would larry holmes of 1980 have beat a prime tyson

[Rossman]

I think a prime Holmes would have beat Tyson. He had the perfect style and his chin, skills and heart are widely underrated here.

[bklynboy]

Again, all you do is watch the Douglas fight, he beat a young prime Tyson as Champ, & he did not compare to Holmes & other similar fighters, easy win for Holmes as Mike attempts to Bite his ear, LOL.

Tyson might have been "prime" physically but by this point he believed all he had to do is say boo and his opponent would fold. He had abandoned his jab and was just looking for the knockout. Tyson had fired his boxing people and was surrounded by sycophants. When he got in trouble, for the first time in his career, he had nobody to listen to, nobody to help him out.

[Cardinal Buck]

If Tyson could catch Holmes (again) like snipes or shavers, he still would be able to finish Larry.

[Bodyshot3]

I am well aware that this statement does not come across as particularly intellectual/schooled or steeped in hard factual, record-crunching data....

....but I just have this 'fans' hunch that Holmes circa 1980 would have had the physical size, confidence, speed, reach and poleaxe jab that Tyson would have absolutely hated to deal with.

Holmes - boxing to a gameplan and at peak fitness - can survive the horror of the opening bombardment from Mike and then begin to slowly break-up Tyson's attacks with a succession of hard, accurate and punishing jabs.

Over 15 rounds Holmes begins to really hold all the aces....perhaps really turning the screw in the 11-12 rounds by following up jabs with some hooks as well.

[bklynboy]

I am well aware that this statement does not come across as particularly intellectual/schooled or steeped in hard factual, record-crunching data....

....but I just have this 'fans' hunch that Holmes circa 1980 would have had the physical size, confidence, speed, reach and poleaxe jab that Tyson would have absolutely hated to deal with.

Holmes - boxing to a gameplan and at peak fitness - can survive the horror of the opening bombardment from Mike and then begin to slowly break-up Tyson's attacks with a succession of hard, accurate and punishing jabs.

Over 15 rounds Holmes begins to really hold all the aces....perhaps really turning the screw in the 11-12 rounds by following up jabs with some hooks as well.

I think it would have been a great fight assuming Tyson would have been mentally tough enough to keep fighting when things got tough, as did Frazier when fighting Ali.