Tony Zale vs Holman Williams
Posted: 13 Oct 2018, 23:21
Who wins?
Holman had a great 1945 including a 12 round UD over Charley Burley in July and split fights with The Old Mongoose (Moore) that fall, but by the middle of '46 he went into a slide dropping fights to Lytell, Cerdan, and LaMotta that marked the end of a great career.
(He is in the HOF but seldom appears on current fans ATG lists.)
At the end of '45 he was the #1 ranked MW, but because of Rocky Garziano's popularity there was no way he was going to get Zale's first defense, and by the time the Zale-Garziano trilogy was over in '48, Holman was a finished fighter.
Tony Zale wasn't demobilized (as with so many other troops) until Christmas '45, he then fought five warm-up fights between January and May '46 and then finally defended against Garziano in late September.
Assuming Holman had gotten that shot in September '46, I would have to go with Zale. The second half of 1946 was a bad time for Holman, that was the same period where Williams dropped fights to Cerdan and LaMotta, plus others.
On the other hand, had there been no WWII and Williams had gotten a shot at Zale anytime between '43 and '45 I believe the outcome would have been different, gaining at least a short tenure as MW Champion, i.e. he would have beaten (out boxed) Zale.