You meant Holmes said, yes i recall similar words. Larry definitely came into the first fight a bit so so. I thought he looked terrible in the first fight, slow, no timing etc. He looked fresher and better in the second even if past his really good days.
I did, thanks John, edited now. Would have been an odd thing for Spinks to have said. Agreed, 36-year old Holmes was likely slightly further removed from his natural physical prime than 35-year old Holmes, but that natural decline was offset, and then some, by Holmes taking the threat posed by Spinks much more seriously in the rematch.
Yeah i'd already edited when i quoted as the later remarks and context made it obvious of course. Totally agree, Holmes had been fighting a lot of bigger guys and probably thought he'd be in for a easy night. He'd had to tough out some recent fights and hindsight tells us a slippery type like Spinks ended up being a fair challenge at that time.
A quick blast of Mike Tyson to clean out the remainders of the division gives a good barometer of how good the 80's was, only a few heavyweights were in condition, Holmes was always in condition but few were conditioned, trained properly or were drug free. Tyson would have ran through the 80's guys even at their best in my opinion. Weaver was a trail horse 18-9 record guy who gained confidence in the first Holmes fight and had good power and conditioning. Dokes and Thomas drugs, Page poorly conditioned and Witherspoon as well. Cal Williams had talent but chinny. Alphabet orgs and bad promotors would not make the good matches to protect their fighters. Poor era for heavyweights, the worst for me.
Matchmaking sucked in the 1990s. There was plenty of talent but by and large the top heavyweights didn't fight each other. The era may have had more talent than prior eras but in terms of big fights I wouldn't think it would count as a great era.
Compared to the 70s I'd agree, but when placed against pretty much any other decade you don't think so? Even with some of the misses that never took place (notably Lennox/Bowe)
The fun thing was that there was a lot of parity among the contenders for Holmes' top spot. It's always good when you have a lot of top guys like that fight each other (and many of them did).
The more I watch of the 80’s heavyweights, the more I appreciate the talent that was around. I think having so many belts is what hurts the era. Too many match ups that didn’t happen because tgeee were so many champions. do think the arrival of a slugger like Tyson was tremendously refreshing. Just not enough purely aggressive fighters in the 80’s. Lots of clever boxers but a Mike Tyson type was definitely needed. Many of the 80’s boxers tend to be light punching speedsters or Ali clones. The talent was there though. I wish Holmes had at least fought Thomas, Page, & maybe Dokes or Bruno. So many other good matchups that should’ve happened.