Had Gerry Conney beat Holmes what would he be viewed as if that was his last win.

If he beat Holmes then retired he'd be seen as a bit of a flash in the pan type talent.

Like Riddick Bowe.

People would elevate his power yo legendary status though that would be the main thing.

 

Cooney wasn't within a bulls roar of beating Holmes so i have difficulty envisioning the scenario.

Let's say Holmes twists his ankle or something and Cooney wins by default in the mid rounds. Cooney wouldn't have went on to be an ATG for mine. Brought thru the ranks with an eye to improving steadily i reckon he could have been a very good fighter. The trouble would probably be that he wasn't well equiped mentally to take a loss.

 

He had a bit of Audley Harrison syndrome.

He was already a multi millionaire by the time he got his title shot.

A man like that is hard to motivate I'd imagine.

 

Doesn't worry some tho does it. They are often the real driven fighters that turn out to be great.

 

Co.on was getting his head ripped clean off and he and larry knew it. Larry just said that to suck up to the press and justify a fight that was barely competitive and sold on racial prejudice.

 

It's been awhile since I've seen that fight but I remember it being competitive for a little bit until Holmes brought his A game and tore Cooney to pieces.

Anyway Cooney assuming he knocked out Holmes and then died tragically would be viewed as the next Marciano both because 9f race and because he was a somewhat crude slugger who was undefeated. A Cooney that could beat Holmes would be better than the Cooney that was.

 

Even if he had won, C00ney wouldn't likely have lasted long at the top. Sure he'd be remembered as a far better fighter but he didn't have the mentality or the love of boxing needed to be a long time champion. And while beating Holmes would have been huge, Larry's legacy wouldn't have been as highly valued given that in 1982 he was still well shy of 48-0.

 

Yeah it takes something special in a mentality that.

I know for me, I would be happy with the first paycheck and call I quits then if I could.

 

If Cooney had won, it would probably have done more to devalue Holmes, than it would have done to elevate Cooney.

 

If Cooney beat Holmes that fight, then he would've been really damn good on that night.

 

Gerry C00ney had solid skills. He won the NY Golden Gloves several times when the GG was a very big tournament in the country. He had great power. He was invited to try out for the 1976 Olympics, but he turned pro instead. Had he tried out and made the team - and John Tate was an unexpected representative on the team, he wasn't supposed to win - C00ney would have been an even bigger star than he was.

C00ney was wildly popular across the country by the start of the 1980s. He was a crossover sports star. He was on the cover of TIME magazine.

Had he beaten Holmes in the fourth round, when Holmes admitted he was thankful for the bell because the body shots were hurting him badly, and C00ney won the heavyweight title with a fourth-round stoppage, of course he'd be viewed as an all-time great.

But he didn't. And his life and career went into a freefall after that.

C00ney's physical tools and skills weren't the problem with him. Had he just gone after Holmes like he went after everyone else, he'd have done fine. It was a flawed strategy to pace himself and go slow. His whole team was worried about him possibly having to go 15, when they should've just focused on trying to stop Holmes early. They were never going to outpoint Holmes anyway. If your best shot is winning early, then you go for for the early win. Because the body shots in the fourth, Holmes admitted later, just about ruined him.

C00ney busted Lyle's ribs in the first round. An all-out assault on Holmes' body early in the fight might've done the trick.

As others have alluded to, though, part of being an all-time great is having the mental strength to hold it together once you get up there near or at the top. C00ney had the physical tools to be an all-time great. But he didn't have the mentality for it (not to start sounding like Teddy Atlas, who I despise). He let his fear of the distance change the way he normally fought, and he let his fear of failure impact his career after that loss, and he just went off the rails.

Had he won, though, yes, he'd have been one of the biggest sports stars in the entire world and it would've been difficult to keep out of the Hall of Fame.

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1982/1101820614_400.jpg

 

Gerry gave Holmes a pretty darn good fight but let's not go overboard on the Norton-Lyle-Young fights. Norton and Lyle were shot, as was Jimmy, but at least Young had enough tricky savvy to hang for awhile. IMHO? He gave Larry a good fight and came out of that as still an, at least, top 3 Heavyweight contender. What did he do? Not fight for two years???? In retrospect, again IMHO, **** on Gerry! He didn't have it under the left tit so to speak and was only in the game for the bucks. My $0.02 "so little was done with so much talent"

 

The luckiest SOB on the planet. Gerry was lucky that he didn't have to face two contemporaries by the name of Greg Page and Michael Dokes, who may have cleaned his clock had they met up. Gerry was good, but a bit overrated. Larry may have carried him some of their fight also.

 

Cooney won 4 rounds on my card, maybe you can give him five, but he was not in the same class as Holmes. He really hurt Holmes in round 4 with a body shot, the bell sounded at a good time for Holmes. Had Cooney waited 1-2 more years, he might have beaten Holmes, as Larry slowed down a bit after this fight.

On skills, Cooney had a very good left to the body or the head, but an underdeveloped right and wasn't the type to set up his punches off the jab. I'd say his skills were uneven. Mostly a one handed fighter with rare size for his time. With a better trainer, he could have rounded off his game a bit more.