Had Cooney already lost to Trevor Berbick before challenging Holmes would Cooney still have been the WBC #1 contender like Page was?
Having Tyson at #1 is pure speculation on how good he really was in his prime. I have no doubt that it is a possibility that he could have KTFO all on the list, but there is absolutely no hard evidence. In all likelihood, he could not have KOed the granite chinned Ali and would have lost a decision. Ali also fought and beat better opponents. That is one example.
:-( Lewis got starched by second tier opponents twice. All the guys in the list could hit as hard as McCall and Rahman. Lewis would wake up in the dressing room after getting hit by Marciano. With that chin, losses like that and the fact he didn't finish his business with VitKlit, his ranking has to drop. Louis a midget? :-( Your credibility? :-(
You could say Holmes was the most versatile and had the least weakness among heavyweight champions. You're right he could match up with anyone.
Final time.Page was #1 when he beat Renaldo Snipes (#2) to become Larry's mandatory challenger.He did what he was supposed to do.Unfortunately, Larry didn't, and ruined the last two years as champion until he lost to Spinks.
I have to admit I often struggle when it comes to ranking Holmes on an ATG list. I'm not overly impressed with his resume but if I rank him head to head instead of legacy..which I usually do with fighters then Holmes ranks pretty high. At his best he would've been a tough night for anyone. He was fast, tough, big and possessed one of the best jabs in the history of the HW division. I would definitely place him in the top 5 on a head to head basis. I find it hard to imagine any of the champions from the 1st half of the last century beating him convincingly. Ali, Louis and Tyson...along with Frazier are fighters I would feel comfortable picking against a prime Holmes.
Larry Holmes reigned through 7 years and 20 title defenses, or 19 if the Marvis Frazier fight doesn't count in your eyes. He had a mixed bag of both strong and weak title defenses, with claims to having beaten Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, Mike Weaver, Trevor Berbick, Gerry Cooney, renaldo Snipes and Tim Witherspoon. He also fought a lot of second rate opponents, but many of them were stay busy bouts. It is valid to point out as many already have that he side stepped some of the division's more qualified contenders, some of whom were holding or would soon hold a fragment of the heavyweight title themselves. But not ALL the names that some have listed were ducked by Holmes own devices. Michael Dokes was managed under the same promotional umbrella of Don King production and in fact was being groomed as Larry's successor. That fight was never going to happen. 1983 came around and Holmes parted ways with Don King, while Dokes lost to Coetzee and took a temporary hiatus from boxing, making that fight moot. Gerrie Coetzee signed to fight Holmes then backed out of the contract... Not Holmes. John Tate won the WBA in Oct of 1979, then lost it five months later to an opponent Holmes had already defeated. Three months after that he was sparked by a fighter who Holmes would face a year later, then fell off the face of the earth. While Holmes people were in negotiations with the Tate camp about a unification, it never happened for obvious reasons...Tate didn't last... Greg Page was a legit #1 contender, regardless of how others view him, and using his hindsight defeats to Witherspoon, Bey, Tubbs, etc, doesn't get Holmes off the hook for relinquishing his crown rather than to face him. A similar case can be made for Pinklon Thomas, though much like John Tate, he wasn't a top rival for long. A Mike Weaver rematch was probably warranted. But that had just as much to do with Bob Arum wanting to secure a man with a title in his stable as it did Larry's reluctance to fight him again.. Remember, Arum talked the WBA into having Weaver face #4 contender James Tillis rather than Gerry Cooney who rated higher and was a much greater threat.. Carl Williams might have deserved the nod against Larry or perhaps a draw.. But Holmes had already signed to fight Michael Spinks before even facing Williams, so when he lost both his bouts to the Jinx, a rematch with the Truth was again moot. At the end of the day it all balances out. Holmes was still a long reining title holder who compiled a 48-0 record and 19-20 defenses before suffering his first loss at the near age of 36 and against another ATG in his prime.. throughout his career, he remained active, seldomly taking long periods off and fighting opposition that ranged from half way decent to very good. He returned to the ring years later to launch a semi-successful comeback beating a few decent opponents and challenging for the title on two more occasions. Today he falls at about #5 on my all time list. Had he taken a few more chances and beaten some more of the top contenders, perhaps even broken Marciano's winning streak, he'd very likely make most people's top three.. The dice fell where it fell.