What did Larry Holmes do better than Muhammad Ali?

Like you said, things happen ... for some reason, Norton's off-kilter, clumsy kind of style was just kryptonite to IMO the greatest heavyweight ever to step into a ring. Can't be explained, not going to try.

 

That’s no joke, the bigger trunks Frazier later wore were not too flattering.

 

Also to Holmes and a prime Young.

 

Yeah even though Ali caught Norton decently on some occasions he never really connected with a flush shot with oomph behind it - which I think can be tied back to Norton being bad style mesh for him.

Then you have Ali single shotting Ron Lyle to start Ron on his way - Ron being the same guy who went life and death with the likes of Shavers and Foreman, taking his fair share of power punches from two of boxings biggest hitters.

As another part explanation re the apparent anomalies in Ali’s punching power - he did have bad hands which gave him problems in varying degrees, from fight to fight.

Notably, just prior to the Foreman fight, Ali declared his hands to be fine and absolutely pain free - somewhat of an exception to the rule during Ali’s career. Curiously, some underrate Ali’s power punching display in that fight.

 

Ali pulled the ladies better than Holmes.

I guess that’s not a shocking fact.

Amusing that one observation Larry took away from training camp was that Ali seemed to walk around with a permanent boner.

 

Ali always won the event, even when he didn't win the fight.

 

Norton says in his book Ali rattled him a few times, hit him good. He's also down in print saying Ali not only hit harder than Holmes but had a better jab as well.

 

Holmes was a deceptively good body puncher, whereas Ali essentially never went to the body. I also like Holmes' jab better. Ali used it in tandem with his movement, making the jab itself only part of the problem for his opponent. A lot of the trouble Ali's foes had was more to do with his legs than the jab itself, though of course his straight left was quite good. Holmes stepped into the punch, and hurt guys with it. Totally different animal, and it flowed as a more seamless part of Holmes' arsenal than it did for Ali.

Holmes had a bit more power too.

 

Yeah, I’ve read that.

Not that it isn’t true, Norton was very forthright and I tend to believe most of what he ever said - including your quote - I’ll just say that it wasn’t overly apparent per the vision, at least my vision - but of course fighters can be well hurt without it necessarily being obvious to the viewer -

Shavers said Holmes’ jab was more powerful and hurtful than Ali’s - further describing Ali’s jab as pitty pat - but Earnie was only exposed to a well worn and past prime version of Ali circa ‘77 - Ali’s once great jab had lost a lot of its lustre by then.

When Ali sat on his jab - as Holmes often did and far more frequently than Ali, Muhammad displayed a very strong jab - during his first run, for one example, the jab Ali used on Folley was very hard and hurtful.

Sort of similar to Frazier’s singular ownership of the left hook, Larry was a jab savant while Ali integrated a greater variety of punches into his offence.

Ali’s jab vs Liston in Miami was a standout but there were still plenty of other punch types to rave about - all displayed over the duration of a relatively short fight.

“Every punch in the book” as announcer Steve Ellis famously and correctly exclaimed.

Per greater usage and sheer volume, I guess it stands to reason that many will rate Holmes’ jab as better than Ali’s - but I’m not sure “better” is necessarily the right description.

Certainly Ali didn’t focus on jabbing an opponent to death before stepping it up and mixing his shots up.

As Larry said of himself, he liked to get to his opponent well softened up and “drunk”’ from the jab before going in for the kill.

Nothing wrong with that of course, just identifying different accents for different fighters. Any single fighter can only favour some many types of punches.

 

Norton also loved Ali and had a strong dislike of Holmes ... on film we see Holmes hurting Norton and in 39 rounds Ali never staggering him ... same old story with fighters claiming this and that ... Ali and Holmes were very comparable on many fronts ... I do think prime Ali was a bit physically stronger and took and even better shot ..

 

I do remember Ali hurting Norton once in their 2nd fight with a right hand it made his knees buckle i can't remember the round. But yeah Ali never hurt Norton as bad as Holmes did in the 13th round of their fight. Last time i watched the fight i actually scored the 13th round 10-8 for Holmes. There was like a minute sequence of where Holmes was consistently landing flush right hands and Norton was out on his feet at the bell. Maybe scoring 10-8 round for Holmes was a bit OTT but i think there is an argument for it.

 

No he wasn't.
Especially in the 1st Spinks fight. And a few fights prior to it.

 

His Jab was definitely better.

 

Holmes had one of the best jabs in boxing history, and 100% a better jab then Ali.