Larry Holmes

Solid post. As an older fighter Holmes fought Witherpsoon in 1983, Bonecursher in 1984, and Williams and Spinks in 1985. Holmes was active as champion, and pretty much fought a top level fighter each year as champion. Did he have some weak title defenses? Absolutely, but he also outclassed the unworthy by scoring KO's, sometimes in spectacular fashion.

 

Holmes is now venturing dangerously into vastly overrated waters.

He never unified (for whatever that's worth) didn't give rematches to deserving fighters like Witherspoon and Carl Williams (a lot ****ing closer fight than people mention) and never even had fights with the likes of Page,Thomas,Dokes and Coetzee.

His defenses left a lot to be desired too.Leon Spinks,Occasio,Bey,Marv Frasier...yuck...**** even Weaver,Witherspoon and Bonecrusher left a lot to be desired on paper at the time.

He was a gun don't get me wrong but there are some glaring holes in his record.

Ali is and deserves to be rated well above Holmes imo,great as Larry was.

 

Apart from the fact he actually won the world title

 

do you not rate Ali? What part of his game do you not like or do you just not fancy him as a whole? Please would you elaborate as im very interested to hear this

 

Yes...Lennox Lewis!!

 

In terms of level of opposition, Lewis absolutely shits on Holmes' resume.

 

Different Era's are too difficult to evaluate.
Based on performance in his era, opponents quality, and avoidance of difficult
fighters.
He's in everyones Top 7.

 

Spot on :good

 

I have to agree with young griffo. I remember following Holmes and being frustrated by his lack of quality opposition. I always wondered why he wouldn't fight Page or Dokes or Coetzee and settled for fighters like Bey or Occasio or Marvis Frazier. These were record padding fighters, not worthy contenders who would've given Larry a fight. It's too bad because on a H2H basis I rank Holmes pretty high. He was the real goods. But as for his resume? No,

 

Any man that stepped into a ring with Jeff 'Candy Man' Slim in 1973 either has to be
one crazy motherf***er or damn good.

Or both.,,,,,,,Larry sparred alot with that 'kill-thinking crazy *******', and came out
ALIVE!!!!!

That alone counts for alot!

 

The reason he only made 1 title defense in 1984 was because he was supposed to fight Coetzee in June. The fight was called off in May, thus causing an inactive spell for Holmes in that year. It isn't that Larry was completely unwilling to fight Page, Dokes, or Coetzee, he was just unwilling to fight them for the amount of money he was being offered to fight them. He knew they were lowballing him, and he had enough money to tell King to **** off and he promoted himself and used other promoters to make more money. He was paid $5 million to fight Frazier and Frank, which was more than he was being offered to fight the others (except Coetzee, which was explained earlier).

 

Thanks...I guess.

 

Sharpener,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,is that a multi-dick outfit,,,,,,,,,,,

The guy in that picture has a bad case of 'boneritis'

 

Holmes openly admitted to ducking several leading contenders. He was a great fighter, but his reign was a little light on substance. Even two of his tougher fights -- Witherspoon and Williams - weren't viewed as being competitive fights when they were signed. It was only after the fights themselves and after Witherspoon went on to win a title that people started giving Holmes a lot of credit FOR AT LEAST fighting these two guys...But those two guys weren't seen as tough, deserving guys going into their fights with Holmes. He refused rematches with both guys; he blatantly ducked Greg Page when Page was the mandatory contender to Holmes' belt; and he avoided Pinklon Thomas.
Lennox Lewis should rank higher than Holmes.

 

Lewis does not deserve to be ranked higher than Holmes. During their titles reins Lennox was KTFO twice. Holmes was knocked down twice but got back up to win both times. Also, well past his prime Holmes beat Mercer in his prime more decisively than Lennox in his prime against a past his prime Mercer.