A truly disturbing read

Sounds like a hype piece.

The only way he could be paralyzed from the waist down is from a compressed or severed spinal cord. The damage would have had to happened to his lumbar spine....

Unless they were sparring in a barn and Cooney punched him into a horse, who kicked him in the spine, I have trouble swallowing such a tale...

 

Or maybe Gerry evened things out but I also doubt all the carnage.

 

Yeah I don't doubt he got the guy to come back for another spar, but something tells me the damage is exaggerated.

One thing's for sure: Mr. Rice didn't to a good job of preparing Mr. Cooney for Mr. Spinks.

 

does not sound like Gerry who was a softer type of guy outside the ring....Gerry had killer instinct in the ring but always seemed to be a gentle guy outside and sparring is sparring

 

Wasn't this the hooker-bangin' coked-out Cooney at this point? Dude had to have a mean and crazy streak.

Busting a guy up like that has to do alot for your confidence, especially one that got the better of you before.

 

Sammy scaff said in the facing Tyson book that cooneys people would bring in sparring partners work them to the bone for several days then at the end bring in the news media and film Gerry knocking the crap out of them

 

Well, he's a fighter. Not surprising he had a mean streak or an ego. He wouldn't have been much of a fighter without being a mean s.o.b.
Interesting story though.

 

Wonder if he ever tried to entice Spinks back into the ring.

 

so why do a boxers legs go wobbly when ko'd ?....how can a stroke stop people standing up ?

no being argumentative, just wondering

 

Cooney definately had a mean streak. He had a friendly exhibition with Boone Kirkman, who had been out of the ring for several years, in the early 1980s and went all out trying to hurt Kirkman for no reason. Kirkman quit the exhibition flabbergasted that Cooney tried to turn the thing into a publicity grabbing stunt at his expense.

 

Its cool.

I'm about to get nerdy here, but since you asked...

Wobbly legs are a result of the cerbellum (back side of your brain) being traumatized. The cerebellum is primarily in charge of coordination of motor movements. It carries out the motor blueprint for movement and coordinates muscles.

Gait ataxia is the term for uncoordinated walking, and if someone has an ataxic gait, that is the prime indication there has been cerebellar trauma. It can range from a minor concussion to a major (unconsciousness).

The latest example of this is Broner getting up from that knockdown against Maidana. He got up and had some serious gait ataxia. Very discombobulated and herky-jerky limb movements.

Someone losing all lower extremity function (in this case, temporary paralysis) has to do with the spinal cord being traumatized because the spinal cord carries the nerves required for temperature and proprioception senses, pain, and motor. If that gets disrupted, everything from the point of the injury and down is interrupted. The vertebrae that branch off to the legs are anywhere from T8 or so and down, that's lower back. Depending on how bad the spinal cord was injured has to do with how complete the loss is. Generally motor goes first.

 

So my attempt at humor about the horse kicking the guy in the back was based on the fact that they guy would have had to have some injury to his lower spine to receive that resulting injury or paralysis.

So paralysis and ataxia are the results of injuries to two different areas of the body- the spinal cord and the cerebellum, respectively.

 

right....but say for people who have strokes and cant walk for a month ?