Prime Larry Holmes post 2010.

Can't help but wonder what happens when Wilder or Wladi lands a good right on him.

 

Goes down, recovers quickly and gets up. Shavers had comparable one punch power

 

Only 6'3" but an 81in reach.

I think Wlad gets him. If you can't chin Wlad, and I doubt Holmes can, he's a nightmare matchup. Wlad via KO.

If we adjust the years, I think Usyk gets him -- you can't have minimal experience against southpaws (and a poor showing for what experience you do have) and go up against Usyk. Usyk via UD. Probably beats the rest. Throw in an unexpected struggle at someone not on his level, like Andy Ruiz.

 

Wilder -- goes down, gets up, recovers, wins on the cards.
Wlad -- goes down, gets up, goes down, gets up, goes down, ref stops it.

 

He rises to the top, but he's not going to have 20 defenses. His era was maybe the worst in boxing history. He won his belt from a board-room champ, defended against zombie Ali, 13-fight Witherspoon, Leon Spinks, Gerry Cooney, and openly ducked the fat drug addicts who represented the best fights that could have been made. Then he lost to a LHW, and was absolutely destroyed by Tyson. There was talent-a lot of it, actually- but the way it all played out was shameful.

And most of the guys were significantly smaller than they are today.

I don't know what specific era OP is talking about, but let's see him fight Fury and the Ukrainian boys. I pick Usyk to beat him (and don't care what anyone thinks of it) and say that Fury and the Klits are tough fights for him.

 

I selected the option on the poll which was “ he rises to the top. “ But I don’t think he dominates. If truth be told Larry Holmes didn’t even truly dominate in his own era. And in the 21st century he’d be up against a lot of big men, south paws and guys with strong amateur pedigree. It’s one thing to beat a Gerry Cooney type fighter once. But imagine fighting guys that size ( or bigger ) in almost every single fight. Still, I think he could establish himself as a long time ranked fighter and belt holder or even multiple time belt holder. He could have beaten guys like David Haye, Eddie Chambers, Alexander Povetkin, Ruslan Chagaev, Tony Thompson and a good handful of others. Wladimir would be a very hard fight. Maybe he’d win and maybe he wouldn’t. Even if he DID win, I can’t see him taking the best of a trilogy. I just think the physical challenges of todays game would take its toll causing him to burn out sooner

 

He didnt duck people, either the others just werent consistent enough to get a title shot or the back-door politics screwed it up. Page lost to David Bey who got stopped by the aging Holmes. Dokes barely scraped past Cobb who got almost murdered by Holmes. His fight with Coetzee fell apart because of Don King. Thomas is the only suspicious part of Larry’s resume.

 

Holmes was openly ducking contenders in the latter parts of his reign. No need for this ass kissing nonsense.

 

He was offered 2.5 millions. For Marvis he got 3.1 millions. If I can get 600.000 dollars more against an easier opponent (though Page was such a bum Marvis could be better than him) its straight up stupid not to.

 

EVERYONE starts ducking and picking easy contenders after a certain point in their career, Holmes didn’t duck anyone until he was past it and until then those inconsistent crackhead bums you are talking about did nothing to warrant a title shot. Thomas is the one, and thats it.

 

I think he beats a post 2010 Vitali quite clearly. He'd get hit quite a lot and it'd be a great, but I think Holmes would jab his way to a clear decision. In fact, just to get the super heavyweights out of the way immediately. I don't think there's much Holmes has to worry about outside of Wlad. Joshua doesn't have the chin or stamina to beat Holmes, I think he gets broken down. Wilder too, but Holmes could go down in that one. I think Holmes beats Fury too, I think he's simply a much better fighter, and the size difference isn't gonna make up for it.

Wlad beats him imo, I think looking at the Williams fight, you'd see Holmes getting outjabbed because a taller guy with a great jab of their own, used the opening of Holmes' own snappy jab against him by jabbing with him. Wlad did this all the time, and he's quicker than Holmes. Despite Wlad being a collosal hitter, I can see Holmes wearing Wlad down before vice versa so I could see Holmes winning too but I'm gonna take Wlad.

Povetkin, Haye, Parker, Joyce, Zhang or any other lower level contender just don't stand much chance imo. Not only is Holmes much better, he's also extremely consistent and a great ring general. Even on an off night, he'll still beat you. You'd get some great fights, but no losses.

I have no idea what would happen in an Usyk fight.

 

So you're admitting Holmes ducked his fair share of contenders—something you previously denied?

There's a difference between picking a few soft touches and going an entire reign with just one defense against your number one contender.

I'm tired of the constant excuse-making for Holmes. The man admitted he stopped taking tough fights to protect his shot at Marciano's record. He stacked the deck with cherry picks—some of which nearly blew up in his face—until one finally did.