition was average.

 

Well he was "miles" better than his opponents because 99 percent of them were joke fighters, past their prime fighters or fighters who have no business getting title fights.

 

Holmes was no huge puncher. It was that jab that put him ahead of his generation.

 

He had a lot of weak opponents on his ledger, yes.

 

this, read mr bert cooper

 

this... i don't know how anyone could think that holmes did hit as hard as rahman,mccall,ray mercer or holyfield. the ko% is indicative of anything because you can win by tko hitting once and again and again and again, holmes did not have the power of these guys in a single shot, not even close. holmes stopped guys by accumulation of blows

 

I agree Holmes was more of an accumulation puncher than a one punch knockout artist. But he hit plenty hard. The same goes for Holyfield (and the other fighters listed). Holyfield and Mercer both landed hundreds of punches on Bert Cooper without dropping him for the count. Riddick Bowe (in a similar timeframe) knocked Cooper out with one shot. Foreman, Sanders, and Moorer were also able to stop Cooper relatively quickly. With the exception of weak chinned Tommy Morrison, and a fortunately placed shot on Damiani's nose, Mercer stopped almost no quality heavyweights. Same goes for Rahman and McCall. Quite frankly, the only quality prime heavyweights either McCall or Rahman stopped was Lewis. My point is, Holmes was far more skilled than all of those men (except maybe Holyfield) and hit hard enough to earn Lewis' respect (and even stop him possibly).

 

evander holyfield could hurt you seriously with a single shot(specially the hook) and then stops you with hard combinations, evander could put his complete body weight in his shots, 1991 Foreman had iron chin and evander did move his legs with a single left hook, Holyfield moved and did hurt tyson as well with a single shot and then he continued hitting,holyfield did hit harder than holmes and it is not specially competitive( go and ask it to tyson) ,even with his suspect chin i can't see holmes knocking morrison out that brutally like mercer did(if anything holmes stops an exhausted tommy late), and no ****ing way holmes is matching the power shots of a power house like rahman or mCcall, holmes is not even dropping lewis with a single shot much less stopping him with a single ko punch.Please, just admit that you are wrong and stop talking nonsenses

 

I think Holyfield's punching power is a little overrated. He hit plenty hard, but he was never a top tier KO artist. Mercer hit harder. But Mercer fought the best version of Cooper that I ever saw (Mercer himself was in masterful condition) and looked like dogsh*t by the end of the bout after nearly coming unstuck against Bert. I think that fight ruined Cooper's constitution for good, to be honest.

As an aside, if somebody reading this wants to see a total war between two men at their physical prime, check out Cooper / Mercer. If there was any justice in the world both of them would have gotten some sort of world title for that fight.

 

i think that nearly everybody will agree with this but would you agree about holyfield hitting harder than larry holmes with his best power shots right?

 

No Doubt! Cooper-Mercer, and Cooper-Moorer are two of my favorite fights.

 

Yeah, I'd say Holyfield hit harder than Holmes.

 

Holyfield's punching power is definitely underrated. George Foreman praised his punching and Evander made Mike Tyson's list when asked who hit him the hardest. He had enough power to change a fight with one shot.

 

George saying that doesn't mean much, he's generally amiable to everybody he fought. But Tyson saying that does mean a bit.