Tim Witherspoon W 12 Greg Page 1984

It does annoy me,slightly,when Muhammad Ali gets criticised for avoiding a rematch with Jimmy Young,for example,as Muhammad was one of the few who genuinely cleaned out his division,not once but twice,and he does get slagged off quite frequently for this. Larry Holmes had quite a few holes in HIS resume. He seems to catch less flak than Muhammad,in spite of this.

Having said all that,I still rate Holmes as one of the greatest heavies ever.

 

There was a lot of potential talent around at that time. Page, Witherspoon, Dokes, Cooney etc...Unfortunately they never reached thier potential. I thought Page was a lock for the championship at the time. Big, fast and could punch when he came off his toes. Cooney would've been better if he wasn't so protected. Then there were others like Coetzee, Knoetze who were making noise as were Weaver and Tate. Off them all I thought Page and Dokes had the most potential but they never panned out. An earlier post made mention of the fact that Holmes avoided these fighters to take on lesser opposition and I agree. Some of Holmes' defenses were laughable. Marciano is often criticized for his title defenses but he took on 3 hall of famers in Walcott, Charles and Moore. Holmes doesn't close to matching that. I remember at the time wishing Holmes would take on Page or Dokes or Tate (before he lost to Weaver) but instead he took on guys like Rodriques, Frazier, LeDoux etc..Too bad really.

 

I recall wanting a Holmes-Weaver II in 1981,as it would have unified the crown again.

 

Page had no business coming in the ring at 230+ pounds against Witherspoon, or Tubss, or Chaplin for that matter.Berbick was a case of having a broken thumb, plus being weakened by the weight loss.However, not being the strongest guy, Greg still would've had problems with Tim.

 

Page, like Bowe had poor muscle tone... Both were just naturally big slobs with talent.... When they were down in weight they had spryness and finess, but not a lot of strength.... Bowe was a gifted infighter, where as Page was a dude best in the center of the ring jabbing and probing.... Page wasn't great on the ropes...... However, both Page and Bowe could've done some arm curls with weights to build bicep tone and a little bench pressing for upper body tone and strength....

MR.BILL

 

Bey earned his shot by BEATING Page.

 

Nor against Orlin Norris, or his rematch with Mark Wills.

Agreed 100%.

People like to tout him because he (supposedly) bore some flashing resemblances to Ali, but the only really noteworthy achievement he had was beating Coetzee in a sloppy, free-swinging brawl - and even that was fraught with controversy.

Hell, the guy got his ass kicked by an ancient Joe Bugner for crying out loud! And he made Bugner look like Joe Louis, the way he staggered every time Bugner tapped him.

 

Interesting point.

People like to speculate about what Page "would've" done if he kept his weight lower, but the fact is, he scored the only truly big win of his career when he came in over 230 and stood toe-to-toe with Coetzee.

 

Coetzee seemed to shoot his wadd in his KO over Dokes in Ohio........ Coetzee was SUPPOSE to fight Holmes in Vegas come June 1984, but the deal went to hell and Coetzee went without a fight until December '84 in getting stopped by Page..... Coetzee was never worth a **** after winning the title..... He got iced by Bruno in 1 rd......

MR.BILL

 

Larry Holmes was another guy who never had a really toned, athletic looking body. He was actually kind of spindly, which is probably why he looked so chubby as he went up in weight over the years. He didn't have the large frame to carry the added weight.

 

Yeah, but Holmes had big biceps without a doubt...... I thought Holmes looked very fit and naturally trained with none of the modern day jazz athletes are using today when Holmes was hammering dude's like "Ali, Spinks, Snipes & Cooney" between 211 to 213 pounds.... Holmes was also tight looking against Tim Spoon at 213 in 1983, but Holmes said he was drained in that fight cuz he had the shits days before his date with Spoon in Vegas... Holmes told me that tale in Vegas in 1992 when he was training for Holy....

MR.BILL

 

I felt both these warriors under achieved,thou both pretty good careers. Tim fought Holmes with few pro fights under him. I thought he could be another Liston. First couple times saw Greg heard he was from Lousville ,thought he couldb have been another BIG Jimmy Ellis & better. Rare breed &were not privy everything goes on ,but both real good warriors.:yep

 

Except at 35 Holmes destroyed David Bey who had just beaten Page and he already beaten Witherspoon.

 

Suzie just can't let go of the "jockstrap" comment Holmes threw out there.

 

Except to sniff it ...