What #1, #2, or #3 Contender did Holmes fight

wasn't Cooney the top contender, when they had they're showdown?

 

Cooney was the undisputed #1 when he fought Holmes, for at least 1 1/2 years.

 

FWIW, The Ring ranked Cooney at #2 going into the Holmes fight, behind WBA champ Mike Weaver.

Ring Magazine Rankings at the time of Holmes' defenses:

Holmes #1, Evangelista #6
Holmes #1, Ocasio #5
Holmes #1, Weaver #8
Holmes #1, Shavers #3
Holmes #1, Zanon #7
Holmes #1, Jones #6
(At this point Ring awarded Holmes it's belt as he had already beaten new WBA champ Weaver
LeDoux #10
Ali #5
Berbick #7
Spinks #3
Snipes #10
Cooney #2
Cobb #9
Rodriguez unranked
Witherspoon #10
Frank unranked
Frazier #10
Smith #9
Bey #3
Williams #12
Spinks - LH Champ

 

Ring's ratings were irrevelant as Holmes reigned at the height of the alphabet soup powers and King's manipulations ...

Shavers had just destroyed Norton in one round so he was the top contender.
Weaver almost immediately went on to be a decent champion after Holmes iced him.
Berbick had just dominated a very highly hyped and undefeated Greg Page.
L. Spinks was at the height of his comeback and possibly of his career after destroying Mercardo on the Holmes/Ali under card.
Cooney was number 1 contender.
Witherspoon was a red hot up young contender.
Smith had just flattened undefeated Frank Bruno.
Bey had just upset former champ Greg Page

My point, there is far more to the story ...

 

The Ring Magazine ratings were completely different than the WBC Rankings.

Likewise with the IBF.

But excellent research by SweetSci...........

Before fighting Alfredo Evangilista #6 WBC (September 1978

#8 Lucien Rodriguez
#9 Duane Bobick
#10 Scott LeDoux

Were turned down by the ABC Boxing Network Heads.

 

Larry rarely if ever fought the number one guy. Cooney was undeservedly #1. Guys that might've given Holmes a tough fight were avoided for Zanon, LeDoux, Frank, Frazier, Berbick, Evangelista, Rodriguez, etc. etc., none who were truly deserving at the time. Even when he fought Weaver, Mike wasn't deserving at the time. Larry had great skill but in my opinion no real sense of DUTY as heavweight champ. Even Mike Spinks was an attempted easy defense that backfired.

 

Holmes fought a lot of younger guys who had just come of a career advancing fight! Witherspoon might have been ranked 10th then, but that Holmes fought Witherpsoon on one of his best nights.

 

He was ranked 5th by the WBC

 

September 1978

WBC Ratings
* Larry Holmes
#1 Ken Norton
#2 Earnie Shavers
#3 Muhammad Ali
#4 Jimmy Young
#5 Ron Lyle
#6 Alfredo Evangilista
#7 Ossie Ocassio
#8 Lucien Rodriguez
#9 Duane Bobick
#10 Scott LeDoux
#11 Alfio Righetti
#12 Domingo D'Elia
#13 Stan Ward
#14 John Tate
#15 Leroy Jones
#16 Bernardo Mercado
#17 Randy Stephens
#18 John L. Gardner
#19 John Dino Dennis
#20 Bill Sharkey

Note: Mike Weaver was not in the Top 20.

 

Holmes was and is a "money man". He went where his promoter told him to. Then even after Don King he kept at the larger contracts for coin. He probably could have beaten most of the guys put in his way, but I bet he'd have a shorter career had he ended up with more quality matches.

 

In Larry's first Title Defense, he wanted either #8 Lucien Rodriguez or #10 Scott LeDoux.

The ABC-TV Boxing Heads rejected both of them. But, did approve #6 Alfredo Evangilista,
over #9 Duane Bobick (which would have been a better fight).

#1 Kenny Norton was penciled in versus #8 Lucien Rodriguez, but again the Network
Heads rejected Rodriguez, as being inept.

#4 Jimmy Young was schduled to face spoiler #17 Randy Stephens (who recently
upset Stan Ward). Stephens was a replacement for Ossie Ocasio, who was injured in training.
Ossie had earlier upset Jimmy Young.

But the Jimmy Young vs. Randy Stephens fight was cancelled when Jimmy showed up out-of-shape,
and Randy Stephens got bumped up to fight Ken Norton over Lucien Rodriguez).

Funny Fact; If Randy Stephens did fight and 'beat' Jimmy Young, he would have been offered a Title
fight versus Larry Holmes in January 1979. (Another non-mandatory).

But everything got changed.

 

Who did Larry avoid to figth Zanon, Rodriguez, Ledoux, and Evangelista?

Berbick spoiled a Holmes-Tate fight by beating Tate.

Ocasio spoiled a Jimmy Young-Holmes fight by beating Young twice.

Things like that got in the way of potentially better fights, but it should also be mentioned that Larry was getting more money to face Frank and Frazier than he would have gotten to fight Greg Page.