Is Larry Holmes the most disrespected boxing legend?

[The D3vil]

HE is not the greatest HW ever.

Top 5 most definitely, but . . .

Was never undisputed or unified

Only beat 2 HOFs in his entire career

He lost to more HOFs than he beat.

Ruled over an era worst than Tyson's, who's era is constantly attacked by people.

And on that same note, Tyson destroyed Holmes' opponents worst than Holmes did.

His jab was a beast, but not better than Ali's flick jab.

[STREET CLEANER]

Holmes was unpopular. His mouth didn't help him much either. He was more appreciated in the second half of his career. But the era he ruled was a weak one.

Too bad he never fought George Foreman.

[Marchegiano]

HE is not the greatest HW ever.

Top 5 most definitely, but . . .

Was never undisputed or unified

Only beat 2 HOFs in his entire career

He lost to more HOFs than he beat.

Ruled over an era worst than Tyson's, who's era is constantly attacked by people.

And on that same note, Tyson destroyed Holmes' opponents worst than Holmes did.

His jab was a beast, but not better than Ali's flick jab.

Well, there you go, I was gonna give him **** for being a single belt holder, but, Devil's got it all covered.


No one ever disrespects Larry, he's just not anyone's favorite. I don't think he should be either. If he wanted to be a top legend he should have went undisputed.

[catalinul]

Well he is rated as one of the best heavyweights of all time.

[sweetpea87]

I would say yes. Larry was the man. Best jab in history and could give any heavyweight ever trouble and probably beat lots of them.

He didn’t even want to fight Ali at that point and he said he cried in Ali’s dressing room after and begged him to retire. He seems like a really stand up guy too. No idea why he didn’t get the credit he deserves

[TBear]

Holmes was not embraced by the Ali fans at the time. Matter of fact many of them disliked him for beating Ali. In time he earned more respect but sometimes feelings are hard to let go of.

[famicommander]

The most disrespected male fighter, absolutely. Holmes was amazing and he doesn't get the respect he deserves.

But Cecilia Braekhus is the most disrespected female fighter. She's riding a 25 fight unified title defense streak and an 10 fight undisputed title defense streak. But if people talk about women's boxing at all, it's only Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields, or Amanda Serrano. Braekhus has beaten Taylor's best opponents by a wider margin than she has. Braekhus has beaten more than twice as many world champions as Serrano in four fewer fights. Braekhus has been a world champion since Shields was in grade school. Braekhus has never lost more than three rounds in any fight. Only one single scorecard in her entire career came back 96-94 in her favor -- every other scorecard of every other fight, she won by at LEAST 3 rounds. Most opponents are lucky to get one round, and she's fighting better fighters than Serrano, Taylor, or Shields are.

Braekhus has a legitimate claim to be the greatest female boxer who ever lived and she's barely even famous. Laila Ali gets more press than she does and Ali has been retired for 13 years.

[CHOWWOKKA]

Umm jack johnson?

[whollisboxing]

Holmes was unpopular. His mouth didn't help him much either. He was more appreciated in the second half of his career. But the era he ruled was a weak one.

Too bad he never fought George Foreman.

I just have to point out that a lot of guys supposedly ruled over weak eras. Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko. I have heard each of their eras referred to as weak at one point or another.

[QueensburyRules]

I say yes.

He’s arguably the best heavyweight ever but no one makes that argument for him.

Two champions who he fought (Ali and Tyson) are the biggest pop culture icons in boxing history and Holmes was arguably better than both.

In his biggest fights, he was always the guy people rooted against and wanted to lose.

He’s a legend yet he played second fiddle to Gerry Cooney in a fight.

Sitting at 48-0, about to tie Marciano’s 49-0 record and creeping up on Joe Louis’ record of defenses, he loses a close decision most heavyweight champions would have gotten. He loses a rematch by a close decision too.

He never got another title shot after arguably beating Oliver McCall for the WBC title in 1995, which is absurd compared to how many shots some of his peers got when they were older.

I don’t even know of another legend who gets so little respect but I’ll except nominations for another name.

- -Lessee, Rocky beat him from his grave.

And Tyson crucified him on the canvas for 5 min.

And Butterbean mocked and knocked him down.

Thanks for the reminders!