Did Mills Lane and the temperature during Holmes/Cooney affect the outcome?

I just watched the fight.

Some things that stood out to me:
1. Cooney was fighting really tensely and it was 90 degrees out. Obviously, not a good combo.
2. Mills Lane managed to take two points away for a low blow in one of the later rounds (it was an ugly low blow, but why two points?), and quickly took a point away for a boderline low blow a couple rounds later. One point was justified, two still okay, but three seemed excessive to me. The result was that Cooney had to fight with more of sense of urgency and make himself more prone to a burnout, which did eventually occur. Cooney actually would've been up on two cards at the time of the stoppage without the deductions.

If these factors were not in place, could Cooney have preserved an early lead to hang on for a decision win?

 

I think 2 points were completely justified seeing how Gerry had been hitting Larry low all night and that one in particular was a brutal shot straight to the nuts.

I think Larry would've won anyway, his strategy was to conserve his energy and take Gerry late and did it to perfection. Holmes would've at the minimum matched what Cooney did in rounds 13, 14, and 15 and unless the judges continued to score blatantly biasedly in favor of Cooney, Holmes would've still come out with the W.

 

Holmes was pulling Cooney behind neck, which led to some below belt shots, but bottom line, Cooney was not good enough. He fell apart in end, and never recovered mentally form the loss. He did have an unfair amount of White Hope hype, which he never asked for.

 

Despite their differences in public, both made it clear in private they did not ask for or want the race hype. That was all King and the Wacko twins.

It is evidenced by Holmes and Cooney being good friends now.

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Cooney was doomed to lose from the get go.Not enough experience, to handle Larry Holmes.

 

Cooney was not ready for Larry but his people wanted him to fight for a big payday. It would have been more reasonable for him to fight one of the paper champions at that time. More potential for victory although not as big a paycheck.

 

True. Cooney would have stood a better chance against Mike Weaver. He was totally outclassed against Holmes.

 

To be honest, the more I think about it, Gerry wasn't ready for Mike either.

 

I see what you mean. Gerry would have had a good chance of nailing MIke in the first few rounds,but if Weaver drags him into the deep water of the latter stages, it would be a different matter.

 

At risk of being an echo, Cooney just wasn't brough up the rankings the right way. Blowing out faded names and all that, he didn't have the experience or stamina to take the fight to Holmes for the Championship distance. He probably never had what it took, but beating up someone like Cobb or Tillis would have been good experience for him.

 

I'm not saying Gerry would have beaten Weaver or any of the other paper titlists. Just a better chance than the clearly superior Holmes.

 

Cooney sparks out every heavyweight today except for Vitali..

 

Wrong..Also Vitali..

 

Cooney would suffer a similar fate as he did in his own time. Its just instead of the nasty race business, he would be billed as the Great American Hope.

Cooney's misguided rise and abrupt fall is actually the blueprint for the modern contender.

 

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