Larry Holmes vs Pinklon Thomas 1984

Fish to fry? Had Holmes signed to fight Thomas right after Pinklon beat Witherspoon, you would have had a multi million dollar title unification between what was arguably the two best fighters in the world. If ever there was a time when boxing needed such an event, it was in the mid 80's. They could have easily scheduled that match for say February or March of 1985 while saying f-ckall to Holmes fight with Bey and Thomas's fight with Weaver.. Don't think anybody would have minded, least of all Thomas. Let's just save ourselves some time and pages worth of argument and call it like it is... Holmes didn't want the premiere contenders at that stage.. He was still a great fighter, but was opting to take low risk paydays.. Carl Williams was supposed to fall into that very category but surprised the hell out of Holmes.

 

Yes it should have happened in 1985. In an ideal world with just one title pinklon would have been the genuine outstanding #1 contender to an undisputed Holmes in 1985. Problem was with each having their own belt they both had alternative options. Regardless of what either fighter said there really was no rush.

For instance old rival Coetzee had a belt too. It wasn't just Holmes. The south African was a viable unification for both Holmes and Thomas. There was a 4 month window where Coetzee, Holmes and Thomas held belts at the same time. Technically they all could have fought each other.

Holmes liked to stay busy with smaller fights whilst waiting for bigger fights to happen. He wasn't going to sit around. Maybe Larry secretly hoped these guys who represented the bigger fights would lose before he got to fight them? Holmes was already rich after all.

I wish Holmes v Thomas happened. Pinklon deserved to start Favorite and that fight really would decide who was the best.

Thomas v Williams could have been intresting.

 

Thomas won his title in August of 84. Prior to that victory, Thomas' biggest win was a draw w Coetzee. At that time Thomas won the title , Holmes was scheduled to fight Bonecrusher Smith who had just destroyed Frank Bruno on national television. While Thomas , a non-draw of any sort and viewed as a one handed fighter more respected for quitting heroin than any ring victory sat idle, Holmes then fought and thrashed David Bey , who had just defeated Greg Page on national television. Thomas defense his title once, against Mike Weaver who had accomplished absolutely since his Michael Dokes fights years earlier .. Bottom line, there was absolutely zero demand for a Thomas fight other than DK trying to utilize his alphabet partner in crime to blackmail Holmes into a bout .. at least know the facts ..:nut

 

i got to tell you Magoo you investigate and educate yourself I am getting tired of confrontation and explaining to the youth, I know you are younger than me but we need younger guys with knowledge of the sport to keep some semblance of the TRUTH

 

Agreed! Holmes badmouthed Pinklon Thomas, calling him a junkie and all kinds of things...But Holmes never fought him. or Greg Page. Or rematched Witherspoon or Williams. Missing a fight or two here and there because of politics is sometimes understandable, but Holmes missed out on a whole lot of good fights and fighters. Which is why his all-time ranking should not be too high.

 

And I think Larry Holmes knew that. Which is why I scoff when I hear people (and often Larry himself) say how he (Holmes) took on all-comers and fought everyone that mattered. That is total B.S. But Larry often gets credited as being this super-chamion that knocked over all the top guys during his reign. The truth (not Carl) says something else.

 

wake up He grant we have patience but you were not born at the time, we are not picking on Holmes but it was evident to even the dumbest that Holmes having a very weak era, never unified, fought elementary students of the game, avoided tough rematches and avoided the best of his era and payed for it by Karma and getting clean sparked by Tyson who gave us a good measure of the era by the way he dispatched most of the pretenders....he missed spoon who was already losing too much but he gave us a good measurement of their value.....thank you very much

 

Weaver after Holmes became alive and beat Tate by KO and then Coetzee, he still had flaws but may have been able to beat Holmes, he was better equipped

Pinklon absolutely should have gotten a unification bout but Larry was about the $$$ and longevity and did not fight the best.

Look at my post when did I ever single out a fighter and be so critical....Larry DISAPPOINTED ME AND MY BOXING GENIUS FRIENDS at the time...it made a imprint

 

LOL.. I'm not as young as you think my friend. :good

 

Options? Common man.. Holmes fought a novice in smith then David Bey while Thomas fought a shot Mike Weaver within the same proposed stretch of time that you and I say that fight should have happened.. Neither one of those guys had " other fish to fry " as you previously stated. The real money and challenge was in both of them fighting each other.. For the record, Larry Holmes did enough to make my top five. But let's not get generous to the point of giving away the bank. From 1983-1985 Holmes was taking it easy.

Thomas and Coetzee DID fight each other. And the reason Holmes vs Coetzee never came off was due to politics. I don't know who was to blame, but When Thomas beat Witherspoon and expanded his undefeated streak he was the man.

I have always respected his activity as a champion. And I don't have a problem with the fact that he fought a few guys like Frank, Ocasio, Williams or Rodriguez, just as long as he also fought some of the top guys too. In the first half of his reign he kept things in balance. Not the case for the last two and half years of it however.

At least we agree on that much.

 

Thomas v Holmes could only happen in 1985 not 1984. And it SHOULD have happened.

It does look like Holmes only wanted unifications if he absolutely had to but he did sign for Coetzee. Four big fights could have happened in 1985 Holmes v Coetzee unification, Holmes v Thomas unification, Holmes v Micheal Spinks and Thomas v Coetzee rematch unification. Oy one happened. Thomas also had eye trouble after a sparring session with Canadian Ken lakusta that might have kept him out of the ring so long.

However, with hindsight, having re watched Thomas v Weaver I don't think pink looked as good as he did against Witherspoon. I would still have bet on Thomas against Holmes in 1985 based on the Witherspoon performance but I would have lost my money.

 

Nope. Coetzee lost the WBA title to Page at year end 1984

Probably the most important one.

As you well know Holmes and Spinks DID fight in 1985 and it wasn't considered a huge fight by any standard going into it. In fact, the press was making fun of Holmes and suggesting that perhaps he fight Marvin Hagler next out of jest.

Again, Coetzee had already lost to Page and was rapidly falling out of the picture.

Perhaps. He did take 10 months off after winning the title from Witherspoon before defending against Mike Weaver. That could have been for any number of reasons.

If we're using "iffy" performances to surmise what might have happened, then I'll remind you that Holmes hardly looked stellar against Williams, Witherspoon and Spinks. In fact, there are some ( not necessarily myself ) who had him losing all three of those.

 

This would've been a very good fight at this time. Holmes was beginning to slip up a bit at this time as was evident in a not so great performances by him against Bonecrusher Smith in 1984 and Thomas was at his peak. Holmes though as I always say was a fighter who just flat out knew how to win fights. He didn't always make it look easy but no matter what the opposition was during his title reign he'd always find a way to win and I suspect he'd still have enough at this time to manage to do this against Pinklon Thomas. I picture the fight being kinda like Holmes fights against Witherspoon and Williams in sense that it would be a good very competitive fight which they'd go back and forth with changes in momentum but I see Larry finding a way to win a few more rounds to get the decision.

 

Agreed but Holmes could have punched him silly in his prime and tired Thomas out .. Pinklon was never the best conditioned guy .. in addition, he was clearly known as a one armed fighter ... the only memorial right he ever threw was against the shaky chinned Weaver.