Larry Holmes made the second defense of his of his WBC Heavyweight title on March 23 at the Hilton in Las Vegas with a 7th round knockout of Ossie Ocasio. Three months later he traveled to Madison Square Garden in New York City to face Mike “Hercules” Weaver on HBO. Weaver hurt Larry on several occasions, but the ‘Easton Assassin’ fought back hard and dropped Weaver with a right uppercut late in the eleventh round. Holmes jumped right back on Weaver in the twelfth and pummeled him with blows until the referee stopped the contest.
Three months later, it was back to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for the rematch with rough Earnie Shavers. This bout really cemented in my mind that I was a serious boxing fan and following it gave me something to look forward to. In those days, I watched free fights on my 11 inch black and white tv in my bedroom, with most of the major fights shown on ABC, whose announcer was Howard Cosell. Even then, his pompous and arrogant attitude bothered me, since he knew a lot less about boxing than he claimed to know.
Holmes was boxing well until the seventh round, when a cannonball of a right hand by Shavers put the champ on the canvas. Larry rose on wobbly legs, but grabbed and ran until his head cleared. By the next round he was back in control, and when Earnie tired down the stretch, Larry took advantage and stopped him on the ropes in the eleventh.
I respected Larry more every time I saw him box, and it made me erase whatever memories Muhammad Ali had left in the heavyweight division. At 19 years old, boxing was becoming a more important part of my life every day and Larry Holmes one of my favorite boxers as well.
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