Which marketable opponents could Holmes have picked instead of Spinks,to get by Marciano's record ?

Who is Tate?

And Page had just lost a few months earlier to Tubbs. Coetzee had been knocked out by Page in his last fight. And Broad had been knocked out in two rounds a few months before Holmes-Spinks.

They were all coming off losses (Coetzee and Broad were coming off bad KO losses).

I don't know how marketable they all were.

 

What are "world glass" fighters?...I am checking in my recently purchased Boxing Terms Dictionary now.

 

John Tate. Best known for winning the vacant WBA title vs Coetzee. A decent heavyweight in his time.

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tate_(boxer)[/url]

 

I know who John Tate is. He wasn't in the picture in 1985.

 

Cute check your recently purchased Boxing Terms Dictionary about what blocked means. Because you are now blocked.

 

Not sure why you asked who is Tate? He was well know, and on a winning streak in 1985. Not the best opponent in the world, but hardly a soft touch for a title defense. To get into the picture, it would only take the IBF ranking him. I don't have 1980's IBF rankings.

Thinking back to the times, Tate might have been viewed as tougher than Spinks, who was moving up from light heavyweight. Stylewise for Holmes he would be easier.

 

Although I agree with you above, years later Floyd Mayweather certainly had no problem picking a fighter with absolutely zero boxing credibility to try and pretend he was breaking some mythical boxing record. (Since Floyd wasn't a Heavyweight, the talk of breaking 49-0 was irrelevant. Except, of course, to the idiots who actually believed Mayweather-McGregor was a legitimate boxing contest)

 

I asked because I thought maybe you meant Tony Tubbs or someone who was relevant at the time.

Tate wasn't on a winning streak in 1985. He hadn't fought in years. He weighed 300 pounds in 1985.

That said, I'm sure Tate would've been a lot easier than Michael Spinks turned out to be.

I just don't think Tate was a marketable challenger. He wasn't even on the map, honestly.

 

Now that I'm looking, Tate won 10 fights in a row from 1981-1983, but was inactive in 1984. He returned to the ring in 1986.

If offered enough money, I think he'd make a passable title opponent in 1985.

He did beat some names in Coetzee, Mercado, and Bobbick and was one of the few top guys Larry didn't meet in the late 70's to early 1980's

 

I'd bet Tate wasn't in any shape to be boxing in 1985. As I recall, he was signed to fight Holmes in early 1984 but had to pull out due to some sort of injury. I think that the Holmes fight cancellation was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for Tate's boxing career. Sure he fought five more times between 86 and 88, but his weight was way too high and his opponents, except for Noel Quarless, were way too safe. There's no indication that Tate took his career seriously after 1983

If Larry's scheduled 1984 fights with Tate and Coetzee had come off, he likely would have eclipsed Marciano's records. But that year off between November 1983 and November 1984 didn't do Holmes any favors.

He probably should have taken on Anders Eklund, who had a bit of credibility as the European champion, and called it a day.