Larry Holmes has named the heavyweight icon who he believes several all-time greats, including himself, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, would have defeated.
Holmes remained an unbeaten world champion between 1978 and 1985, before suffering a surprising and controversial defeat to Michael Spinks.
Prior to that, many suspected ‘The Easton Assassin’ to be past his prime at 35 years old, yet he was nonetheless heavily favoured to retain his IBF title against Spinks.
Their immediate rematch then resulted in another contentious win for Spinks, a former light-heavyweight king, who suffered a first-round stoppage defeat to Mike Tyson around two years later.
It was just a few months earlier, though, that Holmes, having not fought since his rematch with Spinks, attempted to dethrone the ferocious wrecking machine from Brooklyn, New York.
This, of course, did not go according to plan, as Tyson dished out a four-round beatdown and resumed his ruthless surge before losing to ‘Buster’ Douglas in 1990.
During a 1989 interview with Bryant Gumble, however, Holmes insisted that Tyson would not have garnered anywhere near the same success in his heavyweight era.
“Everyone in this room [including Ali, Frazier and Norton] would’ve been able to beat Mike Tyson. You would’ve never heard of him [in our era].”
Regardless of generational debates, Holmes and Tyson are both considered among the greatest heavyweights of all time, along with Ali, Frazier and Norton.
In fact, after doing this interview with Gumble, Holmes ended up making a comeback and fighting until 2002.
