Was Larry Holmes at 35 y.o. the oldest undefeated world champion of all time?

Calzaghe was an undefeated world champion at an older age. Otke may have been as well.

 

And for Larry Holmes fighting his 20th successful defense at age 35 & 1/2 years of age was only the beginning of a display of incredible boxing prowess at an advanced age. Not only did all of his only six career losses come after age 35, but they were also all title fights (Spinks I & II, Tyson, Holyfield, McCall, and Nielsen) and (except the knockout to Tyson) they were also close decisions - two clearly rob jobs (Spinks II and the 1997 IBO title split decision loss to Brian Nielsen - Larry, age 47!). The Man continued to fight successfully until age 52(!), winning 21 times after age 35, including his last 4 in a row. It is conceivable that if he had his head on the right path for Spinks I and had been continuously fighting and more prepared for a fight with Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes could have successfully defended the title closer to 30 times and well into his 40's. Heck, if one of the governing bodies would give him a license and he had a few months to prepare, that guy could probably bring the HW title back the US right now!

 

By any measure Larry 's achievements well into senior territory were astonishing.It's a shame he lost the Spinks fight/s .. something that seemed to leavw him with a point to prove.A truely great champion.

 

Mayweather.

 

I totally forgot he's almost 38. He Fights younger.

 

Let's not get carried away :roll:

 

There's no way a 35 plus Holmes would have beaten a prime Tyson. No matter how he'd have prepared for it. To find a Holmes that you could have confidently layed out money to beat Iron Mike in his pomp,you'd have to go back to 1982,imo.

 

I thought this was a good post until I read the last sentence

 

Nah, the first defence was bad too :

I've seen Holmes's 20th successful defence (against Carl Williams) and his "incredible boxing prowess" was pretty shabby that night.