Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes (born November 3, 1949) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 2002 and was world heavyweight champion from 1978 until 1985. He is often considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which led to his boxing nickname of the "Easton Assassin".

Holmes's left jab is often rated among the best in heavyweight boxing history. In addition to holding the WBC heavyweight title from 1978 to 1983, Holmes held the Ring magazine and lineal heavyweight titles from 1980 to 1985 and the inaugural IBF heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985.

Holmes won his first 48 professional bouts, including victories over Ken Norton (the man he defeated in 1978 for the WBC championship), Muhammad Ali, Earnie Shavers, Mike Weaver, Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon, Carl Williams, and Marvis Frazier. Holmes fell one short of matching Rocky Marciano's career record of 49–0 when he lost to Michael Spinks in a 1985 upset. Holmes retired after losing a rematch to Spinks the following year but made repeated comebacks. He was unsuccessful in four further comeback attempts (against Mike Tyson in 1988, Evander Holyfield in 1992, Oliver McCall in 1995 and Brian Nielsen in 1997) to regain a variation of the heavyweight title. Holmes fought for the final time in 2002, at age 52, against the 334lb Eric "Butterbean" Esch and ended his career with a record of 69 wins and 6 losses, with all of his losses coming in world title fights.

Holmes is frequently ranked as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and has been inducted into both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and World Boxing Hall of Fame. He is the only boxer to have defeated Muhammad Ali by stoppage and the last living boxer to have defeated Ali.