Larry Holmes W 15 Carl Williams

The few rounds that are on Youtube! of the Holmes/Williams fight show Holmes getting outjabbed. It's amazing to see Larry Holmes eat jabs from a jabber. At one point Williams grins at Holmes and smirks as if to say "I'm outjabbing you Mr. jabber!"

 

This reflects my feeling as well. Like Witherspoon, Carl coasted in the late rounds. Perhaps this was due to the excellent bodyshots Larry nailed him with. (Those clearly slowed down Williams despite "The Truth's" denials to the contrary, al la Hearns after SRL I, about Ray's downstairs attack. Likewise, I believe that the right hand Holmes nailed Witherspoon with hurt Tim more than most suspect, and caused 'Spoon to stay away from Larry late, costing him the title).

A major reason behind Holmes having so many successful title defenses is the fact that he frequently boxed as one might expect a challenger to, rather than as a reigning champion reliant on the notion of a challenger needing to take the championship away. His late round body attack was a brilliant and astute display of ring generalship and intelligence, improvised in a crucial situation. If Carl was the champion, and Larry the challenger, I would have awarded Holmes the title in that circumstance.

Recall that in his post fight interview, Williams stated that, "I felt I deserved at least a draw." Compared to 'Spoon's asinine moaning about how "the judges took it away from me," this sounds like a somewhat remarkable concession on Carl's part, that he himself admitted he had doubts immediately afterwards about having cleanly beaten Holmes. (Probably, he was thinking about how sore his body was at the time.)

By the way, when Witherspoon was asked why he did not go after Larry in the final rounds, he actually said words to the effect of, "I felt I already had the win sewn up." How many times did Holmes display this attitude in competition? (Again, I think the real reason Tim stayed away is because he did not want to get caught by another monster right from the champion.)


Everybody who has seen the entirety of Griffith/Archer II on youtube has seen Griff's postfight outburst at the poor sportsmanship of Archer's camp following the announcement of the decision in favor of Emile. "If he wants to win the championship, he has to COME to me!" Does anyone who saw the draw between Eusebio Pedroza and Bernard Taylor truly believe that BT was entitled to dethrone Pedroza by simply running away from him for 15 rounds? In that case, let's give Ingo Olympic gold for staying away from Ed Sanders.:nut

In Montreal, Duran correctly announced to his corner that he had the fight won after ten rounds, but he certainly did not start running away from Ray through the championship rounds. To win a championship on points, it definitely does not hurt to show respect for the title, rather than shitting on the judges scoring the match (like Whitaker did in the 1984 Olympics with his showboating, costing him the Val Barker Cup which got awarded to Paul Gonzales instead).

 

I agree 100%, this is exactly how I feel.:thumbsup

 

Duo makes some fine points here. I'd like to look again, but i remember thinking Holmes won a close fight, and i didn't like him much at the time. He also pipped a decelerating Witherspoon, as duo correctly points out. Personally i strongly feel the hurt Holmes put on Witherspoon in i think it was the eventful 9th round was what stopped him from really going hard the last couple of rounds.

 

True, Witherspoon had never been 15 before, so he was sailing in uncharted waters. He gave a galant effort for a 15-0 novice, but I still feel Holmes won the fight by a hairline margin.

 

I think we need to put the Williams fight into context. How many older champions at age 35+ look good vs much younger / skilled boxers types with range and movement skills? Very few of them. Holmes beat one of the best versions of Carl the Truth Williams outside of his prime and took his “ 0 “.

While its true Witherspoon was only 15-0, he was more experienced than his ring record suggests. Witherpsoon earned his degree in the tough Philly gyms. Back in those days, Philly gyms were known for wars. Witherspoon was battle tested in the gyms far more than many modern 25-0 prospects have been battle tested in the ring. You just don't see any 15-0 heavies as skilled as Witherpoon was unless they were in some real tests in the gym, or spent years as an amateur. Holmes beat Witherpsoon on one of his best nights too.

Beaing an undefeated ranked fighter is always a tough task.

 

It was actually 12 rounds, but i do agree Holmes won by a point or two with anything up to a draw being perfectly arguable.

 

I wasn't taking anything away from Holmes for those wins. I agree that they were decent victories. Tim Witherspoon had more experience in 15 fights than a lot of guys do in a larger number of bouts. He turned pro and faced a lot of unbeaten prospects or quality journeyman before fighting contender Snipes. Williams had less experience against better opponents, turned pro a bit late, but was still a very talented boxer and holmes fought him on the tale end of his reign.

 

You're right. I went back and checked. I forgot that fight wasn't scheduled for 15.

 

The 146-139 scorecards were an abomination. I just watched and had Williams just barely winning a close fight with a few rounds that could have been even.

 

Williams did better than expected but he lost this fight officially and on my card.

 

I thought Williams won the fight at the time and still do. Would have been interesting if he'd won and then fought Spinks.

 

All three judges scored it for Holmes. AP had it for Holmes by five points.

 

ok. and...?

 

Larry looked awful, nothing like his best and past days, still I had him take the decision, awful or not he was more active with his hands.