{"id":680229,"date":"2026-07-08T11:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680229\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:01:12","slug":"larry-holmes-im-the-greatest-not-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/680229\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry Holmes: &#8216;I&#8217;m The Greatest, Not Muhammad Ali&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>In previously published comments resurfaced this week, Holmes argued that his championship reign and title defenses put him ahead of the other heavyweight legends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t really get the recognition that I would normally get like a Mike Tyson. I had (nearly) 20 title defenses. Mike Tyson had three or four and then lost,\u201d said Holmes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eJXfB8hfrNw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky Sports Boxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes pointed to the longevity of his reign, noting that he held the heavyweight championship for seven-and-a-half years and finished with 20 successful title defenses. Only Joe Louis enjoyed a longer reign as heavyweight champion, while Holmes also mentioned Rocky Marciano\u2019s unbeaten record as one of the few accomplishments comparable to his own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was champ for seven-and-a-half years. They don\u2019t want to recognize me. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holmes saved his boldest statement for the end, rejecting the widespread opinion that Ali stands alone as heavyweight boxing\u2019s greatest fighter.<\/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. I\u2019m the greatest!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holmes compiled a 69-6 record during a professional career that stretched from 1973 to 2002. His resume includes victories over Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon, Carl Williams and Ray Mercer. He also remains the only fighter to stop Ali, although their October 1980 bout remains controversial because many observers believed Ali should never have been allowed to fight due to his physical condition.<\/p>\n<p>Holmes\u2019 place in heavyweight history continues to be debated. While many fans still rank Ali as the division\u2019s greatest fighter based on his accomplishments and cultural impact, Holmes\u2019 seven-and-a-half-year championship reign and 20 successful title defenses remain among the strongest statistical cases ever assembled by a heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783508472_775_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In previously published comments resurfaced this week, Holmes argued that his championship reign and title defenses put him&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-680229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680229","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=680229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}