What would have happened if Larry Holmes would have lost to Reynaldo Snipes in Nov 1981?

Hi Richard.

I think that there would have been a rematch by the Summer of '82 which Holmes would have won.

 

An immediate rematch and Holmes stops him and his career plays out exactly the same.

 

But Snipes is immortalized in history as being the one to dethrone Holmes.

 

Unless Holmes had a rematch clause, I figure Gerry Cooney’s braintrust throws enough money at Snipes to get his first defense and KO’s Renaldo.

Then after a couple easy defenses — maybe against Leon Spinks and Quick Tillis? — Cooney faces Holmes and loses.

History more or less resumes its course at this point.

 

I doubt as to whether Cooney would find Tillis an easy defence.

 

Well pickings aren’t exactly slim, but they are what they are if Gerry had ascended to a title by beating Renaldo in 1982.

Tillis was in the midst of losing three out of five around this time (losses to Weaver, Pinklon and Page, two of those by KO, surviving a late knockdown to outlast Earnie Shavers and beating a 4-5 guy).

I figure Page, Thomas and Dokes are (a) more dangerous than Cooney’s braintrust would want and (b) would probably be hard to do without signing Gerry’s life over to Don King, which they weren’t going to do (and if Don didn’t own a piece of Cooney, then there’s the worry about ref/judge shenanigans if he fights a King fighter).

Randall Cobb would be available, but Gerry against another white boy isn’t the best way to maximize box office at the time, so I figure Tillis is a better choice for the gate.

Berbick’s out there, but also I think at this time still tied to King and also kind of a wild card. Might be a quick Cooney KO, but Trevor was capable of pulling the surprise and awkward as hell.

Furthermore, fighting Tillis is great preparation if Cooney is going to fight Holmes. Roughly the same size, good mover, combination puncher but not a KO puncher. Jab isn’t as good, of course, but he’s got a pretty good one. And sparring partners in camp would probably resemble Holmes a good bit, as would tactics Gerry would have been game-planning for so you kind of get an extra preparation period for Larry.

I’m not saying James was a pushover, but we now know what his ceiling was and we know he wasn’t as dangerous as a lot of other possible choices.

 

How confident would you be in Cooney beating Snipes? Favoured, ok but I don’t think it’s a lock by any stretch of the imagination. I am not a Snipes fan but he had some ability, likely more than the corpses Cooney had been building his rep on.
Just wondering. As I said I think Cooney is better but not by much. Snipes could be awful sometimes but I try to assume best version for h2h.

 

Larry had so much heart and skills he would have brushed himself off and knocked out Snipes in the rematch and been more popular than ever. A loss at that point is almost what he needed. A loss and then a redemption win can do more than a succession of wins in my mind.

 

The whole division would have been screaming for a shot, none louder than Holmes and Coetzee. Snipes obviously cashes out against Cooney. Snipes would be more dangerous than anyone Cooney fought so you couldn't just count him out. He's a strange cat tho and Cooney probably would have won. Cooney would either take an easy defense or two and aim at unification or go straight to it. I don't think he'd be fighting Holmes.

Holmes meanwhile would chase Weaver if Cooney ignored him and if Weaver wasn't a chance of getting a go at Cooney he might oblige.

Realistically as well Don King would have Holmes set up as a mandatory rather fast. Cooney might only get two fights before he had to fight him.

 

And Larry doesn't get peed off at Marciano either..