Larry Holmes ATG

What was even funnier was his punk ass snitchin' 2 the police. "You saw it! Larry Holmes Kicked Me!" Screamin' & shit like he just got raped. Immediately followed by Holmes' pro-wrestling entrance from the skies :boxing:

Great fighter. The Trevor Berbick parking lot incident always cracks me up too.

Props to you for not starting a new thread. Were you searching this topic or something? I was just about to reply "didn't we just have a thread like this" but realized it was the same one.:lol1: I've already given my opinions. Yeah, I was searching for something on Larry that carried some weight, and this was it.

please pay me

The guy had the sad fate of being the best heavyweight champ after Ali. You can't look good when you have to Ali's shadow always behind you. He would kill any current heavyweight champ in his prime of even in his later years.

why do you think he never got the respect he should have. Because he came after Ali, never truly kissed a lot of ass, and didn't really have the personality that some of the other superstars had.Plus, to a lesser extent, he didn't unify the title, and duck some contenders.

why do you think he never got the respect he should have. Probably because he was always whining about not getting respect.

That's what I thought. I heard someone (maybe Larry himself) saying that they robbed him in that fight just so that he wouldn't achieve that goal. I haven't seen those two fights to make a judgment for myself, but from what I've read, both fights were highly controversial.. Another thing that was weird that happened to him is when he fought Gerry Cooney, they announced Cooney's name after Larry's when Larry was champion. I think this is the only time that ever happened in a championship fight.:nonono: Very controversial, I thought the first fight was closer to the second but had Holmes winning clearly. Racial tension was very high when Holmes fought Cooney, Don King made the fight into a race thing to sell tickets and it worked. It was very disrespectful to Holmes to get announced after Cooney.

Just imagine if Larry had beaten Marciano's record. He came so close! That said if he had retired in 1985 the outcry for a Tyson fight a couple of years later would be too much for him to have ignored. He would surely have been offered even more than he did get in 1988 when he did face Tyson (two undefeated legends would have made many millions). The outcome would have been the same too!!!! I do however think that the Holmes of 1980 would beat the Tyson of 1988. He definitely would have made more money had he retired undefeated and came back to fight Tyson. I think a prime Holmes would've beaten a prime Tyson as well but Cus D'Amato always talked to Tyson about beating Holmes, he devised a strategy with Tyson on beating Holmes years before they actually got into the ring.

Just imagine if Larry had beaten Marciano's record. He came so close! That said if he had retired in 1985 the outcry for a Tyson fight a couple of years later would be too much for him to have ignored. He would surely have been offered even more than he did get in 1988 when he did face Tyson (two undefeated legends would have made many millions). The outcome would have been the same too!!!! I do however think that the Holmes of 1980 would beat the Tyson of 1988.

Wasn't he really close to matching Marciano's record of 49-0 leading into those fights? He was 48-0 heading into the first fight.

Any knowledgable boxing fan has to know that Larry Holmes is not just one of the best heavyweights of all time but also one of the best pound for pound fighters of all time. Reasons why he was underappreciated to the casual observer: 1) He didn't have Ali's personality out side the ring and wasn't quite as entertaining inside the ring. 2) His defensive skills were so good that he could be termed boring to the casual fan, many of his fights either went the distance or late rounds. 3) He did make some crass comments to the press, one about Rocky Marciano not being fit to carry his jockstrap jumps to mind. 4) He was labelled a 'coward' when he lost to Duane Bobick in the Olympics in a pitiful showing. It took a while for Larry to redeem his reputation. Larry proved as a professional that he had phenominal speed, boxing ability, a fantastic jab, awesome combinations and real heart and a sturdy chin. If a peak Larry Holmes was mixing with the present generation of heavyweights I'm sure they'd all be beaten convincingly.

I thought he won both Spinks fights.

I was going to make a thread when I made a few more posts how I thought Larry Holmes was one of the most underrated boxers. How he disected Earnie Shavers was incredible to me. Also I think his first loss, he was cheated so he wouldn't beat a certain persons record.

Great fighter. I think people didn't recognize him because he had big shoes to fill after he had beaten Ali and he was always compared to him because he also fought somewhat like Ali, his personality outside of the ring didn't help him either, people were also getting bored of him because more often than not, he was dominating his opponents. Unifying the titles could have helped him but he didn't do that. Anyways, I think he's a top 10 heavyweight of all time with possessed perhaps the greatest jab I have ever seen.

why do you think he never got the respect he should have. Caus of Ali. End of thread