Remembering the 3 fights during Larry Holmes' reign which he may not have won.

[BRITISH LlON]

Last weekend I watched the 3 very close fights of (prime) Larry Holmes' career which were all title fights and Holmes got the decision in all of them. I am talking about Holmes vs Ken Norton, Holmes vs Tim Witherspoon and Holmes vs Carl "The Truth" Williams.
Holmes vs Norton was the fight in which Holmes took the title from Ken Norton. I scored this fight a draw.
Then we have Holmes vs "Terrible" Tim Witherspoon: I scored this fight a draw as well.
Last but not least Holmes vs Carl "The Truth" Williams: I had Williams clearly ahead after 11 rounds, but then Holmes won all of the last 4 rounds on my scorecard, so I had Holmes winning this fight by 1 point.

How did you guys score those 3 fights? Who did you have winning?

[Anthony342]

Had Holmes winning. What about the two Holmes fights with Michael Spinks?

[TBear]

Had Holmes winning. What about the two Holmes fights with Michael Spinks?

I had Spinks winning the first but I thought Holmes got robbed in the rematch.

[raskat]

I had Spinks winning the first but I thought Holmes got robbed in the rematch.

I thought Spinks won the rematch by about 2 points.

[SBleeder]

I had Holmes winning all of those fights soundly. Not by runaways, but soundly.

The first Spinks fight is the only pre-retirement fight that I think Holmes lost. And he was definitely past his best at that point.

[jabsRstiff]

A lot of people back in '83 claimed Witherspoon was robbed against Holmes. I didn't see it that way. Tim was much more competitive than expected and really rocked Larry in the 9th. But, he let Homes control the early rounds and then Holmes rallied in that monstrous 9th.

[kendom]

I really don't see how the Norton fight could be scored a draw or for Norton. I didn't think it was that close, I had Holmes winning by two rounds, Norton let too many of the early rounds go,and the rounds Holmes won were clearer. The scorecards didn't give Holmes justice IMO. It was a close clear win for Holmes.

[Anthony342]

Also, if Holmes beats Spinks, do you guys think he retires after that or fights one more time to try and break Marciano's 49-0 heavyweight record? I think he tries to break the record, since that was mentioned by him a lot in interviews back then. Holmes tried to claim he already broke it because some of Marciano's fights weren't against legit pros, what was that about? Anyone know anything about these claims? I take it they're not true, since I haven't heard anything else about this.

[Emon723]

Holmes-Norton was perceived to be a close fight, but i've read from even the most boxing experts who watch it said that Larry was ahead 8-2 after 10 rounds, there's no way at all the fight be 8-7 in the end, at worst Holmes is winning 9-6.

[Sugarj]

Also, if Holmes beats Spinks, do you guys think he retires after that or fights one more time to try and break Marciano's 49-0 heavyweight record? I think he tries to break the record, since that was mentioned by him a lot in interviews back then. Holmes tried to claim he already broke it because some of Marciano's fights weren't against legit pros, what was that about? Anyone know anything about these claims? I take it they're not true, since I haven't heard anything else about this.

Well Marciano did face three guys early on who had never had a professional fight before and never had a professional fight after meeting Marciano.

Lee Epperson
Jimmy Weeks
Gilbert Cardone

You can try and boxrec them, but you won't find anything other than the Marciano losses. It might be debatable as to whether these guys were legit pros.

It doesn't really matter in the great scheme of things......