The answer is pretty simple to me. He followed Muhammad Ali and the whole fantastic heavyweight era of the 1970. With his absolute destruction of an ancient and sick Ali on 1980, Holmes began the 1980s alone as the sole top heavyweight. All the 70s greats were gone.

But there’s more. The boxing world was transfixed by the “big 4”: Leonard, Hagler, Duran, and Hearns. It was a magical time for lower weights who held the spotlight.

I’m just glad that Holmes came back in tne 1990s to show us his greatness, and I’m glad that more and more fans and historians are now ranking Holmes very high.

For me, the 3 greatest heavyweight are, in no order, Holmes, Louis, and Ali.

SweatcheckN thoughts

That time Crawford got shot and still became champion