Boxing’s Larry Holmes, long underrated, now cast in bronze

Boxing great Larry Holmes has never felt fully appreciated in his Pennsylvania hometown of Easton.

Decades after succeeding Muhammad Ali as heavyweight champ, Holmes is finally getting the bronze – a 9-foot bronze statue.

Holmes plans to be on hand this weekend as a high school marching band leads a parade in his honor and a monument to the “Easton Assassin” is unveiled and dedicated.

Now 66, Holmes grew up in Easton and never left, despite a long, lucrative boxing career that took him to the pinnacle of his sport. He built a business empire that included office buildings and restaurants and devoted time and money to youth organizations.

Holmes says it’s “mind-boggling” that a seventh-grade dropout could rise to such heights.