Larry Holmes was one of the most dominant heavyweights of the early 1980s.
Known as ‘The Easton Assassin’, Holmes reigned as the world heavyweight champion for seven years between 1978 and 1985, defeating the late, great Ken Norton to capture the WBC heavyweight title.
Holmes would go on to make no less than twenty successful defences of his crown, beating the likes of Earnie Shavers, Trevor Berbick and Muhammad Ali during his reign before he eventually suffered back-to-back defeats to Michael Spinks.
Despite coming up against some of the greatest heavyweights of all time during his tenure, there was one man in particular that Holmes never crossed paths with before his retirement in 2002.
That man was George Foreman, who remains the oldest world heavyweight champion of all time. Whilst speaking on What The Hell Happened with Larry Holmes, ‘The Easton Assassin’ shared details of how he came very close to facing Foreman, before ‘Big’ George reportedly pulled out of the fight.
“We had the contracts signed. Don King messed that up by one day, one day he didn’t have the money in the bank when we should have had the money and that’s what messed it up and George pulled right out.
“I would have had the pleasure of punching him in the face because he’s a hypocrite, he’s not really what people think he is, he might be a nice guy for a second or two but say something that he doesn’t like and he goes off. George has a short temper, he’s not a nice guy like me. The people always say ‘what about George?’ I would have had the pleasure of knocking him out. He pulled right out on me.”
Foreman went on to defeat Michael Moorer in 1994, capturing the WBA and IBF heavyweight titles just shy of his 46th birthday.
