That’s some serious mental and verbal gymnastics man. None of those guys had high rankings and certainly not #1. And I can’t blame Don King. King would have been thrilled to finally have a unification super fight. Why ? Because he would have made millions. Holmes was the linear heavyweight champion and could have fought anyone he wanted. And in fact he DID fight anyone he WANTED as he said himself.
Don't waste too much time and Xmas cheer on him mate all us long term posters know what he's like You've absolutely cleaned him up - anything further would be overkill!!!!!.
I talk crap about it all the time, as it is absolutely awful. The two best names on it were oft-beaten Norton and Witherspoon, and those were either-way fights. Sure he has "20 defenses," actually 19, but of what? He never unifed the belt, and turned down proposed bouts with Coetzee, Page and Thomas. I seriously have a hard time fitting him in the top ten at this point, and belly laugh at people who have him in the top five, sometimes as high as #2!
I still consider him an all time great despite my many criticisms of his resume. He did after all make it to 48-0 and beat “ reasonable “ opponents in Norton, Shavers, Cooney, Berbick, weaver, Witherspoon and Leon Spinks. He also had some longevity and was even competitive well into old age. But yes, the efforts that some put forth to defend his cherry picking is astonishing.
I lived, breathed and followed boxing then and Page was never that good, lazy, fat, couldn't hit hard and hooked up with the right promoters and got a rub from the press because he shared the same hometown as Ali. Should Holmes have fought him, maybe, but there was no danger of Larry losing to him at all
Enough of a danger for Holmes to vacate his belt so he didn't have to face Page. I think Page of late 83 would of been a good challenge for the fading Larry Holmes.
I appreciate your comment however the only person Page was a danger to was himself. Larry was disciplined, hard working fighter amongst a sea of lazy, blubbery, white powder loving waste of talents like Tubbs,Page and Witherspoon.
I realize this theory isn't overall going over well, but I don't think Page was as good as the Spoon who fought Larry in 83. Imo Holmes would take the decision. I guess I can't shake being weirded out that Holmes would avoid Page like that.
Yes i agree i said to my friend @RulesMakeItInteresting a few days ago, that the reason Holmes stood out to the rest of the bunch in the 80's apart from his obvious skill set. Is that he was a model professional always kept himself in shape, never abused any substances, and his consistency was head and shoulders above the rest in the 80's which is why he succeeded. But i still think Greg Page presents a good challenge for Holmes in 83, when they were scheduled to fight. Am i saying Page would win ? no. But i still feel it would of been a good fight, and certainly more interesting than Scott Frank, Marvis Frazier.
Agreed. While I definitely would have favored Holmes to beat Page it was hardly a forgone conclusion. Especially in 1983-1984. Holmes on several occasions barely escaped defeat by the skin of his ass and that even included fights he had in his prime. By 1983-84 he was getting ripe for the picking which was presumably why he cherry picked at that stage.
And certainly better than Lucien Rodriguez, Scott Ledoux, Tex Cobb, Alfredo Evangelista or Lorenzo Zanon. Jesus Christ I can’t believe some of these dudes actually fought for the title.
ATG..sure. There are levels of great. But no way is he in that first tier to anyone who is thinking with any reasonable logic.