Larry Holmes is seen by many as one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time.
Holmes competed for nearly 30 years from 1973 to 2002, and held the world heavyweight championship from 1978 until 1985, making a remarkable 20 defences during that time.
He defeated fighters such as Muhammad Ali, Leon Spinks, Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers and Trevor Berbick, before losing his crown to Michael Spinks.
Holmes would lose a rematch with Spinks seven months later, and then further world title shots to Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Oliver McCall all ended in defeat for ‘The Easton Assassin.’
Instead, a new crop of fighters began to take over the heavyweight division in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Tyson and Holyfield, along with Lennox Lewis, who defeated both of those men as he became undisputed champion.
Despite that success, it seems that Holmes didn’t believe the achievements of Lewis were all that spectacular, as he revealed to Boxing News.
“Lennox Lewis never impressed me. The guy got a punch, he’s big and strong and anything can happen. I wish him the best.”
Despite the criticism from Holmes, Lewis had the honour of being the last undisputed heavyweight champion for over 20 years, until Oleksandr Usyk achieved that feat when he beat Tyson Fury to claim all four world titles back in Saudi Arabia in May 2024.
Lewis isn’t the only boxing legend that Holmes has taken aim at over the years, having once also claimed that the late, great George Foreman was a ‘fraud’ and ‘couldn’t fight.’
