Larry Holmes fought 75 times across a three-decade long career.
‘The Easton Assassin’ made his professional debut in March 1973, and five years later became world heavyweight champion when he defeated Ken Norton.
That began a fantastic run for Holmes, who made 20 straight defences of his heavyweight crown, defeating big names like Muhammad Ali, Trevor Berbick and Gerry Cooney along the way.
With his record standing at 48-0, Holmes suffered back-to-back defeats to Michael Spinks, before he was then stopped inside four rounds by Mike Tyson in January 1988.
He challenged for the world heavyweight title on two further occasions, losing to Evander Holyfield and Oliver McCall respectively, before ‘The Easton Assassin’ retired in 2002 with a final record of 69 wins and 6 defeats.
Having shared the ring with some of the biggest punchers in boxing history, Holmes has revealed to Boxing News who he deems to be the hardest hitter of all time.
“Earnie Shavers, no doubt about it. He could knock the hell out of you!”
Holmes met Shavers on two occasions, winning the first fight by unanimous decision in March 1978, before then stopping his rival in the 11th round when they had their rematch 18 months later.
Their second meeting came whilst Holmes was world champion, in one of two unsuccessful bids that Shavers had at world honours, having also suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Ali in September 1977, though he famously rocked Ali several times.
Shavers hung up the gloves in 1995, with 70 of his 76 victories coming by knockout, and before sadly passing away in 2022 at the age of 78, he named who he felt was better between Ali and Holmes.
