And I'll disagree with that. If Larry Holmes would have knocked Coetzee out in South Africa, it would have been a brilliant blow for civil rights. Greg Page got that honor because Holmes turned it down. Just like Holmes refused to fight Page. Just like he openly said he wasn't interested in Thomas.
Again, this is something that we are just going to disagree on. By your own words, it was something that was possible. But the fighters themselves had to push for it.
So Greg Page’s win was a great moment in civil rights history because he took blood money and won a fight? Which civil rights museum is that historic moment commemorated in? I need to go check that out. As for Holmes-Page, here’s the truth: Holmes was offered $5M to fight Marvis Frazier and Scott Frank. Two easy fights for a lot of easy money. He chose to do that rather than fight Page for half that. Page ‘earned’ his shot by beating Renaldo Snipes three fights after losing to Trevor Berbick, whom Holmes beat by shutout or near-shutout (depending on which judge you side with … but it was a runaway win). Page agreed to a step-aside deal to fight Holmes after those two fights but Don King went to the WBC and protested (with bag of cash in hand). The WBC of course sided with King. Larry said screw that, I’m the champ and everybody knows it so you can keep your belt and walked away. The WBC literally said ‘you can’t do that’ and Holmes said ‘watch me.’ So Page got to fight for the vacant title for chump change and lost … to Tim Witherspoon, another guy Holmes had already beaten. And then he lost to David Bey and Larry promptly stopped Bey. Make of it what you will — you really have a hard-on for hating Holmes and that’s obvious, but any smart businessman would do the same thing Holmes did and take the money (and easier fights). But you can visit the Greg Page Civil Rights Museum and celebrate how Greg took blood money to sell out his own people and help South Africa’s racist government sports-wash its image.
I don't see how there's anything to disagree on. My own words said both occasions came after both combattants made multiple defenses and built the fights up. Holmes had already beaten Weaver albeit in a hard fight. Weaver needed to build himself up with a few good wins or one big one. If he happened to get the Cooney fight as was planned i have little doubt the winner would have fought Holmes in a unification battle....particularly if it was Cooney.
You've got to be joking. Holmes is universally recognized as a top 5 H2H force on here, when he went life and death with his rather mediocre opposition.
He only fought two #1 contenders in 20 defences though. It was quite common for Holmes to be fighting the guy ranked #8 or #9 while his WBA counterpart tackled the #1 or #2. Compare that with Louis, who had about 8-10 defences against his #1 contender. Holmes basically ignored the other champs and several big, prime talented heavies in favour of defences against journeymen and fringe contenders (and he was quite open about doing this). IMO Holmes' penchant for cherrypicking sets him apart from the likes of Louis, Ali and Lewis, who were much more willing to tackle the best fighters around.