Is Larry Holmes an underrated boxer?

Question

Is it true that, if he defeated Michael Spinks and retired with a 49-0 record, he would have been an equal to Marciano?

Answer 1

Yes he is an underrated Heavyweight champion.

He had the second most consecutive successful title defenses of any heavyweight champion (Joe Louis had the most).

You're right if he had beaten Michael Spinks his record would have been 49-0,he also lost the rematch which in my opinion the judges ripped him off

Answer 2

Larry Holmes is probably the most underrated boxer of his era. Being Ali sparring partner he learned from the best and his jab maybe a slight better than Ali himself. In my humble  opinion if he had not dared to say "Marciano isn't fix to carry my jock strip" he would have stayed the media darling. I feel like he lost the 1st fight with Spinks but won the 2nd.

Answer 3

he was for a long time, but he is now getting his dues... the ESPN top 50 list ranks him high, and he was ranked very high in a couple other polls that came out recently

for a long time he was underrated and underappreciated, but there are some vocal members of the media that have brought his accomplishments to the fore, and now he is getting his dues... Great Boxer, and deserves the kudos he gets.

Answer 4

holmes is easily a top 10 all time great heavyweight, but holmes himself believes that he is number one because he beat ali.......he is well respected by experts and fans alike, but he probably thinks just a little TOO  highly.

top 10, but not number one.

Answer 5

Truly great boxers (and by that i mean true scientific boxers,not just hard hitters and brawlers) are rarely appreciated in boxing, people did not start to appreciate Gene Tunney until years after his death, the same goes for several others including holmes....from a pure stylistical boxing perspective Holmes was easily one of the top three best boxers ever, he was a complete heavyweight, he had power,skills and decent speed....his biggest weaknesses were that he was too good, he did not generate knock outs like tyson and he was not flashy and loud like Ali...he was always stuck in the middle, his technical style was not always appealing to the casual boxing fan who is just looking for violence and that always hurt him, and the fight with spinks was a robbery, anyone that watched the fight back then felt that way, people did not want Marciano's record to be broken so they robbed holmes twice (how could a man who has beaten norton and shavers lose against michael spinks?) and the fact that he never unified the title also hurt him a little, he should have tried to unify the title like Ali did before him and like Tyson did afterwards instead he held on to the wbc title for years and then moved to the ibf but never unified the wbc and wba titles like so many champions did before him........forget what you hear, Holmes was better than Marciano as a boxer, if you woke up Marciano from his grave he would probably agree with me, perhaps in time people will aprreciate him more and more...only time wll tell.

Answer 6

Keep in mind that the associated press had Holmes winning 9-6, and everyone had Holmes winning the second bout.

I think that over time, Holmes is much more appreciated.  h**l, the American boxing world is desperate for a guy like Holmes to take care of all the current heavies.  Holmes was not equal to Marciano, he was better.

As far as is Holmes underrated?  Of course.  There will always be a significant amount of boxing fans that are the literal definition of ignorant:  uneducated, unknowing.  Those fans don't understand the finer aspects of boxing and never will.  They look at a guy like Holmes and see a guy that can't punch and that's all.  Never mind that Holmes holds the record for consecutive title defenses by KO.  Holmes did all the subtle things that the typical fan of the violence will never understand.  Against Cooney, a half step to the left makes the hook harder to land.  Against Shavers, a half step to the right makes the overhand right harder to land.  A hard jab briefly stuns the opponent and makes him hesitate, but the violence fan doesn't realize how much that hurt and just thinks that Larry's opponent is a bum.

I've tried to educate the numbskull portion of boxing fans, but you can't get it through their heads that boxing is a science.  So long as we  have a good portion of fight fans that think this way, Larry Holmes will forever be underrated.

Answer 7

Yes. Never really got the credit he was due. Not as flashy as Ali or Norton or some of the other guys, but definitely a great fighter.