If he could've somehow finagled a fight with Weaver, he would've had a better shot of winning the title belt.
Figured I’d revive this rather than start a new thread. To me, Renaldo belongs in that Lost Generation of 1980s heavyweights who played hot potato with the ‘other’ belts (the ones not held by Holmes at particular times): Page, Witherspoon, Weaver, Berbick, Coetzee, etc. He had a couple of nice wins, some losses to good guys and a few perplexing defeats that kept him just on the fringe. Just inches away from being the guy to upend Holmes, he let Larry off the hook and got stopped (somewhat questionably, but he was so awkward I understand the ref’s actions as iirc he was literally staring at the floor and not in position to defend himself when it was waved off). Then he went on a run of mostly losses to top guys before turning things around and having a nice stretch. A case of a wrong-place-wrong-time fighter who never had the right guy in front of him to join the ranks of those belt-holders of his era.
Good contender, like Shavers he came so close to becoming lineal champ. Now that would have put the cat amongst the pigeons.