Watched Holmes Shavers 1 Yesterday

Maybe back in your day, when rifles were hand packed and only fired one shot, but not anymore.

If that's true, then you owe it to the American fans who PAID to keep these guys in business, while you sat back and enjoyed the fights on our dime.

 

It was one of those Monday morning quarterback type fights, wasn't it? Either Earnie was going to catch him for the ko--and back then there was still those brutal losses to Wells being held against Larry. Or Larry was going to use movement and box his ears off.

I was convinced of the later because I'd seen Earnie struggle with movement. Cosell loved the Ali movement but he sure didn't like the mobility of anyone else, did he? Perhaps Leonard was the only other mobile fighter he ever spoke highly of, but Ray was the house fighter and Howard always knew who the house fighter was for his network.

That fight showed Larry Holmes was at a minimum, as good as everyone else in the division. And probably better because he was youth coming up the ladder and they were all going down the ladder. And Larry had a lot of pressure on him for the fight--if he loses by ko, DKP drops him and where does his career go?

Just a great example of the big hitter requiring a stationary target to hit and a terrific bull vs matador turning a guy and winning with a jab.

A clinic. and why more guys have never put emphasis of mobility and legs instead of power is s0mething I still cannot comprehend to this day.

 

Shavers 1 was in many was Holmes "Cleveland Williams" fight ... his great performance .. he was still a fairly unknown commodity for that bout while Shavers was coming off a very respected fight against Ali ... Coswell was not a fan of Larry's out of the gate but you could hear his respect grow as Holmes fought a near perfect fight .. in fact it may have been the last fight Holmes used his legs and danced with any consistency ... for the most part he would later dominate and circle off his jab but that Vegas afternoon he moved very well .. a terrific coming out fight ..

 

Boxing on free network tv, the good old days..

I remember watching so many fights, becoming a boxing fan in the mid 80's was great..