Larry Holmes vs the 80s Heavyweights that he could have fought but didn't.

He would have beaten all of them.

 

I think Dokes would have had a chance.

 

Considering the time frame, Thomas probably wouldve won and Tubbs might've.

 

If they had caught on to Tillis' allergy early on, Quick would've had a chance. But Larry would stop James in 8th rounds. Another level

Michael Dokes was Larry's sparring partner for around a year. Many overrate his talent. And like Larry said, Michael wouldn't be able to handle his jab. He beat Michael by UD, like 10-5.

Larry stops Gerrie in 11 rounds. Coetzee would have his moments, but not enough to discourage Holmes.

I still say to this day, Greg Page could've beaten Larry, if his head was on right. But it wasn't, and he would lose a 15 round decision, 9-6.

Pinklon would upset Larry in a nailbiter, 8-7, but it would have to be the 84-85 version of Thomas.

Tony Tubbs would not be in good shape to beat Larry. If Tony was, he could beat Holmes, his boxing ability was that strong. Larry by decision, 10-5.

Frank has no chance in hell with Larry. Larry wins by 9th round stoppage.

 

Dokes is the only one with a chance....given the time frame of 83-84 and larry starting to show initial signs of ailing...its fair to say i cant see any of the others beating larry although they could give him a blazing row. Bruno would get stopped in 11 after a decent cooney like performance.tillis,page,coetzee would all be beaten ...thomas was just too slow and mechanical .

 

He beats Tillis by unanimous Dec
Dokes gives him rough, hard fight but loses by a controversial split Dec.
Coetzee gets stopped late on but drops Larry in a shavers type kd.
Page puts up a decent showing but loses by unanimous.
Thomas a pretty good fighter but like some one mentioned to mechanical and loses by a wide point margin.
Tubbs fast hands give Larry a few problems but Holmes has the edge through out.
Bruno has fleeting moments of success with the jab and big right hand but is eventually stopped in the 11 th

 

I think Page would have had a fair chance of beating him at the time they were supposed to fight. The fight with Witherspoon showed him to be slipping.
He'd have beaten Tillis.
I think his stamina would have gotten the ebst of Dokes.
Coetzee was a bit one dimensional.
Thomas would have had a good chance around the time they would have fought as Holmes was quite declined.
I think he'd have beaten Tubbs and Bruno for sure.

A rematch with Witherspoon would have been hard. Witherspoon nullified a jab that had lost some snap and banged hard right hands to the body. Coming back in with that extra experience and confidence, would have been a great fight.

 

prime he'd beat them, but there a few he didnt entertain towards the end of his career, that would have been 50/50 in his mid30s.

 

NO way. By '83, Dokes was already coked up and had limited power. He barely survived against Weaver and Coetzee destroyed him. He lucked out whe Joey Curtis overreacted and stopped the first Weaver fight prematurely, probably because the Kim/Mancini tragedy had just occured.

Witherspoon in a rematch, Thomas, Tubbs and Page would all have had good shots, especially Page in '83, Thomas in '84 and Tubbs in '85

Tubbs in '85 was better than Carl Williams, who have Holmes hell.

Barely edging a somewhat green Witherspoon woke Holmes up to the fact he was slipping.

Instead of gallantly accepting all challenges, he smartly lowered the level of his competition to try and milk it to 49-0. Fortunately Spinks put an end to that.

If green Carl Williams could almost beat him and a bulked up LHW could, the guys I mentioned could do it in the right time frame.

 

Beats them all. Holmes was in a different class

 

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Nice, i had the wrong time frame for Tubbs. He would have been reasonably slippery for the further faded version of Larry. Larry around the time of the Spinks fight had lost so much snap.

For me the slippage started with Witherspoon i reckon and a 12 month break thru 84 didn't help much either. Larry fought a good fight against Cooney and made a limited fringe contender in Tex Cobb look like a rank amateur. I'd call Cobb his last prime (tail of) performance.

 

Maybe Dokes.
Maybe Tubbs.
Maybe Page
Definitely Thomas.