Larry Holmes vs. Lorenzo Zanon (Article)

[thenonpareil]

If nothing else, Lorenzo Zanon at least looked like a tough guy. In fact, with his baleful glare and outlaw sideburns, Zanon resembled a heavy from a Poliziotteschi—The Big Racket or Shoot First, Die Later, maybe. He was also the perfect fall guy for Larry Holmes, whose two previous title defenses had seen him battered from corner to corner by Mike Weaver and nearly obliterated by an Earnie Shavers right cross that might as well have been a baby grand dropped from a third-story window. Both times Holmes had rallied to score a stoppage, but his struggles did little to hush the murmurous peanut gallery still aching from the absence of “The Greatest.”

“You people don’t give me my just due,” Holmes told the Associated Press before his bout with Zanon. “I followed behind a great man—Muhammad Ali.”

https://hannibalboxing.com/shoot-the-mo ... nzo-zanon/

[Ambling Alp II]

Zanon had some good boxing skills; he just had no chin at all. He was completely out-boxing a rusty Quarry before being stopped by not much of an onslaught. He was doing well against Norton before getting stopped. Holmes pretty much played with him. I remember that the fight was on a weekend afternoon which was very rare for a heavyweight title fight back then.