Yeah, but in '83 against Spoon, Holmes claimed he was over-trained and too light at 213 pounds for age 33 going on 34....... Homer also said he had a slight case of "The Shits" in the days leading up to the fight with Spoon..... Excuses' or not, Holmes was seemingly weak at 213 for the youthful and peaked 219 pound Tim Spoon...... I kinda' think Holmes would've been better off at 217 or 218 pounds for that fight........ Holmes was 217 for Cobb in late 1982......... :good MR.BILL
Agreed. And nobody out there was picking a Bey victory, afterall. The pre-fight thoughts I recall was a guy made to order for Holmes and nobody thought he had the defense to deal with the Holmes jab anymore than Scott Frank did. And he was given about the same chances to win the bout as Mr. Frank.
Not exactly......... Scott Frank was a true "Club" fighter with more toughness than skills......... I have that fight too............. Dave Bey had a decent win or two and was rising but green when he fought Holmes in '85....... Bey was more better than Frank by a degree / hair or two........ MR.BILL:deal
Odds on both guys were comparable going into the fights. Frank got the title fight because of a Snipes win. Both were literally no hopers. Rodriguez was an even bigger underdog. Carl Williams was a huge underdog as well. And Smith for that matter. None of those bouts were expected to be competitive, let alone as having the potential for an upset. There were zero backers nevertheless, picking those challengers in that timeframe against Larry Holmes. Why would anyone? Did you actually know anyone picking a David Bey or a Carl Williams to beat the guy? I didn't. Everyone wanted to see different names in there instead and Mike Spinks was by far the most talented and pedigreed up and comer Holmes had fought in a long long time.
I've seen all of these fights being talked about now. Bey was one of the Fat Boys in the Heavyweight division at that time. Page, Tubbs, James Broad, Bey, they were all big. Bey always took too much punishment in his fights.
Larry always seemed to have some sort of excuse when his performance wasn't pristine. He had a runny nose vs Weaver, he had the poo's vs Timmy and took him lightly, he took Snipes lightly etc etc etc etc. I just can't buy all of them sorry. If Holmes and Witherspoon had an immediate rematch i'd expect a good competitive match again. The big point is - if Holmes was so underdone and off form why did he tell Witherspoon he'd never get a rematch and stiff ****? If he was as bad as he made out he'd just whip into shape and put the pretender in his place no? I'm still saying slippage.
Whether or not Holmes was making excuses' after his narrow win over Spoon in 1983 is alright with me since he got the nod anyway..... I scored it for "The Homer" by a close shaven **** hair.... Perhaps like 6-5-1 after 12 rds for HOLMES! I rate "Holmes-Spoon; Holmes-Cooney; Weaver-Dokes 2 & Thomas-Weaver" as some very UNDERRATED great heavyweight title fights that are seemingly forgotten by many fans here today in 2010...... I have these fights on tape........ :hey I'll never forgot the night Holmes fought Spoon in Vegas.... I was home in California.... It was Friday, May 20, 1983.... My buddy wanted me to go along with him to pick-up this chick to fool around with, but I was loyal to the fight card more so at the time..... Anyway, I stayed home and watched the fight / recorded the fight while he ended up rolling his Volkswagon Bug while driving off the freeway to score poontang..... He never made it........ He wasn't hurt in the crash, but his old man came into class (High School) on Monday morning raising hell like the Dickens...... :admin MR.BILL:nono
I was buzzin' last night off some whiskey and I popped "Holmes-Bey" in again...... Holmes dropped Bey 2X in round 8 and Bey had some markings below one of his eye's from Holmes' punches, but Bey still seemed able to see alright........ Bey ate some bombs by Holmes in round 10.... Thus, the bout was halted..... Bey was on wobbly legs........ MR.BILLhat