Larry Holmes vs Scott Ledoux

Interesting to see how Holmes' victory differed from a puncher like Foreman. Foreman kind of just kept swinging to hit pay dirt, while Larry moved economically and blasted that evil jab in his face until he started unraveling...seemingly from the sheer volume of the blows.

And yeah, one-sided. Holmes was too good at this point...but there weren't many much better contenders at that point. Kind of slim pickin's in the heavies back then...a little like today.

 

Ya, Larry had to face some of those no-ones like LeDoux and Zanon and so on until new fresh contenders like Berbick, Snipes, and Cooney and so on were worthy to challenge Larry.

 

Holmes kept busier than the rival belt holders. By this point Larry has beaten Norton, Shavers, Weaver and Ocasio (who twice beat Jimmy Young to get his shot) so there was room for defences like Zannon and Ledoux.

All Weaver did to qualify to meet Tate was to first lose to Larry Holmes, and that was enough to beat Tate! All Coetzee did to qualify to meet Weaver was to first lose to Tate. And I still don’t know who Dokes beat to earn a shot at Weaver but “Dynamite” Dokes wound up losing to Coetzee anyway (who had already lost to be both Weaver and Tate)!

Ironically the night John Tate lost his WBA title to Mike Weaver (right after Weaver had been stopped Holmes for the WBC title) Larry stopped Leroy Jones who also had a win over Weaver!

 

I completely agree. I don't disrespect Larry for fighting LeDoux and Zanon. Afterall, from 1978-1979 he took part in the three greatest and brutal heavyweight fights and was entitled to some easy fights. I think you're right about Weaver too, although I think his strong boxing performance vs. LeDoux helped him get the shot, not to mention Tate probably had the same problem Larry had, a lack of solid contenders. They probably figured that if Weaver could drop and slug with Holmes for 12 rounds he would make a tough fight for Tate surely.

 

Scott ledoux was a tough guy. Not someone who in my opinion ever should have fought for the world title but still a very game fighter. His record would have been better too but he was robbed in a couple bouts

 

Which bouts do you feel he was robbed in? Bourdreaux and Spinks? Maybe even Lyle and Norton perhaps?

 

The Bourdreax and Lyle fights were certainly contested. Not sure about the other ones but they were apparently close. The Lyle bout prompted a rematch but Ron was injured in sparring with Marty Monroe. So Monroe took his place and lost to Ledoux

 

I think the Lyle fight was close, but I think Lyle did win. The 3rd round is probably what gave LeDoux a lead on one card. Lyle just became to desperately busy in the last couple rounds and won.

 

I don’t know if it was from the broadcast or I read it, but Larry gave LeDoux a shot (in Minnesota no less, explaining the booing) in large part to help Scott out because his wife had cancer and needed further operations (she had already had two) and he also had a kid with seizure issues.

LeDoux needed the money and I saw somewhere that the payday from the Holmes fight paid for further operations for his wife that extended her life several years.

Scott could be funny but also could be salty as hell. He was a character but had a mean streak. I don’t think he ever went into a fight just to collect a paycheck — whatever he had he was going to give his all to try to win. Nor did he ever that I recall take the easy way out to avoid it when he had to take a whupping. What I’d call an honest prizefighter.

 

There were a bunch of tough fighters out of Minnesota in the 70s.