Was Larry Holmes scared of rematches?

I'd debate Cooney and Norton as Norton was of the age he couldn't keep himself in the picture. He was 37 i think when he fought Holmes let alone later. He never won another meaningful fight and was fading by Holmes.

Cooney like Norton didn't do much of anything post fight to get a rematch. He didn't fight for over two years and if he was to build back up he had to beat a contender or two and improve. He would have been fast tracked to a big money return encounter.

Weaver, Williams and Witherspoon run him close, absolutely.

There'in lay the difference between a Holmes and Louis. Louis practically sprinted back toward guys that gave him trouble showing great championship acumen.

 

I can imagine Evander's answer:

"35 MILLION!!!!???? Heck, for 35 millions I would even let Tyson to rip my ears off !!!

 

Holmes is no longer under-rated, he’s become over-rated.

 

It hurts the legacy, no doubt but I’m just explaining “why” IMO - the question was Holmes scared of rematches? Well, yes financially he was, as a man he’d have fought anyone who’d ever boxed and probably beaten everyone in his era - but it had to make sense for Holmes the man.

 

Not disagreeing with your card, not disagreeing that he might’ve deserved a rematch, but wasn’t that the fight where Holmes was visibly sick during the post fight interview?

 

J-Man, I truly don't remember. What was the ailment?

 

Well coincidentally he seemed to avoid the rematches that happened to be very tough fights. I suspect more than money was involved. He couldn’t have made money with a Norton rematch? I doubt that.

 

I definitely think Mike Weaver should have been a repeat customer. ( and a lot sooner than 1999. ) He gave Holmes a great fight in 1979 which resulted it being stopped much to the crowd’s displeasure. Weaver then proceeded to capture the WBA crown and established himself as basically the second best heavyweight in the world for the following 2.5 years until losing controversially to Michael Dokes. I realize there was a spell when weaver was nursing injuries and Holmes had other fish to fry but somehow that rematch should have happened in the early 80s. The 1999 meeting didn’t count…

 

A flue, I think Scar. I believe this was the fight where in the post fight interview his trunks were falling down from the sweat and he was nasally. It’s been ages. @RulesMakeItInteresting put me on the path to it, do you have it on hand Rules? EDIT: 51:00.

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Think you'll find it was 'nip' his ears off.

 

Contrary to popular belief, I felt he handily outboxed Witherspoon.

 

All about the money

 

It could be argued that Norton went downhill pretty quick after their fight, and nobody really considered Weaver champ (much less capable of bringing a whole lot of bank).

Witherspoon would have been the rematch to see, but again I'm not sure on the drawing power.

 

I don’t know how the crowd reacted but Weaver got poleaxed with that uppercut and proceeded to take a beating thereafter without throwing back. If you don’t want the ref to stop it and you’re OK, you fight back rather than let the opponent tee off at will. Pretty simple.

 

Yeah for money obviously,but for legacy, there was no reason to fight him again.
Ali knocked Foreman out. There was no reason for a rematch from a legacy standpoint