1978
26-0-0 Larry Holmes faces 54-6-1 Earnie Shavers in the 1978 WBC heavyweight title eliminator to earn the right to face champion Ken Norton who was awarded the title after Muhammad Ali refused to face him in a fourth match. Holmes wins a unanimous 12 round decision over arguably the hardest hitting heavyweight of all time.
27-0-0 Larry Holmes takes on 40-4-0 Ken Norton for the WBC heavyweight title in what is a seriously underrated heavyweight match. Holmes would win a 15 round split decision, and was the new champion. Norton following the bout began to decline getting pummeled by Earnie Shavers, winning a controversial decision over Tex Cobb, drawing with Scott LeDoux, and getting bombed out by Gerry Cooney.
28-0-0 Larry Holmes defends the title against Alfredo Evangelista, a man who went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali back in 1977. Holmes stops him in the 7th round. The Spaniard was 23-2-1.
1979
29-0-0 Larry Holmes takes on Ossie Ocasio and stops him in the 7th round also. Ocasio was 13-0-0.
30-0-0 Larry Holmes takes on 19-8-0 Mike "Hercules" Weaver, stopping him in the 12th round. Weaver would later go on to be the WBA heavyweight champion the following year.
31-0-0 Larry Holmes defends the title against Earnie Shavers, who was coming off a 5 fight win streak since losing to Holmes the previous year. Holmes would get dropped in the 7th but come back to stop Shavers in the 11th.
1980
32-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against 25-4-2 Lorenzo Zanon who he would stop in 6 rounds. Three years prior to this Zanon was kayoed by an older, fatter, slower comebacking Jerry Quarry in nine rounds.
33-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against 24-0-1 Leroy Jones who gets stopped in the 8th round. Jones was 6'5" and 254 pounds.
34-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against 26-8-4 Scott LeDoux the "Fighting Frenchman," who would get stopped in the 7th round. LeDoux prior to this had losses to George Foreman, Mike Weaver, Ron Lyle, Duane Bobick (2x) and had a draw with Leon Spinks.
35-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against the man he served as sparring partner for years, Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali. Ali hoodwinked the public into believing that he still had something left, but the truth of the matter is that he took massive amounts of thyroid medication to lose weight and was showing the early signs of Parkinson's syndrome. Needless to say a sportswriter summed the contest up this way: "Ali was paid 10 million dollars and all he threw was ten punches."
1981
36-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against 18-1-1 Trevor Berbick, winning a 15 round unanimous decision. There was a lot of pre-fight animosity between the two men with Larry Holmes jumping off the hood of a car to try to get after Berbick in a street fight altercation.
37-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against 10-2-2 former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks. What's probably most memorable from this night was the post fight brawl between Holmes and Cooney where Howard Cosell ended up getting his mouth busted.
38-0-0 Larry Holmes defends against 22-0-0 Renaldo Snipes, who gets stopped in the 11th round. Holmes was dropped in the 7th.