lazabrien9 said:

This is what hurts Joe Louis,The Rock,&Larry Holmes.When you hld a title that long in the case of Louis & Holmes(12 years,7 years,Undefeated)It makes you question.Strength of competition.If you got some competition, your not going to hold no title 12 years.Your not going to go undefeated.I dont care what sport it is.Maybe once every blue moon.Marciano 49-0 1972 Dolphins 17-0.It happens but not often.When I look at Joe Louis record or the Rocks,they were great fighters dont get me wrong.Look at the fighters.Strength of competion.Look at Joe Louis,The Rock,even Larry Holmes how good would they have been in the 70's.Ali,Forman,Frazier,Quarry,Norton,Shavers.Bonavena.Liston was still hanging until his death.Strength of competition.Ali wasnt that dam good unless he was superior over the competition.If your superior over the competition it aint much competition.To be superior it takes excepitional skills.I dont see that in those 3.
So you don't see skills in Louis, Holmes, or Marciano? They all were great fighters in bad era's. They all were the top dog in their era for years. Louis had the title for 11 years, that is a really long time. He defended his title 25 times in the time he was the champ. Holmes was champion 7.5 years until he lost a controversial and disputed decision to Michael Spinks, and was flat out robbed in the rematch. Holmes was past his prime for those fights, and he still won, the judges were just bribed or drinking. You seem to be blaming Louis, Marciano, and Holmes for being in a bad era, when really they had no control over it. Both Holmes and Marciano started their pro career at age 23, and peaked at around 29, then their ended peak around 32. They both had limited amerature fights, and didn't start boxing until they were around 19-20 years old. Look at how long Holmes lasted. He started his career in 1973, at age 23 going on 24. Holmes was born in 1949, and didn't start his pro debut until 1973, that is a long time. Holmes retired in 2002, at age 52, damn near 53. Holmes retired in 86, then came back completely ill trained and rusty to fight a peak Tyson with no warm ups, and got TKO'd in the 4th with 6 seconds left to go in the round. Then Holmes came back in 1991, and gave Ray Mercer a boxing lesson at age 42. Then in 1992, he fought a peak Evander Holyfield at age 43, and went the distance winning about 4-5 out of 12 rounds. After that in 1995, at age 46, he fought Olivar McCall, and lost by 1 point on 2 score cards, that was his 2nd title shot in his come back of the 90's. After the McCall fight, Holmes threw up after he got out of the ring. Then, in 1997, at age 48, Holmes lost yet ANOTHER controversial/disputed decision to Dane Brian Neilson. IN 1999 he fought and beat Mike Weaver (one of his title shot victims in the 80's) for the 2nd time. Then in 2000 at age 50, almost 51 he beat Bonecrusher Smith for the 2nd time (another one of his title victims in the 80's). Then in 2002, at age 52, very close to 53, Holmes fought and beat Butterbean very easily.