Your favorite Holmes fights

vs Norton, Witherspoon, Truth Williams, Mike Weaver I - Great to very good fights
vs Shavers I & II also good fights
vs Snipes - entertaining
Old Larry vs Mercer is good

Larry had his share of good fights. I'm sure I've missed a few.

 

Holmes/Esch...I have my reasons.

 

Holmes Vs. Witherspoon. I love this fight. So close. You could honestly score the fight either way. The fight showcased possibly the best version of Terrible Tim that you could ask for. He was young and hungry, and appeared less sloppy then Renaldo Snipes when he went in against Holmes (also a good fight). Larry proved himself a strong champ while sliding closer to his elder years.

Holmes Vs. Cobb. Duo has said this one and I agree. It's an excellent showcase of Larry at his most perfect in terms of dominating a limited (yet game) fighter.

Holmes Vs. Cooney. In this one Larry fights more then a man in the ring. He fights a series of injustices that are serious (yet veiled issues to the public eye at large). Not only does Larry put away Cooney in the only way he knows best, but he comes out on the other side of what could have been a catastrophic event with King and Cooney's handlers pumping the racial angle to an insane degree through their own filter of politics. This "gas" of King and Cooney's men filled the air as one event exposed raw-minded politics at hand while Larry tried to keep his dignity in tact. Say what you will, this was one loaded event. One of my all-time favorites. A rare fight in which more then a title was on the line.

 

I liked Holmes-Cobb a lot.
Holmes-Shavers was awesome, it really showed larry's heart.

 

I had it 115-114 for Spoon when I scored it a couple years ago. Very close fight, I don't know how that one judge had it 118-111 for Larry.

My favorite Holmes fights are probably the first Weaver fight and the Norton one.

Witherspoon and Cooney were good fights too.

 

I think this would've been seen as a better fight than Holmes-Norton had it been 15 rounds.

 

holmes vs leon spinks was a good peformance, realy sharp. spinks was up for it, spinks was a live opponent. if you want to see holmes having it all his own way the marvis frazier fighht is good. actualy he was very good against bobicks brother rodney and fred "young sanford" houpe, showing no mercy and all business. his hands were razor sharp against those two. but for entertainment his wars with weaver snipes and shavers II were great. In thosefights holmes almost tried too hard to impress early on, faded got hurt and came right back slugging. basicly if holmes got hurt it was a great fight.

 

As Briscoe was kind enough to reiterate my affinity for Holmes-Cobb, I'll also add:

Holmes-Shavers I. Larry himself has said this was his finest performance prior to 1982. In this one, he sped around the ring counterclockwise and won 34 of the 36 minutes contested. Cosell had announced a number of Larry's fights dating back to the amateur loss to Bobick several years earlier. When Holmes suddenly and unexpectedly unloaded an explosive combination off the ropes to put Earnie in distress at the end of round one, Howard was stunned, and conveyed his excitement to the viewing audience that, "Suddenly, Larry Holmes has the look of a fighter about him!" Cosell made it clear that this was a startling contrast to how he had looked in his previous outing against Arrington. Larry Holmes, in a single moment, had come of age.

Holmes-Ocasio. Jaws only had 13 bouts behind him, but the last two were dual ten round decision wins over Jimmy Young. He was as well prepared for dealing with a great jab as any heavyweight contender of his era possibly could have been. He came in with his awkward bobbing and weaving crouch, hands positioned to pick off the jab, and he did manage to intercept a few. Larry crushed him with it anyway. With round seven underway, he wobbled Ossie with a heavy jab in mid ring. 30 seconds later, he flattened Ocasio with another one, and Jaws was just barely able to beat the count. While it was said that Liston and Louis could knock out an opponent with their jabs, it was Holmes, in this fight, who actually came the closest to turning this trick in title competition against a championship caliber opponent. (Jaws later established the first substantial title run in the cruiserweight division.) After two more knockdowns, Larry ended the night by dropping Ocasio with a final jab.

Holmes-Leon Spinks. Leon was coming off the finest heavyweight stoppage of his career, a ninth round win over the big, streaking, and deadly punching Bernardo Mercado. This time, Leon had very legitimately earned his title shot, and many experts predicted that he'd regain the championship in an upset decision. When the bell to end round two rang prematurely, he dropped his arms, and Leon, with his head in the game, alertly pounced, winning the round, but infuriating Larry. He marched out of his corner for round three, and promptly beat the crap out of Leon, showing that he had the ability to dictate when to end a match if fired up properly. (Sitting in disbelief in front of the television, all I could do was parrot: "Holy ****! Holy ****! Holy ****!")

Holmes-Marvis Frazier. No, Marvis wasn't ready, but he'd looked very good against Bugner, and in avenging his record brief amateur loss to James Broad. That quick knockout at Broad's hands was dismissed as a pinched nerve fluke that had been corrected by surgery, and the way Marvis had staggered and beaten Broad in their professional return seemed to erase that result in the public mind. No surprise that Larry beat him, but he did it in a way that was novel and completely unexpected. Marvis would go on to defeat Tillis, Ribalta and Bonecrusher before Tyson crushed him, then end his career by outscoring Philipp Brown. With over half a dozen excellent wins, some over modern sized super heavyweights, Marvis did not suck by any means.

Old Holmes-Paul Poirior. Recently, Poirior had been stopped by Alex Stewart and Tony Tucker, for his only two defeats. But what he describes as the hardest punch he was ever hit by in 34 fights was the right to the body which Larry ripped through his torso with, separating his rib cartilage and producing a delayed reaction knockdown. (In the footage, you can see the right side of Poirior's body ripple clear through from the impact on the opposite side.) Holmes unloaded a highly effective late round body assault on Carl Williams, but this time he produced a knockdown and stoppage as the result of a single shot downstairs.

Holmes-Evangelista. His first title defense. Tomato Evangelista was considerably more experienced and credentialed than he had been for Ali, having since won the EBU Title and defended it over the championship distance. Ultimately, he would only get stopped four times in 78 fights. Earlier in the card, a comebacking Norton stiffened up and put out young prospect Randy Stephens with a single right hand, an impressive display of power which matched his physique. (There were many times in Kenny's career where he was criticized for lacking in power prior to Bobick, despite breaking Ali's jaw.) Not to be outdone, Larry generated his own one punch knockout, courtesy of a sudden overhand right sledgehammer, which proved to be the only one of his title reign. (The way he was walking away to his right before abruptly turning around to slam it home was reminiscent of something to be expected from Walcott.)

Holmes-Shavers II. Larry says the knockdown punch was the hardest shot he was ever hit with, while Earnie has indicated it was the hardest blow he ever delivered. Apparently, they scared the hell out of each other, one with his power, and the other by getting up from it, with a loud grunt. Shavers came in with tremendous confidence off the Norton blowout, yet, aside from the knockdown, Holmes dominated again, landing 60 jabs in round two, and outlasting Earnie at a blistering pace.

 

I loved the fight Tyson Koed him.