Larry “The Easton Assassin” Holmes was truly a legendary heavyweight boxing champion during the golden age of boxing (1964 – 1995)….who was agressively stalking the heavyweight champion career record of 49 – 0….as he entered the ring in his 20th title defense against Carl “The Truth” Williams.
Holmes signed to fight Gerrie Coetzee, the WBA Champion, on June 15, 1984 at Caesar’s Palace in a fight being promoted by JPD Inc…..but it was canceled when Caesar’s Palace said the promoters failed to meet the financial conditions of the contract. Holmes was promised $13 million and Coetzee was promised $8 million…. when even after cutting the purses dramatically….they still couldn’t come up with enough financial backing to stage the fight….when Don King then planned to promote the fight….but Holmes lost a lawsuit filed by Virginia attorney Richard Hirschfeld….who said he had a contract with Holmes that gave him right of first refusal on a Holmes-Coetzee bout. Holmes then decided to move on and fight someone else.
On November 9, 1984, after a year out of the ring….Holmes made his first defense of the IBF title, stopping James “Bonecrusher” Smith on a cut in the twelfth round….then he stopped David Bey in the first half of 1985 in ten rounds for his 19th title defense. His next title defense was against Carl “The Truth” Williams….as seen below….which turned out to be unexpectedly tough…..as the younger, quicker Williams was able to out-jab the aging champion….who was left with a badly swollen eye by the end of the bout….as Holmes emerged with a close, and disputed, fifteen-round unanimous decision.
Regretrully, this video ends at the 9th round….and we are sorry for this…..as we are 90% sure the rest of the fight will show up on one of the 9,000 remaining videos we have to post on Imasportsphile….we just do not know when….but even the 1st 9 rounds are worth the watch in Larry Holmes’ historic assault on Rocky Marciano’s record.
This video also has two extra special pieces of footage….one, when singer / songwriter Jose Feliziano sings the National Anthem….and the awesome piece that NBC does on Rocky Marciano and his record.
