Larry Holmes fought for the first time in his career in Atlantic City on September 19, 1983 at Harrah’s Hotel and Casino. The bout on NBC saw Holmes stop Scott Frank in five rounds when a right hand closed Frank’s eye. I was happy to see the ‘Easton Assassin’ at his best again, with his attention now set on Marvis Frazier in November.
Marvis was the son of Joe Frazier and only had 10 fights at the time. It was an obvious case of Joe forcing his son into a fight he wasn’t ready for and I knew he was going to get knocked out. In fact, I told my boss at my airline job the night before the fight that Larry was going to knock Marvis Frazier with a single right hand quick. Sure enough, when I tuned in to watch the fight on the day after Thanksgiving 1983, Larry dropped Marvis with a single right hand, then trapped him into a corner and battered him until referee Mills Lane was forced to end the slaughter. When I saw Bob, my boss the following Monday at work, he shook his head in amazement at the accuracy of my prediction.
The biggest fight on the horizon for Larry was a bout with WBA champion Gerrie Coetzee. The mega-bout was signed for June at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, but fell apart when the promotors couldn’t come up with money for Don King. That put Holmes on ice for nearly a year, until November 9, 1984 when me met James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith back in Vegas. Since it was on HBO, I had to settle on reading newspaper clippings about the fight in the Sunday paper. I’ve seen it a bunch of times since and it further proved the greatness of Holmes to me. Larry took on all comers, was constantly vilified by the press no matter what he did, and made me respect him more the way he handled it all with dignity.
When Larry returned to action on March 15, 1985, I went over my cousin Paul’s house to watch the fight on HBO. He had a big screen projection TV, liked boxing, lived only about 5 miles from my home, and didn’t mind when I asked if I could come over to see the fight. Paul was quiet and didn’t talk much, but when I got him on the subject of boxing, the conversation flowed smoothly. It was nice to see Larry sharp again when he knocked Bey out in 10 rounds. When HBO’s announcer Barry Tompkins asked Sugar Ray Leonard how he thought Larry looked, Ray answered with one word. “Great.” I thanked Paul for letting me come over to see the fight and left satisfied seeing it live since we didn’t even have cable tv in early 1985.
Holmes talked more often of retiring, but at 47-0, I knew it was all talk. Rocky Marciano’s undefeated record of 49-0 was in his sights, and there was no way Larry was going to quit now that he was this close. I was rooting hard for him to beat the record and hoped he did it within the next year. Michael Spinks was talking of moving up the heavyweight to challenge Larry, a bout I didn’t want to see since I liked both guys. It was a matter of money in the end and eventually the two would actually meet.
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