What if Gerrie Cooney was to have challenged Mike Weaver for the WBA championship instead of Larry Holmes? would he have become champion? How do you guys see this fight playing out?
Lately I tend to go with the man that walked the walk rather that the guy who looked like he could murder the walk, in other words Weaver, Cooney's best fight was against Holmes while Mike probably did as good or better against Larry. But Mike had a load more excellent performances. Mike by mid to late KO.
If Cooney had jumped straight in after Norton he would have been stopped. If he'd had sharp managers and tested himself against guys like Shavers, Ocasio, Alfredo Evangelista, Berbick, etc and then fought Weaver, he might have had a chance
Though I certainly see Weaver as the far more accomplished fighter, I think Cooney is a very bad match-up for him. I think Gerry storms him and takes him out early.
Mike had the experience, and though Gerry might knock him down, Mike would stop Gerry in the eleventh round, then go on to lose to the belt to Greg Page in his next defense.
It's interesting because both were quite vulnerable. Weaver has the better wins and is much more proven, but he was a horrendously slow starter and may be caught by something big early by Cooney. The version of Cooney that fought Holmes was pretty good. He gave Holmes a very good fight and was very competitive for the first 10 rounds or so. I think it was just his misfortune to fight Holmes, instead of one of the more beatable WBA champs. I don't know who wins this to be honest. It's a very competitive fight in my opinion.
Cooney early or Weaver late. Gerry's best chance would be to jump on Mike from the opening bell and let his punches go in bunches on Mike who was a slow starter. If he does I could see the ref stop it whether or not Weaver is truly hurt enough only because it would look like Mike is being overwhelmed...if not actually stunned. If the fight goes into the late rounds Weaver could begin to tag Cooney with some good shots that set up the coup de grace ala John Tate. Its either a Cooney barrage early or a Weaver hook late.
The Cooney that fought Norton would very likely take Weaver out fast ... Weaver started slow and had a shaky chin however he could end it with one shot ..
Cooney had a better shot against Weaver than Holmes because of styles & because he was the faster starter but Gerry only fought 2 round in 2 years before he fought Holmes (Norton & Lyle) so while I think styles would favor him over Weaver,Mike was also a very hard puncher...I like Cooney early by 5 but if he misses Weaver finishers
It would be an explosive fight. Could go either way. I tend to lean towards Gerry Cooney. I don`t think Weaver is going to be able to outbox Cooney and avoid that hook the way the Easton Assassian was able to. If nothing else Cooney had explosive power.
Left hook or really the punch I see landing is that nasty left uppercut Cooney threw. Mike is right there for it and he started so slow he's going to get tagged. If he gets hit and has like 80 seconds until the end of the round, he won't make it. Maybe 30 seconds he can kill, but I don't even think that. And it wasn't as if Weaver was an Arum favorite or anything so I think the breaks go to the Cooney camp. If Joey Curtis ref's this one, he might wave it off at the fighter intro's. But Cooney has a nasty left hook and left uppercut and a huge size advantage, which he certainly didn't use well but it is there. Mike would be at the end of those punches because he really didn't do a whole lot with his legs. Exciting fight though and If Mike can land a hard punch of his own, I sure don't like the Cooney survivor skills against the caliber of punch he'd get hit with. Then again, Mike is probably on paper anyway an underdog to a young Witherspoon back then. He could have been beat by a guy like Berbick or ambushed by a Snipes type guy also. But the guy sure did have a way of winning fights he wasn't supposed to. And he went into the lions den to do it. It's the other guy that couldn't pull that off. That fact alone makes it kind of a interesting. At any rate, whoever the victor is I think wins rather 1 sided. Weaver weathering a storm maybe put putting Gerry in a heap the way he put Gerrie in a heap. Man, how the landscape of boxing would have changed if Cooney was the WBA champ in 82 and seeing how Arum would have protected his new investment.
Very much a 50/50 call. Cooney would either blast Weaver out early or would be stopped by him later on. I have a slight inclination toward the latter scenario.
I think the Cooney that fought Holmes would have beat Weaver, on points or late stoppage, if I remember correctly the Holmes , Cooney fight was pretty close, with Holmes having a slight edge, and Holmes was miles ahead of Weaver. Mike Weaver was nothing special in my opinion, a Mediocre guy, who was inactive during his tenure, he looked like he could move a mountain, but didn't have the strongest jaw, and nobody considered him the true champ at the time, because he was so inferior to Holmes.