BoxRec

If Larry had faced John around the early part of '80, would John have given him a hard fight?

I don't see it. Of all the WBA 'champions' of the 80's John Tate never seemed to stick out as 'better' than Tubbs, Page, Weaver, Coetzee, Dokes and the rest of the motley crew.

I would have loved to have seen Holmes unify the titles, unfortunately that never happened and no reason to wonder 'what if?' about it all. But if Witherspoon with just 15 or so fights could give Holmes hell, then I can imagine Tate could have...but looking at his over all career, he was rather disappointing and definately nothing to scream over.

Coetzee-Holmes, Page-Holmes, would have been the fights I would have wanted to have seen.

Of course, Tate handed Coetzee his first defeat, and had a number of other good wins as well prior to the 15th round KO loss to Weaver that seemed to pretty much end his career. Style wise, I think Tate would have been a very tough fight for Holmes. Tate was a very large HW with very good offensive skills, and although his chin was obviously not that good, he was able to withstand the hard punching Coetzee for 15 rounds, and also beat Coetzee’s limited but hard punching countryman Kallie Knotzee. He also was handling Weaver VERY easily until about midway in the 13th round, as I recall.

While I think Holmes would have beaten Tate, I think it would have been a very competitive war, with Holmes probably stopping Tate late while holding a very slim lead on the cards.