{"id":242928,"date":"2025-11-04T08:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/242928\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T08:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:06:12","slug":"larry-holmes-names-the-true-greatest-heavyweight-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/242928\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Holmes names the true greatest heavyweight of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Boxing legend and one of the finest heavyweight champions of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/larry-holmes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Larry Holmes<\/a>, has no doubt about who really deserves to be called \u2018the greatest.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The marquee division has long produced not only world-class fighters but men who transcended the sport, bringing boxing to the front as well as the back pages.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes, who became WBC heavyweight champion after a thrilling 15-round war with Ken Norton in June 1978, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.secondsout.com\/news\/holmes-says-heavyweight-is-biggest-fraud\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is rightly regarded as one of the greats of the division\u2019s rich history.<\/a> His reign from 1978 to 1985 included 16 successful title defences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Easton Assassin\u201d eventually relinquished his belt amid a financial dispute with promoter Don King, rather than face No.1 contender Greg Page. He later accepted an IBF title shot against James \u201cBonecrusher\u201d Smith, beginning a new championship reign in November 1984 before Michael Spinks ended it a year later in one of 1985\u2019s biggest upsets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eJXfB8hfrNw&amp;t=278s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Speaking to Sky Sports<\/a>, Holmes reflected on his career-long battle for recognition despite his legacy-defining run as champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven today I don\u2019t really get the recognition that I would normally get like a Mike Tyson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had (nearly) 20 title defences. Mike Tyson had three or four and then lost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was champ for seven-and-a-half years. They don\u2019t want to recognize me. [Muhammad] Ali don\u2019t have the fights that I had defending the title. He didn\u2019t hold his title for seven and a half years. Only one guy had that title for longer than seven and a half years [and that] was Joe Louis. And the only person that had a record like mine was Rocky Marciano \u2013\u2013 nobody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tyson in fact made nine defences of the WBC title after beating Trevor Berbick in November 1986.<\/p>\n<p>As for who truly deserves the crown of the greatest heavyweight of all time, it\u2019s a debate that could rage for hours. But Holmes, for one, has already made up his mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy does Muhammad Ali got to be the greatest? He could say he\u2019s the greatest, you could say he\u2019s the greatest but I know different \u2013\u2013 I\u2019m the greatest!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/on-this-day-larry-holmes-thrashes-the-remnants-of-muhammad-ali\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Holmes famously fought an aging Ali in October 1980<\/a>, claiming a 10th round retirement win in a bout that doesn\u2019t sit well with many boxing fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boxing legend and one of the finest heavyweight champions of all time, Larry Holmes, has no doubt about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-242928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}