Larry Holmes vs. Mike Weaver

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Challenger rankings
Org. Pos. As of Published
1+ Mth. Old
WBA NR 31.01.1979 05.02.1979
WBC NR 31.01.1979 31.01.1979
Ring NR 02.12.1978 by 25.01.1979
2+ Mth. Old
WBA N/A N/A N/A
WBC N/A N/A N/A
Ring N/A N/A N/A
3+ Mth. Old
WBA N/A N/A N/A
WBC N/A N/A N/A
Ring N/A N/A N/A

Larry Holmes 215 lbs beat Mike Weaver 202 lbs by TKO at 0:44 in round 12 of 15

Notes

Holmes drops Weaver late in round eleven.
Holmes drops Weaver in the 11th.jpg
  • Previously unranked Weaver was promoted to No. 8 by the WBC on March 1.
  • Deal signed on March 23-24.[1][2][3]
  • There was a crowd of 14,136 at Madison Square Garden.
  • The gate was $771,982.
  • The fight was shown on closed circuit television in 45 locations and on Home Box Office, which had about two million subscribers at the time. HBO paid $150,000 to televise the fight after the three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—turned it down.
  • Holmes said that he contracted the flu in the middle of training camp.
  • Weaver, a heavy underdog, gave Holmes a much tougher fight than expected.
  • The following is from "Holmes-Weaver 30 years later" by William Dettloff:
Holmes won the first three rounds with the jab. Weaver won the next two. By the fight's midway point the crowd was solidly in the underdog's corner.
As Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "As soon as Mike Weaver landed one of those big right hands, the people in the rafters started chanting 'WeaVER, WeaVER' for a heavyweight most of them had never heard of until the match was made."
Back and forth it went over the middle rounds, not always pretty, but damned compelling. Holmes jabbed and tried to land rights. Weaver bombed him back with right hands and left hooks. Holmes claimed later not to be bothered by the crowd.
"I heard them yelling for him but it didn't mean anything. At the time, he was beating the hell out of me. So they yelled for him. When I was beating the hell out of him, they was yelling for me," he said.
The two pounded away at one another in the eighth and ninth rounds. At the start of the 10th, Holmes told Weaver, "I'm the champion. There's no way you're gonna beat me."
Weaver replied: "I'm gonna try."
They slugged away through the 10th and deep into the 11th. Both men were hurt more than once. With 12 seconds left in the 11th, Holmes willed everything he had left into a right uppercut that caught Weaver clean and dropped him hard.
The rest between rounds wasn't enough. At the start of the 12th Holmes pinned Weaver against the ropes and pummeled him until referee Harold Valan stopped it. Finally it was over.

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