Larry Holmes---greatest of all-tıme?

[THE PHILOSOPHER]

Chris Byrd? You crazy! Holmes was old when he fought Tyson and even the Spinks fight. You are being selective with your argument

He was younger than vitali is now when he fought tyson and only 2 years older than wlad when he lost to spinx! Can u imagine hopkins or dawson (who barely beat diaconu, got his ass whooped by pascal and probably went 1-1 with old man johnson!) putting on 25lbs and outboxing wladimir or vitali? lol. Having said that it was tyson we are talking about though. I was impressed with his performance over mercer but other than that he was basically operating as just a very good journeyman, sorry.

Vitali came back and totally demolished the 250lb WBC champ sam peter after a 3 yr hiatus and career ending back surgery to become 3x HW champ. He has gone onto dominate numerous world class fighters (like gomez, adamek, solis, his contemporary shannon briggs, undefeated kevin johnson, chisora, arreola etc) and defend his belt 8 times and counting.

Take Gomez for e.g: He was the WBC mandatory challenger for klitschko in 09, the 6-foot-4 southpaw and former Cuban amateur star is probably underrated. Gomez was a world amateur champ and former cruiserweight titleholder who logged 10 title defenses. Gomez’s eight subsequent heavyweight bouts after moving up in weight suggested that he could effectively carry 220 to 230 pounds. Gomez holds a pro record of 51-3 (although at the time he was 44-1) in fact the great james toney declined a title shot against gomez when he was mandatory!

Gomez's most noteable victories include:

-Volodymyr Virchis (had a record of 24-1): Was ranked #8 at the time, well-schooled, 6-feet-5 an orthodox boxer whose only loss going into the WBC title-elimination bout was a majority decision to current (at the time) WBA title holder Ruslan Chagaev. Gomez was at his relaxed and confident best against Virchis, out-jabbing the Ukrainian and consistently beating him to the punch with counters shots and quick combinations in close.


-Oliver mccall ( had a record of 51-9): Outboxed on 2 occasions by gomez. ( (one win was overturned though due to gomez testing positive for a recreational drug lol) mcall (prior to fighting gomez) had only suffered one defeat since losing to lennox in 07 via a bizarre tko (a close but fair 10 round decision loss to davarryl wiliamson) recent wins for mcall include cuban star yanqui diaz, fres oquendo and Sinan Samil Sam. Mcall was an ageing but still dangerous fighter at the time, he was comprehensively beaten by gomez.

[THE PHILOSOPHER]

Don't dismiss byrd like that, for one thing byrd was a southpaw and holmes never fought any (none half decent anyway) For two he was a 2x HW world champ. Holmes struggled with men that byrd would run rings around...byrd would certainly have beaten spinks, williams and witherspoon.

'Rapid fire' could slip and counter-punch with GREAT effectiveness ( Put byrd in any era and he would be effective) The man was a defensive whizz!! One of only a very few SOUTHPAW heavyweight champions...byrd was known as the HW 'no one wanted to face'! Slick as they come...

A smallish heavyweight by modern standards but boy o boy...what a boxer!!

I am a huge byrd fan (the guy only lost to the very best in his prime). He was ranked in the ring mag top five for 5 years (2 of those at #1). A fighter admired by his contemporaries and the boxing purists. He did not run his mouth...lived clean and was a gentleman in & out of the ring.

Byrd also had an iron chin. He could take a good shot and still be standing. His resume is underrated as well, as he fought the following:

Ike Ibeabuchi: Who knocked an over confident Byrd out in five rounds. Ike had the potential to be an ATG though..

Jose Ribalta: Who had fought Mike Tyson, Tim Witherspoon, Bruce Seldon, Donovan Ruddock, Leon Spinks, Tony Tubbs, and Frank Bruno; Byrd stopped him in the fourth round

Vitali Klitschko: Who Byrd won via TKO when Vitali had injured himself and couldn't go on. Make what u will of that fight. Was it due to straining to reach byrd?

Wladimir Klitschko: Who beat Byrd twice, first fight, twelve round decision, second fight 7th round TKO stoppage

David Tua: (Who was a stone lighter than in his lewis fight) Byrd made tua miss for 12 rounds in an absolute masterclass (tua had previously stopped michael moorer, ruiz, rahman, maskaev etc)

Evander Holyfield: (2 years after the lewis fights, holy had just stopped hasim rahman in an WBA eliminator to fight lewis for a third time!) Byrd easily outpointed him over 12 rounds.

Andrew Golota: Whom Byrd fought to a draw (one of my all time favorite heavyweight fights) He actually hurt golota in this fight too (u gotta watch this fight folks)!

Jameel McCline: Whom Byrd took to a split decision (mcline was 28-3-3 at the time) People forget that mcline was actually a big threat back then! He had dominated (and floored) shannon briggs, beat up big lance whitaker (who had previously stopped maskaev) blew michael grant away in 1 round and had sam peter on the deck 3 times.

Jimmy Thunder: Thunder was a former gold medallist and IBO champion (byrd stopped him in the 9th round) thunder holds wins over trevor berbick, tony tubbs and tim witherspoon and he also lost a very close SD to john ruiz.

Ross Purrity: A very tough journeyman who had KO'd a young Wladimir Klitschko, Joe Hipp, and fought to a draw with Tommy Morrison; Byrd beat him via ten round decision

Davarryl williamson: Who had just defeated oliver mcall. Byrd won a comfortable UD.

Also throw in mames like hard hitting bert cooper who put both holyfield and michael moorer on the seat of there pants (and had them out on there feet in fact!). Phil jackson (who had only lost to lennox and donovan ruddock at the time) Byrd schooled him! etc etc.

Byrd was the holder of the WBO and IBF World Heavyweight Title belts he made 5 defenses of the latter title.

41 wins-5 losses (most of those coming towards the latter part of his career) I feel he was one of the best American heavyweight of the 2000's, by far.

[bigstinkybug]

C'mon... Forman said alot of things he didnt believe