Larry Holmes vs. Rocky Marciano

Later mainly. I thought until Witherspoon he was quite reasonable. I think in that fight he realised he was slipping substancially and then the rot set in.

True. Tate was a good thing out of luck but such is biffo.

Two things hurt - Weavers extreme inactivity (for various reasons) and the politics of the WBC and WBA of the time. Unifications were very hard to come by.

He could have also ko'ed the very very slow starting Weaver in the first round.

Gerry was totally over the hill and basically inactive for both these fights. He was a shell of the man he had been, whom hadn't amounted to the hype regardless. Still tho, going into the Holmes fight he was massively regarded as can be attested to the ridiculous amount of top experts picking the big punching guffaw.

Yeah, if i remember right Bruno was all but home and had been totally outpointing him before being starched against the grain.

Can of worms now open

I can't argue with that mate and nor can any other sane person.

 

I 100% totally and unequivocally agree with your post. Young Dokes squandered his immense talent, old Dokes made the most of it for a while but was too faded to reap the rewards he would have many years earlier.