BoxRec

The son of Joe, Marvis was rushed in his pro career. Here is the fight with Larry Holmes.

Discuss



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxfK4YDq8wU

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I loved the pre-fight "you ain't shiit" stare Holmes fixed Marvis with.. That was such a cold blooded stare it bothered Smokin' Joe.

Holmes fouled Marvis a lot by controlling him with his left hand and bombing him with his right.. You're not supposed to leave your left hand out there to line up shots with your right, but it's a foul many referees don't call on highly respected World Champions or popular fighters -- very much like holding or illegal leveraging with your head.. Even if they warn them many times for those infractions -- they do it all night and all they get is warnings -- no points taken.. That's because the ref will never work another fight where that fighter is involved if they take points.

But the Holmes vs Frazier fight was made because Marvis beat Joe Bugner easier than his dad did.. Smokin' was very impressed and thought Marvis was ready for anybody.. You don't match a promising kid who has only 10 pro fights with a 44-0 ATG Heavyweight Champion -- unless you're Joe Frazier.

Terrible fight.

Smokin' Joe fed his son to a lion & for what?

Kalan wrote:I loved the pre-fight "you ain't shiit" stare Holmes fixed Marvis with.. That was such a cold blooded stare it bothered Smokin' Joe.

Holmes fouled Marvis a lot by controlling him with his left hand and bombing him with his right.. You're not supposed to leave your left hand out there to line up shots with your right, but it's a foul many referees don't call on highly respected World Champions or popular fighters -- very much like holding or illegal leveraging with your head.. Even if they warn them many times for those infractions -- they do it all night and all they get is warnings -- no points taken.. That's because the ref will never work another fight where that fighter is involved if they take points.

But the Holmes vs Frazier fight was made because Marvis beat Joe Bugner easier than his dad did.. Smokin' was very impressed and thought Marvis was ready for anybody.. You don't match a promising kid who has only 10 pro fights with a 44-0 ATG Heavyweight Champion -- unless you're Joe Frazier.

Yea I agree he was using his left to measure Frazier. He did it once early on and then backed off it, after that he only used it to push Frazier off a few times, but did not keep it out there. The first KD was clean (a perfect right), BUT once he had Frazier on the ropes he went back to measuring him. It was a foul, but as you stated almost never enforced, and at that point in the fight also irrelevant.

I would not say irrelevant... He wouldn't be doing it if the referee were issuing any warnings and he didn't need to do it... You cannot (according to the rules) leave your left hand out there to paw for an opening, control your opponent's head movement, measure him, or even to block his vision by sticking your left hand between his guard while you load your right.. Holmes was doing more controlling of Marvis's head than measuring.

It didn't make a difference in the outcome, but he was the great Larry Holmes -- and getting deferential treatment from the referee.