Larry Holmes, almost certainly the greatest living heavyweight now that his closest rival in this department, George Foreman, is sadly no longer with us, came up in the sport at a time when the game was arguably at its toughest. And to succeed in the 1970s heavyweight division, a fighter needed natural ability and a great trainer and teacher. Holmes had both.
But Holmes, a man who always tells it like it is, and was often criticised for his forthrightness, especially back in the 1980s, sure was forthright when he spoke with me a while back. Asking Holmes how great his long-time trainer Richie Giachetti was and how he helped him along during his career, Holmes shot back that Giachetti was no great trainer.
Holmes sure gave me some fascinating quotes during our all too short talk a while back, this taking place before Foreman’s passing (I could have spoken with Holmes, an all-time great, and for many the heavyweight with THE finest jab in the sport’s history, all day!)
On who taught him how to jab so well:
“The only person who can teach a jab like that is me! You don’t see a jab like that anymore,” Holmes said. “All the great trainers are gone; there are no good trainers today. So no one is being taught how to fight, or how to jab. Freddie Roach, they say he’s a great trainer, but he’s not.”
On who are the great boxing trainers:
“I have a list for you: Ray Arcel, Eddie Futch, Freddie Brown.”
On why he didn’t learn anything from Giachetti:
“If I ever had to learn anything, I learnt it myself. I already knew how to fight before I ever met Giachetti. He was okay, a good cornerman when it came to shouting things like, ‘Be tough!’ and ‘Be brave!’ He was okay at giving me courage. The thing is, I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and they [Futch, Arcel, Brown, and Giachetti] were all in my corner [at different stages of my career]. They all wanted to be stars. I didn’t wanna say no to anyone.”
On being ranked as one of the true greats:
“Let me straighten you out on that real quick! I don’t give a s**t about history. If people want to put me in the history books one day, good, if not, I don’t care. All I care about is making money. I wanted to be able to feed my kids and that’s all. Who cares if you’re the heavyweight champ of the world but you’re broke? It’s great to be champion but you have to make money. Don King once hollered at me for talking this way before the press. But I was telling the truth. In boxing you can get into trouble for talking too much, and that’s why a lot of people didn’t like me.”
On his infamous “Rocky couldn’t carry my jockstrap” quote about Marciano:
“I didn’t get into boxing to break Rocky Marciano’s [49-0] record (which Holmes almost tied in 1985, but was edged on points by Michael Spinks, some say in a robbery). I regret hurting some people with some of the things I said. The Rocky Marciano thing about the jockstrap, that was taken all out of context. And then it hurt me when the press said I hurt a lot of people. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I never liked knocking anybody out in a fight. I know I hurt Muhammad Ali, I saw the punches he took, and not just from me but from all those other guys he fought. I wanted to get out of the game with my money and not being crazy.”
Holmes sure did that, and he always did, as he says himself, tell it like it is!
Holmes fought, quite amazingly, from 1973 to 2002! Larry’s final record reads 69-6(44). Holmes ruled the world from June of 1978 to September of 1985. Long may Holmes stay with us.
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