muhammad ali vs larry holmes

Forgive me if this has been posted already. I saw this just this week. It looks like Ali & Holmes sparring at around 1 hour 35 of the video. I’d never seen this before so I thought it was interesting.

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74 Ali would have too much trouble with Holmes jab. I'd say Larry takes it

 

I've heard it said by many sources,including Muhammad himself,that he'd trained like a demon for the Zaire fight. Along with the second Ken Norton and Joe Frazier fights he was in the best ever shape of his post-exile career.

 

Just how I see it. Muhammad still had the edge on hand and footspeed over Holmes at this point in his career. Maybe a split decision.

 

This isn't a face first plodder that Holmes made a career of facing. they just loved putting Larry in with the guys susceptible to jabs.
good defense and tools and legs were not the guys Holmes was facing.

So Holmes looks at his best moving clockwise and flicking out jabs against the stationary easy to hit opponents. The thing is, Ali looked even better against that type opponent. And ali faced the other styles as well. And youth.

I really like Ali by comfortable decision. It was so hard to beat Ali on the scorecards and it'd be no different here. Holmes is simply not winning 10 or 11 rounds against this guy to win a split decision. Most likely he loses that many rounds to the Ali flash and ability to throw those fast flurries the judges just love----especially with 10 seconds left in the round. And the showboating to the crowd and Holmes being vulnerable to right hands--and just who had a faster and more accurate right hand than this opponent?

 

And what version of Holmes are we talking about ?

 

Ali is the superior boxer who fought superior opposition by a landslide .

Whatever Holmes does Ali does better and he has more in the locker.

Holmes is a great champ but Ali is a different level...yes 1974 Ali to any version of Holmes we saw.

 

Foreman was not a happy camper in Zaire.

 

Holmes takes it, Ali has to be at his best (60s) to win this.

 

Absolutely he wasn't.

 

Foreman was inexperienced and had major anxiety problems. Plus, he (like Iron Mike) had problems with people who were completely unintimidated. Ali took advantage of that, and proved his ring brilliance in the process.

The problem is...let's take 1980 Holmes. Probably had the best jab in the division's history, ring smart enough to get out of being knocked out by two of the division's greatest punchers, Shavers and Weaver.

Though Foreman is my third favorite fighter (after Holmes and Ali), he was (even at his peak) no Larry Holmes as a boxer. And Ali was not peak in 1974, in face he was a few years past it. I just don't see that '74 Ali winning, though certainly 60s Ali was more than capable, and probably peak Joe Louis, FOTC Frazier (Liston and Marciano are possibles).

H2H, I just don't see anyone else beating that Holmes. But that's just me.