The Easton Assassin vs the top four of today

I love the way you could see Larry deliberating as he fought. He could be very much the thinking man's heavyweight champion. When I first saw him against Leroy Jones I was kind of unimpressed during the first two rounds, as Jones' bizarre (for a big man) fast hands and movement kind of confused Larry.

Then came the typical Larry-dismantling. Jones did what so many fighting against Larry did: looked really good in the beginning yet turned into a stumbling, quivering, practically defenseless hulk. So many of his defenses were like that.

Larry didn't do so good with his mouth, but he had one hell of a fighter's brain imo.

 

One of those deals where he'd stick the living yee-haw out of him until he ended up redfaced, frustrated, and sloppy. And then Larry starts catching him with the uppercut coming in, adding the overhand to combinations. Ruiz gets hurts by a right hand in the seventh and Larry does his usual, deceptively vicious finishing job: measure and pose with the left, then use his ball peen right to pound the crap out of him while waving the ref on in between. A predictable fight.

 

Very well written and 100% accurate! Larry’s one glaring fault was dropping his left after he jabbed but that jab was so good few could counter it effectively.

I first watched Holmes vs Ibar Arrington back in the mid 70’s. Watched all his bouts live from this fight to his second bout with Spinks. Then his comeback which was sad to see even though predominantly successful. Holmes no longer had the physical presence in the ring and it showed.

 

It was sad, last show of incredible greatness from Larry was against Witherspoon. But hey, he bizarrely had a renaissance in the 90s, not doing terrible at all against either McCall and Holyfield (the latter a bona fide ATG) and beating one of the best contenders out there after Mercer took a huge win against another big man in the division (Morrison).

To me the Mercer/Holmes fight was kind of Larry saying to Big George: "yeah, Morrison beat you pretty bad, George. And I beat up the guy who beat him up!" Watch that fight at the end, it really was as good as winning the title for Larry, his family sure treated it that way.

Interesting too...Larry became much more of a puncher in the 90s. I mean, the jab was always heavy but he really developed a nice knock with the right hand (at times I thought it was more powerful than in his prime, look what it did in Weaver 2).

 

Very plausible and likely , good post !

 

Fergy, I get the feeling we might be two of the biggest Larry fans here.

 

Mercer was dropped by Holy who couldn`t punch with AJ`s power, and Holmes was old when he fought Mercer and Holy, he didn`t hit either man solid and didn`t even hit Holy that much he just counter punchjed and lay on the ropes spoiling a lot, he wouldn`t have been able to knock out Ruiz with any of the shots he hit those two with.

 

I agree with all this except...didn't Larry land quite a few solid shots against Mercer? I seem to remember hearing THAT sound more than a few times in the fight.

To me Larry practically controlled that fight from the point when Mercer nearly knocked him out (apparently woke him up) with the left.

 

I just don`t see Holmes landing loads of shots finishing Ruiz off without being countered, Ruiz has good hand speed and is a good counter puncher.

 

Mercer was a lot easier to hit in that bout than Ruiz was v AJ, look how many times Morrison hit him, he waslike a walking punch bag in that bout.

 

I tend to rate Ruiz above Mercer at this point. Mercer was somewhat similar, but lighter on skill, defense, handspeed, and size.

 

Mark that first sentence really makes me question your boxing wisdom/experience. Wilder with unreal power, can't stop Fury, so no chance Holmes does?

Boxing doesn't work that way mate.

 

Larry and Fury would happily stink the joint up. No stoppage happening.

 

Holmes was a proven ATG with ATG characteristics. At his best he is not losing to four fighters who have not proved themselves. None of them would get around Larry’s jab.

 

As usual what you’re posting is totally irrelevant to the question asked. You said that Ruiz had a better chin than Mercer. How easy it was to hit Mercer in comparison to Ruiz has nothing to do with the durability of their chins.