Prime Larry Holmes vs Prime Mike Tyson

When they fought for real. Holmes may not have been at his peek but he was not washed up.
In the ring Holmes was given Tyson problems. The scorecards had Tyson wining clearly at the time of the fourth round stoppage. The tide of the fight turned quickly when Holmes got careless.

Either Tyson blows Holmes out of the water from the opening bell. Or Holmes has some early secuess but gets careless.

Either way I think the fight ends by the 8th round with Tyson wining.

 

A lasting champion doesn't get to around 15 to 20 title defenses, over a period of several years, without repelling challengers who trained specifically to beat him in the biggest match of their lives, whether it be Holmes, Louis, Arguello, Monzon or Hagler, etc...

There's nothing in the way of survival skills which Green, Tillis, Smith or Tucker possessed that Holmes couldn't apply better. They all went the distance by using certain tactics which D'Amato trained Tyson to deal with in Holmes. Mike can floor Larry, but he is not taking the Assassin out. When they actually did square off, a rusty and misfiring Holmes lasted for 45 seconds between the second and third knockdowns, coming within five seconds of taking Tyson another round.

Part of prime Larry's greatness was that he did not need to practice mistake free boxing to win, but had the ability to recover from errors. He recovered from the hardest punch Shavers ever landed to continue dominating Earnie. Holmes posed some momentary problems for Tyson with his effective use of height, reach and clinching, enough to suggest how differently a prime for prime showdown might have concluded. As it was, Larry was only down by a point on two of the cards after three rounds against the fastest starting heavyweight champion in recent decades.

When the going got tough, as it would for both, they were different animals in the way they responded. Ultimately, I expect Tyson's lack of resilience to cause him to succumb late, after expending himself in a futile attempt to follow up an early success. Before 15 rounds were up, Mike would fold under a succession of right hands.

 

I would bet my house a prime Holmes stops a prime Tyson. Not only does Holmes out tough Tyson he just totally outclasses him. Think of a ten times better performance that Buster had and you got Holmes.

 

Tyson had the wrong style for Holmes ...Larry may have looked to exchange with Mike, the fight may have started out quicker and more aggressive...Tyson by KO

 

I highly doubt Larry would look to exchange with Mike, he'd fight Mike the same way he fought Shavers.

 

atsch
Please go and watch some prime Holmes. You really dont know what your talking about on this one.

 

you mean TKO :good
Nobody can put larry down for the count. but i disagree with you anyways. larry by stoppage, if he sticks with his gameplan. he better know that from the beginning. if he stays on his toes and boxes him like he did briefly in the 88' meeting then he will present a very tough fight for tyson :good

 

Larry was hurt by Renaldo Snipes and Earnie Shavers, but netheir of those men knew how to finish him. Tyson is an excellent finisher. I think Tyson just got to Larry and succeeded where other fighters did not.

 

Excellent post.:good

 

Well, like duodenum said, Larry has the ability to overcome adversity. And he was very good at it. The combination of style advantage, speed, power, chin and defense Mike´s bringing to the table, however, would be the biggest adversity to overcome in his career. And it very well may be too much. This fight is very close. Tyson is able to get Holmes out of there early. If Holmes survives he wins by close but clear UD.

 

It would have been a thriller. After an evenly scored five rounds or so,Tyson would knock Holmes down,and Larry would have his work cut out,employing all his cageiness in preventing Mike from doing it again. Holmes would survive though,and by halfway point,Tyson would become frustrated and discouraged at his failure to land the finisher. Holmes' jab and right hand would be finding Tyson more and more,setting up a stoppage in Holmes' favour by about round 11.

 

I always have trouble when i think about this fight. Hard one to call.

 

This sir is an excellent post. If Tyson did not "fold," as you put it, he would lose a pretty clear UD. The "Easton Assassin" is still the most under appreciated heavyweight champ of all time in my opinion. The key to a Holmes/Tyson thread is to explain to the youngsters that prime Larry Holmes was a BAAAAAAADDD MAN! Tyson simply had to many glaring weaknesses to deal with Larry over the course of 15 rounds.