'I still can fight'

Holmes getting ready to battle Butterbean next Saturday

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Larry Holmes has more money than he's ever likely to spend, a close-knit family that includes four grandchildren and a sharpness of mind that almost defies his 29 years as a championship prize fighter.

He held the heavyweight title for more than seven years, a longer stretch than anyone except Joe Louis, and will be remembered as one of the all-time greats.

In his hometown of Easton, Pa., Holmes owns a building that brings in $60,000 per month in rent, and a nightclub, a gym and other assets.

But on July 27, more than 20 months since he retired for the second time and almost 20 years after his famous bout with Gerry Cooney, Holmes will fight again.

The 52-year-old former champ is taking on Eric "Butterbean" Esch in a scheduled 10-round bout that is part grudge match and part proving ground for both fighters.

"I know a lot people are saying, 'Why are you fighting? You've done a lot, made a lot of money, you've got a lot of good investments. Why are you fighting?"' Holmes said.

"The simple answer is because I want to. I have all these things, but I still want to fight and I still can fight. I still have one of the best left jabs in the business."

Holmes also has something of a chip on his broad shoulder, the kind a former champ gets when he retires and feels forgotten and underappreciated. In retirement, he said, he's never been asked to do boxing commentary or analysis, and his phone only rings with fight offers or for comments about other boxers still in the game.

For all he's accomplished, Holmes feels he deserves more.

He won the first 48 fights of his career. He became heavyweight champion in 1978 with a 15-round decision against Ken Norton, and defended against the best fighters of his era, including Muhammad Ali.

But the bout with his one-time sparring partner didn't come until Ali was 38, a fact that Holmes contends deprived him of the chance to prove he was among the best heavyweights ever, and allowed his detractors to say that he beat an old man.

Apart from Ali, Norton and Cooney, Holmes' opponents during his 20-fight reign included Tim Witherspoon, Earnie Shavers, Trevor Berbick, Leon Spinks, fighters with name recognition only because they were the best between 1978 and 1985.

Because he dominated for so long, and held the title in the post-Ali era and before Mike Tyson was ready to mount a challenge, Holmes feels his reign is overlooked.

"They talk about great fighters and they never want to mention Larry Holmes," he said.

"I figure in about 10 years when everybody's dead, they're going to have to mention me," he joked. "I never get my just due from anybody. I never get my respect."

Holmes will be paid $250,000, and said one of the reasons for taking the fight was to get to 75 bouts for his career. He expects to get his 45th knockout victory quickly.

"Three or four rounds. No more than that," he said after getting down to his goal weight of 248.

Esch, 35, rarely goes longer than four rounds himself.

He's a graduate of the Toughman Competition, where fighters go at each other for three, one-minute rounds or until one drops. And he wins, so much so that he's become known as "The King of the 4-Rounders" since crossing over to boxing.

"There's only one style I have and I've always been a brawler," said Esch, a native of Jasper, Ala., with a 63-1 career record. "I go in to knock a person out. There won't be no surprises on Larry's side because he knows what I'm coming in to do."

Esch, 6-foot and 355 pounds, strikes a fearsome pose with a bald head and a big-screen-TV-sized chest, but gives away almost 4 inches in height and 5 inches in reach.

"He's going to have a problem trying to catch a guy or land a punch when the guy's got long arms like mine and he's going to be using that jab," Holmes said. "He's going to have to eat a lot of jabs before he gets in there, so I hope he's hungry."

Esch first challenged Holmes when both were in Biloxi, Miss., in 2000.

Esch, who has 47 career knockouts, took exception to comments in Holmes' autobiography, "Against the Odds," in which Esch was called a "circus attraction" and "fat slob," among other things.

Holmes has said the comments were inserted by his co-author, Phil Berger.

"I feel like this: If anybody's man enough to get in the ring and take those punches, they're a hell of a man," Holmes said last month. "I don't care who they are."

 

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