HOLMES CALLS FOREMAN “SICK” IN “LARRY UNPLUGGED”
Ex-Champ Larry Holmes Cracks Ray Mercer
Ring Talk (RT) – The Godfather of Easton, Pennsylvania is on the phone, we’re talking to Larry Holmes somewhere on the east coast. How goes it Larry?
Larry Holmes (LH) – Let me make it clear I don’t own Easton, I own businesses. I don’t want everybody calling me cause taxes keep going up. (laughing)
RT– 69-6 with 44 KOs, the heavyweight champion of the world who went 48-0 before losing to Michael Spinks. His accomplishments are definite Hall of fame material, no question about it. First off let’s get to some questions off the Internet. The George Foreman fight, when Harold Smith and another guy tried to put it together in the 90’s, were you close. How close did the fight come to reality?
LH– Very close, in fact one guy gave Foreman a million dollars and me half a million. We took the money and signed an agreement. But for one reason or another, the guy pulled out or George didn’t want to fight. I wanted to fight but it never came off. If there was ever a fight I wanted it’s that one.
RT– Did you get to keep the money?
LH– Yes I was able to keep the money, it wasn’t about the money. Only half a million dollars, not like the $10 million promised, more important than that I wanted to show people that I could beat George Foreman, that he’s not the guy people think he is. He’s one of the greatest athletes out there but he’s a phony.
RT– I grew up around here and Northern California and saw him win the Golden Gloves, training at Newman’s Gym for the 1968 Olympics. What really kills me about George is when he took that dog out on the hotel balcony, the German shepherd and got that dog to jump off of that balcony to his death, just to show how he could make the dog behave. I think that showed the Burger King of the United States is sick.
LH–I happen to love dogs, I have two of them and love them like kids. Any time you know as far as dogs are concerned, any time a dog learns to love you and you hurt him, its messed up. Michael Vick got a year and a half in jail because he crossed the line putting his dogs to fight and stuff like that George Foreman should’ve been put in jail, but not too many people knew about it probably. And they say George Foreman is a nice guy, but him being the kind of guy he is, I think making the dog jump showed that.
RT– We’re talking with Larry Holmes folks and the “Easton Assassin” of course, and former world heavyweight champion. Larry, another question off of the internet; who hit you the hardest Earnie Shavers or Reynaldo Snipes?
LH– Well I tell you Reynaldo hit me but he didn’t hit me like Earnie. I didn’t see stars or hear no bells or nothing; Earnie Shavers definitely hit me the hardest. Unfortunately I had to fight Shavers twice and was a sparring partner of his coming up. So I knew how hard he could hit and he’s definitely the hardest puncher. I knew what to look out for the right hand and left hook.
RT– The man says he doesn’t own half of Easton, PA, but I don’t know about that. When I call City Hall and ask to talk to the Mayor, they patch me over to Larry’s line, (laughing) so I don’t know what’s going on there. Rocky Marciano, big controversy over the Marciano record (He fought his brother four times). You went 48-0 and you lost a decision to Michael Spinks, Larry do you think you won the first fight? Now the second fight was definitely a heist, they had it in for ya’ no doubt about it. But the first fight was close, do you think it was scored correctly, what’s your opinion?
LH– Hell I thought I had it won by at least five points you know I was more aggressive and accurate, Spinks was fast and threw a lot of punches I blocked and they scored them anyway. But boxing politics being what they are, you know politics. So I dealt with it and moved on and let it go. But that night I stepped into the ring with Michael Spinks and I lost, I had a lot of pressure and dealt with it.
RT– Larry you showed alot of stones standing up against the boxing establishment, not too many guys do that anymore. You got Manny Pacquiao now who can call all the shots in the world and Bob Arum leads him around like a dog on a leash.
LH– Well you know what many Pacquiao is a nice guy one of my favorite fighters. Bob Arum is about control, money and that runs the game. With Manny he’s got a guy that’ll do anything. I mean has a good fighter, but the last fight he won easy cuz he kept moving, moving, and punching.
RT– What about these Klitschko brothers, is it fair that they’re six foot seven & 260 pounds, should there be another weight class?
LH – No, size don’t matter it’s what you can do in the ring, just look at Ali. Ernie Terrell was a big guy and Ali did what we usually do with them we wear them down. Skill and talent always beats size, the guys taking over today are doing so because of training.
RT– I gotta ask you this, I asked Don King this about five or six years ago, so I ask you what happened to the hungry black athlete in this country.
LH– I don’t know I think they go to football, basketball and baseball they don’t want to get hit or train for our sport. It’s not like in baseball where you might get hurt sliding into a base. It ain’t easy; this sport it’s not like you can pick it up. Boxers can get the money but it takes dedication and discipline to hit the gym and stay on top.
RT– You know what’s funny Larry, I trained harder for three round fights then some guys train for eight-ten round fights, I’m not kidding we sparred eight rounds, hit the bags for six or seven , jump rope for six, shadowboxing, sit ups and everything else. I was in the gym about two hours plus, these guys in the gym now are in and out in an hour or so and they wonder why they don’t have the stamina to go the distance.
LH– Well you know they’re not disciplining themselves. They are in just to put on a show; they want everyone to think “Hey, I’m a boxer.” But boxing ain’t about that. We gotta get back to the old days to the old ways and good trainers. They ain’t no good trainers out there; believe it or not Freddie Roach is the only one out there right now.
RT– That’s the key isn’t it, if there’s no one out there to teach the sweet science, no one will learn it.
LH– Right, listen when I was out there I had Eddie Futch, Ray Arcel, Freddie Brown. I mean those were the top guys, you couldn’t beat them. They were out with their med bags and tools; they were able to get the most fight out of you. Trainers now are just talk, it takes more than just talk to make a great champion.
Radio interview transcribed by Edwin “Ace” Ayala
LARRY HOLMES RIPS FOREMAN, KLITSCHKO