Most of the rounds in this stinker of a fight are identical. However, if you want a clinic on what to do with a shorter rush-in-and punch fighter without having to rewind the fight every round, Larry will give you 10 almost identical demonstrations on how to box a guy who needs to get close to pull the trigger.

As far as self-defense applications go, imagine if they had knives?

Butterbean would be dead 200 times.

I like this fight a lot because it shows a man with average body mechanics [Butter Bean] fighting a man with above average body mechanics who has gotten old but, even though he moves like an old man and is now average in motion, has retained his high level of time and measure.

The ages in this fight are 52 versus 32.

Butter Bean might seem like a coward, and when he calls for the ref to chastise Holmes for using the measuring hand I want to yell, “Bob and weave, you fat fuck!”

However, that is not entirely accurate. Holmes is retarding Butter Bean with his timing. The younger, bull-dozer browed man may seem to be reluctant and dull, but he is a man who tried to learn his craft well and simply finds that his wiring to fight intelligently has now led him into the trap of fighting a man that can only be overcome with mindless aggression or tantric rhythm, because Larry will always outthink his man. Larry Holmes puts on a broken rhythm clinic here which every fighter should study against that day when he fights a man younger, stronger and more aggressive, who must be shut down with timing used to arrest his forward progress, hopefully when his brain and body are just making the connection necessary for a surge forward…

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Fighting Smart: Boxing, Agonistics & Survival