January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

face puncher who ate or dodged three to give you one. Holmes was a moving boxer
with a tremndous jab, like Ali, his model. Then there's the quality of
opponents.Frazier - wins over Bonavena, Machen, Chuvalo, an undefeated
Mathis, Quarry, Ellis, Foster, Ali and Bugner. Not a bad list for 32
wins.Holmes - two very good ones vs. Shavers, Berbick, a split win over
Witherspoon, Mercer, Ribalta.His reign impresses with length, but not as
much with quality of opponents.Sorry, but wins over Evangelista, Zanon,
LeDoux, a fat Ali, Cobb and Frank, among others just do not impress. A number of
champs would have defeated that roster of opponents.I do not give him
Norton, and Spinks, at best, was a toss up. Does that make Micheal Spinks Top
Five also? No, not in my book.Consider this as well. Frazier had a small
number of fights which were very competitive, Bonavena, Quarry, Ali among them.
He gave rematches against each.Holmes had very sketchy performances versus,
Cooney, Snipes, Witherspoon and Williams. How many combined rematches did Holmes
offer to this group? Zero. Does this suggest something? I think it
does.Consider that Frazier also just plain fought in a better era overall.
All of this then puts them much closer together.I'd pick both Frazier and
Foreman to beat Holmes.Frazier was KO'd earlier, yes, by Foreman.George
got a lot of guys, didn't he? Holmes was gone against Snipes.None of this is
a bag on Holmes at all. He was an outstanding fighter, a solid champ, a real
credit to the sport.But I think all of this should be considered before
ranking him Top Ten or better all-time. Thanks. |
|9/15/05 05:00:41 PM|Noam|same||same||||10|Kent - the New York title wasn't a
world title. Frazier got this 'title' when he refused to go in the World Boxing
Association tournament.Holmes was a very robust fighter with plenty of
stamina and enthusiasm. He loved to fight. From 1978 to 1985, while champion, he
had 20 fights. Every one of these fights was a title defense. He fought more
fights and rounds than Ali.Does anyone recall how many times Holmes was
knocked down ? |
|9/15/05 05:11:23 PM|Angelo|Washington, DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Holmes
takes Frazier by a late round TKO or relatively easy decision. Sorry Kent,
Frazier wouldn't give him the brutal fight you envision. Larry Holmes fought
everyone who he should have with the possible exception of John Tate. That
fight would have happened if Tate didn't get iced by Mike Weaver, who Holmes
then beat. That's ridiculous, saying that Frazier's level of competition or his
title defenses were better quality than Holmes. Don't forget Ellis II., Stander
and Daniels for crying out loud. His highest level of competition (Ali and
Foreman) had a record of 4 wins and 1 loss against Frazier. Holmes fought and
defeated Norton as well as Shavers twice, Leroy Jones, the aforementioned
Weaver, a very dangerous and undefeated Cooney (Make no mistake, Holmes was
never in trouble in this fight, won most of the rounds and won by KO---let's not
rewrite history guys.). Holmes came out of retirement to beat highly ranked
Mercer and gave in-prime Holyfield all he wanted. No, Larry Holmes does not
belong on the "second tier" with Smokin' Joe. That's crazy. Holmes held the
title about seven years and fought every relavant heavyweight in a position to
fight for the title. He also stayed busy against guys like Ocasio, Cobb,
Evangilista, Marvis Frazier----for my money, these and many others Holmes took
on had better careers and records than Ron Stander and Terry Daniels and weren't
riding losing streaks in against Holmes either. Ocasio beat Jimmy Young twice
in row and Young was at or near the top of his game at the time, having beaten
Lyle and Foreman and for my money, Norton too. Don't forget how well prepared
and efficient Larry Holmes was, especially between '78 and '83. Holmes ducked
no one. |
|9/15/05 05:41:54 PM|Ty|Deep South||Ty11161@hotmail.com||||10|Hello
Folks;I was curious about Jerry's involvement with the military - ever
close to being drafted? Anyone know what his thoughts were in "general" about
serving? Several good fighters came out of the services during the 1960's (Ken