Swap Larry Holmes and Wlad Klitschko's title reigns

I am not a big fan of Mercer. I think Peter punched better than Mercer did, except for when Mercer had a guy he trouble he should cranked it up.

 

I believe the versions of Berbick and Weaver that fought Holmes would have a chance getting Waldo outta there.

 

I think the 2005-2013 Wlad who’s poise and defense were vastly improved would have managed to get through all of Holmes’ opponents, though we’d likely see some pretty lousy fights in the process. Reversely, I also think Larry could have done the same against Klitschko’s best challengers. If he fought guys like Povetkin and Jennings when he was in his latter years however, those would have been very hard fights. Larry would also regularly be taking on much bigger opponents and on a more frequent basis.

 

The only trouble I could see would be Peter's blood all over Holmes shoes and trunks.

 

I'd say Wlad drops a solid 2 probably 3 .

 

The guys who showed up for those fights were no joke, for sure. Berbick went fifteen rounds with perhaps the third greatest heavyweight at the peak of his powers...to me that was a very different Berbick that got annihilated by Iron Mike (though it was what, well over six years after the Holmes fight).

Weaver turned out to be a really good, not quite great, fighter imo. He could have beaten some of the top guys from the later decades imo. The Weaver who knocked down Larry and devastated Tate and Coetzee, that is. No joke at all (let's not forget how he later took out Williams even more convincingly than Tyson).

 

I think Wlad would destroy him. Ken's got a bad habit of freezing against punchers.

 

Yep. Cooney, Witherspoon, Norton, Shavers, Williams or Spinks. Wlad would drop 2-3 against those guys. Wlad loses against Tim Witherspoon for sure

 

Their chances are roughly the same all things considered. I don't agree with the people saying Holmes has a way better chance to go undefeated.

 

So, he lost sometimes. So did Norton. Difference is, Wlad actually beat punchers.

If it makes you feel any better, Brewster and Sanders probably would've knocked out Norton, too.

I don't see the point of using green fighters in these arguments, but I'll play your game here. If you'd like to use the Purrity fight against Wlad, maybe ol' Ross the Boss wouldn't have fared any worse than light heavyweight Garcia when he iced Norton while we're at it.

 

Wlad doesn't have a track record of destroying fast mover types like Norton. He often looks bad against those type of guys.

It was the pressure as much as the punch that got to Norton. Wlad doesn't apply pressure , he boxes and anybody who boxes with Norton is going to have problems.

 

Holmes goes undefeated.

 

Sanders didn`t hit harder than Shavers so wouldn`t have stoped Holmes and would have been out-jabbed.

 

Norton couldn`t fight big punchers and would have been countered after punching due to Wlad`s reach.