Mike Tyson’s resume reads like a who’s-who of heavyweight boxing legends, although not all his iconic opponents were happy to get the chance to fight him.
One of Mike Tyson’s most iconic knockouts arrived in 1988 against former world champion Larry Holmes, who famously remains the only fighter to have stopped the legendary Muhammad Ali.
Holmes had made wild claims about Mike Tyson before – but arguing that he only fought ‘Iron’ for a hefty paycheck when he competed 24 times after might raise one or two eyebrows.
Larry Holmes admits he regrets ending ‘retirement’ to fight Mike Tyson
After losing his Ring and IBF heavyweight championship titles to Michael Spinks via a razor-close split decision in 1986, American boxing legend Larry Holmes hung up the gloves.
Yet just two years later, ‘The Easton Assassin’ would be back in the squared circle and found himself staring down the scariest and most intimidating fighter of this new heavyweight era – Mike Tyson.
Holmes was a shadow of his former self that night, spending most of the fight trying to grab hold of ‘Iron’ and after being dropped three times in the same round, the referee mercilessly called a halt to the onslaught.
“I shouldn’t have come out of retirement against him,” Holmes admitted during a 2022 interview with The Telegraph, noting that the story would’ve been very different had they fought 10-15 years earlier.
“I fought Mike Tyson and I lost. He stopped me. Tyson could punch, you can’t take that away from him. He would stand in front of you, try and push you against the ropes, but he wouldn’t have been able to do that to me in my prime. I would have beaten him.
“So would Ali, Joe Frazier, Norton and George Foreman. But you should quit while you are ahead.”
When asked why he came out of retirement to fight Tyson two years after bowing out, Holmes claimed that it was all about “Money, it was the money.”
Whilst Holmes claims to have ended retirement for the ‘money fight’ with Tyson, he still competed a total of 24 more times after that KO loss – eventually ending his career in 2002 with a UD win over Eric Esch.
Larry Holmes believes old-school boxers are different breed to new-gen fighters
Holmes competed in what many combat sports historians believe to be the ‘golden era’ of heavyweight boxing, with the former champion claiming that there’s a sizable gulf in class between his past rivals and the heavyweights of today.
“Every corner you turned, you were going to get one of them; Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Kenny Norton, Earnie Shavers, Gerry Cooney – all these fighters who got in there together. [That’s] different to today”
“I’d put $10,000 on my head” in training, claimed Holmes: “If you knock me down, I’ll give you $10,000, I’d tell them. And they tried to knock me down. No one did it. And when I was beating them up, I was sad about it.
“These fighters today – I don’t wanna knock ’em – but they couldn’t stand up against us. We were physically different. It was different then. They don’t all fight each other… Look, I’m happy with all the gifts I was given, I can’t complain. I don’t like to knock nobody, but I like to tell the truth.”
Thankfully, the heavyweight picture has dramatically changed since that interview was conducted, with the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, and Anthony Joshua taking the spotlight.