Larry Holmes: I told you so on Anthony Joshua

Holmes touted the Englishman as a future ruler of the division on a visit to the West Midlands three years ago,

Former WBC and inaugural IBF titlist Holmes was back in the area watch the Ultimate Warriors fight night at the Conference Suite, on Thomas Street in West Bromwich.

'The Easton Assassin' first proclaimed "I think you have got a champion here" in 2013, after providing punditry for one of Joshua's early pro fights on Sky Sports the month before.

'AJ' was three fights into his tear, at that point, and went on to become a world titlist with the least amount of ring time in history.

Of the 144 rounds he's has been scheduled to complete since making his debut, he's took out anyone who has dared stand with him in a total of 41 sessions.

The 27-year-old has a punch perfect 17 wins from 17 bouts, with 17 stoppages. He will get the chance to improve all of those to 18 tonight, with his second world title defence.

Looking to live with his power is Eric Molina, who is expected to crumble as his predecessors did. Dillian Whyte is still the longest to last, one minute and 27 seconds into round seven.

Joshua and Molina clash at the Manchester Arena, under the Matchroom Boxing banner live on Sky Sports Box Office, and Holmes believes the man he tipped for success could make history.

The American came within a fight of matching Rocky Marciano's unbeaten record of 49-0, but was beaten for the IBF title Joshua now holds by Michael Spinks in 1985.

Holmes said: "I could see the potential he has and I've been in boxing for a long time. The way he's going, he might even break my record!

"I told him that when I was there that night (in 2013). The fights shouldn't get easier but, if you train right, the result should stay the same right across the board.

"You have got a big boy here who is capable of boxing properly, not like Lennox Lewis! He was great, but had no jab.

"We have been friends since Lennox came to my gym and I was trying to teach him how to jab, he started using it but he was always trying to kill somebody.

"This kid reminds me of Lennox and he sounds like him, too, they must be from the same place! He's got a great future."

Holmes is the third most fighting champion in the division's history, making a total of 20 defences of his various belts.

Only Joe Louis (25) and Wladimir Klitschko (22) have put up their honours on more occasions. Holmes is also the only man to have stopped Muhammad Ali in a pro contest.

Despite not taking up boxing until he was 19, he competed in 97 fights amateur and pro, with 22 unpaid. The last was a disqualification loss against Duane Bobick in the 1972 Olympic trials.

He then spent nearly 20 years as a pro, debuting in 1973 before finally calling time in 2002. He featured 75 times, with 69 wins and 44 inside the distance.

Now aged 67, the man considered to have possessed one of the best left jabs ever is a double legend, having been inducted into the International and World Boxing Hall of Fame.

He defeated the likes of Earnie Shavers and Ken Norton, the latter winning him the WBC title, before taking on friend and perennial sparring partner Ali in 1980.

Ali's trainer Angelo Dundee retired him at the end of the 10th round after a performance, at age 38, not befitting of 'the Greatest.'

Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone, who was watching on at ringside, famously called the fight "like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive."

Holmes recalled: "The hardest puncher I ever thought was Earnie. He knocked me down but I got up, took him around the ring and showed him how to box. He was in trouble then.

"Everybody told me I couldn't beat these guys. When someone says you can't do something, it only makes me more determined.

"My opponents knew to how to box, but that really didn't know how to box like I do. It was Ali who taught me. I first met him in 1973.

"When I first got into boxing, he had a camp that I went to and, at first, he'd give me a real beating when we sparred. We used to put exhibitions and, once, he gave me a black eye but I didn't quit.

"From then on, he was my friend and he gave me a job for four years and I travelled around the country with him.

"I learned so much from watching him and learning. When it became my time, I knew all of the tricks. He was a mentor to me.

"I didn't think that we would fight, I couldn't see how it would benefit me. If I won, I beat an old man and, if I lost, people would think I didn't have it.

"It was about the money, for him, and I understood that and he still believed he could do it in the ring. I was banging him and he was like 'you ain't got nothing boy, show me something.'

"I hurt him in the ropes and whispered to him 'Ali, don't take any more of this.' He turned round and told me 'shut up, boy, I'm going to knock you out!'

"I asked the referee to stop the fight, because I was hurting this man. He told me to shut up. Once it was over, I was happy.

"I went to his dressing room after and they were rubbing him down, wherever the bruises were on his body. I told him he was still on the greatest fighters of all time and how much I loved him.

"He joked with me 'if you love me so much, why did you beat me up like that?' After everything, we had a good laugh about it."

Holmes held onto the WBC crown until 1983, the same year he outpointed Tim Witherspoon in a title defence that was hotly-disputed.

He was awarded the newly-formed IBF's belt, a reign which ended when he lost to Spinks, one of six contests where he was defeated.

He came out of retirement for a mega-money offer to fight an on-fire Mike Tyson, the only man to remove him before the final bell. He halted a 38-year-old Holmes in the sixth on 22 January 1988.

Holmes said: "Witherspoon was a good and determined fighter, but I still believe that he didn't win. I did things to him that got me the result.

"How you believe in yourself is a big part of whether you win or lose. No one ever told me I could achieve what I did.

"I wasn't perfect in my fight game, at first I was but time went against me and I let myself down a little bit. In the end, I quit.

"I was retired, I was sitting in the house and watching television. I like watching basketball games. Then the door goes one day and it was Don King (promoter).

"He asked me to hear him out and the next thing he's talking about Mike Tyson. I hadn't trained for two years, I'd only left the house to hang out at the bar.

"I didn't want to fight Tyson, no one did, but he offered me so much money ($2.8 million) that I was never going to turn it down.

"It was a hard fight that I shouldn't have taken, I wasn't in shape and, if I had have been, I'd have whooped him, like with a lot of the other young guys. I'd have knocked them out early."