Larry Holmes vs Usyk

IMO, Larry lost to Tim.

 

I guess an unbeaten Gerry Cooney was not a good win. Or his wins vs Shavers. Or when he beat Roy Williams.
Mike Weaver went on to become heavyweight champion.
Of course you leave out that Ray Mercer years latter almost beat Lennox Lewis and prior to facing Holmes had just crushed Morrison.
Just stop.
Usky has done nothing to even warrant a discussion on a fight with Holmes.
Sorry but Fury was a part time boxer that got beat up by an MMA fighter making his debut and squeaking by Fury is not impressive in the least.
Lets not also forget that Usky got dropped by Dubois as well.

 

I don't agree I always thought it was very overrated as a controversial fight not helped by the commentators being heavily biased towards Witherspoon for whatever reason. Dundee gushing over Witherspoon doing a poor attempt to mimic Ali whilst landing exactly 0 punches.

Holmes won a majority of the first 6 rounds then Witherspoon comeback into to it and hurt Holmes in the 9th round which was a very memorable round. But instead of Witherspoon trying to go all out he coasted in the later rounds trying to mimic Ali as I said and gave away the fight.

It was a clear 7-5 or 8-4 win for Holmes for me I can show you my scorecard if you want to compare yours to mine.

I personally think Carl Williams had a better argument for earning a decision over Holmes, but by that time Holmes had some timber around his midsection was 35 years old and was ready to be taken.

 

Outside of the knockdowns Holmes beat Shavers and Snipes with ease and didn't lose a single round outside of those knockdowns.

Usyk lost more rounds vs Hunter, Chisora, Breidis.

Holmes was 35 years old against Williams and had fought almost 20 championship fights in 7 years which is almost more fights than Usyk has had in his entire professional career.

Weaver peaked against Holmes and then went on to become a top 2 rated Heavyweight for the next 3 years.

 

Sparring,,,seriously?

 

I would love to pick Holmes as usual in h2h matchups, but in an interview with a forum member from an old post. Larry stated this about his amateur fight against southpaw Nick Wells:

" He was telling me about his fights with Wells. He said that Nick confused him with his awkward southpaw jab, and he never quite adjusted to it. He said that after the 2nd defeat he made sure to work on it, but it didn't do him any good at the time. Larry said that Wells could hit pretty hard, but what really got Larry was his awkward style and jab. He said Wells all around was awkward to fight. The main thing Larry explained about was that Wells's jab was extremely awkward and it threw Larry's rythem off a lot. Larry also said that Wells had a hard right hook that he would dig into you."

I don't know how well Larry would act in these exchanges with Usyk's right hand

 

Holmes was also stopped by Bobick in the Amateurs and wasn't considered a stand out Heavyweight in professional ranks until he peaked against Shavers in their 1st fight.

I don't think Amateur fights mean much considering Holmes improved greatly as a fighter. If Holmes was in his prime and had struggled against a notable Southpaw then you would have a point.

 

My point is that not many people would be that upset at picking Usyk over Klitschko. So your point of Holmes being a consensus top 10 doesn't hold much weight in a h2h debate.

 

I don't remember watching since the night of the fight.

Maybe I'll look for it and give it another look.

If I do, I'll score it again.

 

Larry Holmes vs Tim Witherspoon

1 Holmes
2 Witherspoon
3 Holmes
4 Holmes
5 Holmes
6 Holmes
7 Witherspoon
8 Witherspoon
9 Witherspoon
10 Witherspoon
11 Holmes
12 Holmes

115-113 Holmes

So watching this fight again years later my mind hasn't changed that much i still felt Larry Holmes was a clear winner. I even gave Witherspoon some of the close debatable rounds 2 and 8.

But anyway the way i see the first 6 rounds was similar to Norton/Holmes. Although Holmes wasn't winning them rounds quite as convincingly as he did in the Norton fight. But he was still doing more punching and landing the jab than Witherspoon who for me just coasted too much for long periods in the rounds, althought i did give Witherspoon the 2nd round because i liked his body punching in that round.

But apart from that i couldn't see a round to give to Witherspoon in the first 6 rounds, i remember the 5th round being somewhat competitive. But Holmes in the first 6 rounds was just more active than Witherspoon landing the jab, while Witherspoon was just following Holmes around the ring not punching.

The 7th round Witherspoon finally picked up the pace similar to how Norton did vs Holmes. And he landed some solid shots in the 7th the only round i felt Witherspoon won convincingly to that point, the 8th round was competitive and i could see an argument for Holmes. But just like the 2nd round i liked Witherspoon's body punches in that round.

We all know about the famous 9th round which is comparable to Norton/Holmes 15th round. Where Norton dominated most of the round and thenHolmes comeback towards the end an amazing round but a round Witherspoon clearly won.

I thought Witherspoon edged the 10th round but not alot happened apart from Witherspoon's Ali impression.

But for me the last 2 rounds Holmes clearly out punched and did more work than Witherspoon who for me just coasted the last 2 rounds and did nothing.

It just amazes me that after Witherspoon had his best round of the fight in the 9th round he virtually did nothing after that round. And was more interested in doing his Ali impression rather than really taking it to the champion.

I just can't see how you can have Witherspoon winning this fight he coasted too much for long periods in this fight. You can't lose majority of the first 6 rounds and then give away the last 2 rounds doing an Ali impression and expect to take the title away from the champion.

Overall i enjoyed the fight alot i really enjoyed the tactical aspect of the fight. But i think it's overrated as a controversial decision, i even gave Witherspoon the benefit of the doubt giving him 2 debatable rounds and Holmes was still a clear winner on my card. So my mind hasn't changed much on this in all honesty.

One last point the commentary was terrible some of the most biased commentating i've heard in some time. Angelo Dundee didn't call 1 good moment from Holmes instead he was too busy drooling over Witherspoon who he thought reminded him of Archie Moore, Ken Norton, Sugar Ray Robinson, his words not mine.

 

Usyk fever is getting way out of hand. Holmes outboxes him.

 

Right! I mean Didn't Henry Tillman beat Mike Tyson in the amateurs?

 

Big Larry would beat Usyk. Historically peak Larry difficult to beat. That jab alone was awesome.

 

Spinks never had to deal with a jab as long as Fury`s or anyone as big as Fury.

 

You thought Norton v Holmes was boring?! Holmes looked insane destroying Leon Spinks in the 3rd round in 1982.