Holmes Makes It Elementary One Last Time : Champion Stops Bey in 10th of What May Be Final Bout

Larry Holmes dropped the curtain on a seven-year reign as the heavyweight champion Friday night to an applause earned by 18 successful title defenses. This last, a 10th-round TKO over David Bey behind the Riviera Hotel and Casino, was especially appreciated because it confirmed without doubt Holmes’ rule over boxing’s most important division, even upon his retirement.

So, barring the prospect of a comeback, this is how we can remember Holmes, going out of boxing just as he was coming out of the ring Friday night: Unmarked, undefeated in 47 fights, dominant still at the age of 35, and, of course, rich.

If in fact, Holmes can resist the siren call of dreamy promoters, proffering contracts for outlandish sums of money, he can rest assured that he went out in style and dignity.

His skills, despite what 17 years in boxing might have done to them, were in wonderful evidence. The jab, which was finally restored in the eighth round, again was on display, inflating Bey’s left eye with each stinging shot. And the shrewdness to wait on an opponent and to gain an immediate offensive at the first show of weakness was shown when Holmes, somewhat tentative through the first four rounds, turned it around in the eighth, flooring Bey twice.

There was, most of all, the ability any great champion has, to recover time, to rediscover youth. “To me,” said the relatively inexperienced Bey afterward, “he’s not that old.”

No, he was a 28-year-old colt, a man of desperation and hunger, much like the one who took out Ken Norton in this city to win the World Boxing Council title in 1978. He has been that throughout much of his career, although some of the kids in this division have shaken him up from time to time. James (Bonecrusher) Smith shook him in this same arena last November, leading many to believe that Holmes had in fact aged, had gone beyond his prime.

Yet, how to account for that concussive eighth round when Holmes, 223 1/2, dropped Bey, 233, in the center of the ring with a short right hand and then pursued him corner to corner, finishing a series of damaging punches with a crisp uppercut and slinging the befuddled Bey across the lower ropes for a second knockdown. Bey, his eyes dreamy, stood on uncertain legs as the referee, Carlos Padilla, counted toward 10. He was saved by the bell that time.

Then again, in the 10th, Holmes bounced Bey into every corner but Bey’s own, pounding 11 overhead rights at will. This time, it was Padilla who saved a confused Bey, stepping in after Holmes landed a last right hand flush against Bey’s head, to call the fight a TKO at 2:58 of the round. Nobody seemed to object.

Young again was Holmes, preserved in the formaldehyde of a gladiator’s pride. Up on his toes, side to side, and then, his opponent disarmed, straight ahead. Boom-boom.

For Holmes, it was another night at work, although his work by now is worth $2 million a night. He just waited Bey out, blocking shots with his elbows, solving the contender. After four rounds, which Bey had won on the scorecards, Holmes went to work.

“See,” explained Holmes, “David was slick. He was waiting for me to throw my right hand so he could throw his. He was very cagey about that right hand.”

In fact, Bey did score some, looping his right over Holmes’ left jab. But Bey hadn’t done any damage by the time Holmes figured when and where they were coming from. “First time I threw the right,” Holmes said, “he went down. In the meantime, I figured to work the jab upstairs and downstairs.” He figured right.

Bey, 28, his sketchy record now 14-1, may have been dumbstruck in the ring--especially in the eighth, when he walked to a distant and neutral corner. “I’m not making excuses,” he said, “but I did have a cold and it affected my stamina.” Bey, though not making excuses, repeated this seven times in the postfight press conference.

He did pay some semblance of respect when he said, “I thought he’d be a little easier to hit.” And what better testimony to Holmes’ power than this, after Bey was asked about the second knockdown: “I only got knocked down one time, right? Two times? Oh, ain’t that terrible.”

Holmes, who calls himself an “executive fighter,” signed off Friday night, saying he was retiring to his diverse holdings in Easton, Pa.--uless, of course, somebody offered him $4 million to fight light-heavyweight champion Michael Spinks or $25 million for a rematch with one-time contender Gerry Cooney. Holmes said his biggest fight of a comeback would be that with his wife, Dianne.

Holmes defended this title under the aegis of the International Boxing Federation, a title of convenience ever since he surrendered his WBC title in a dispute over a mandatory defense. Yet, whatever the letters that described his title, he was always recognized as the real champion, a consistent force in the turbulent world of heavyweight boxing. Since he first won his title, there have been eight World Boxing Assn. champions. Since he abdicated the WBC rule, there have been two of those.

With Holmes’ departure--he plans to retire June 9, making his rule an exact seven years--the heavyweight division becomes even more of a mess. No champion has yet made a single defense to confirm his rule, and a legion of contenders appear one like another, up and down, dangerous one day, a joke the next.

Holmes will have the toughest fight of his life these next few months as he surveys the wreckage of the division: How to keep from coming back, faced with such unpredictable talent. Especially, as Bey said late Friday night, since “Larry’s still got a lot left in him.”

We’ll see if he keeps it there, allowing us to remember a champion of distinction, unblemished by the image of a man chasing a dream he has already realized.

In other fights on the card, Tony Tubbs earned a shot at World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion Greg Page with a unanimous 10-round decision over James (Bonecrusher) Smith, who had given Holmes so much trouble in a previous fight.

Also, Michael Dokes, leading on judges’ scorecards after three rounds, was awarded a technical decision over Tex Cobb in the fourth round. Dokes was unable to continue after an accidental butt opened a two-inch gash over his right eye.