Former American heavyweight world champion Larry Holmes is one of the most celebrated fighters of his era and has recently share his views on what he thinks was his greatest night in the ring.
Holmes’s career impressively spanned over 29 years. In that time he had an eye-watering 75 fights, winning 69 of them and losing just six times. ‘The Easton Assassin’ was known for his textbook jab which helped him beat the likes of Leon Spinks, Trevor Berbick, Earnie Shavers and of course his idol Muhammad Ali.
Famously, Holmes was a long-time sparring partner of Ali who has since said he didn’t enjoy beating ‘his buddy’ and the man he had looked up to as a young fighter.
As such, when speaking to All Out Fighting and asked about the greatest moment in his career, he doesn’t pick his successful WBC world title defence against ‘The Greatest.’ Instead, he goes for the first time he won the heavyweight title, in his unanimous points decision victory over 15 rounds against Ken Norton at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
“‘1978. Kenny Norton. That was it. Toe to toe. Fighting the fight. And then I had the title for seven and a half years so you know, maybe I got lucky. Maybe the guys couldn’t fight, I don’t know.”
Holmes is then asked about how current heavyweights such as Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua would fair in his era.
“They’re naturally big but these guys probably couldn’t have done it in my era. But they weren’t there so I hate to comment on somebody who has done what they’ve done in their division. I can’t say I would go in there and do this and do that to them.”
Fighters were notoriously active in the ’70s and ’80s, unlike many of today’s heavyweights, although at last there are fights on the horizon with Oleksandr Usyk defending his titles against Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua rematching Dillian Whyte.