Instead of meeting Shaver's in Sept 77 Muhammad meets Cooney ,the same version that faced Holmes in 82 . Ali , at this point as we know is winding down .So does the undefeated but raw Gerry stand a chance here ? Or does the great white Hope fail to deliver once again?
I think Ali at that stage would have been very vulnerable to Cooney's left hook to the body, i wouldn't be surprised to see Dundee pull him out after a terrible beating.
In 1977 cooney was green and was stopping pure garbage ali had the experience to overcome this guy by 1977
Cooney was not even a blip on the radar for Ali at the time. Back then names being considered were guys like Schutte and Gardner. The Ali braintrust dug up guys like Lubbers and Evangelista. They could have gone with a Lorenzo Zanon even. Cooney in 77 was nowhere near the development of the guys from the 76 Olympics like Tate. Let alone Page/Dokes/knoetze/Coetzee.
Yes '82 Cooney could possibly beat '77 Ali Cooney was faster than Shavers. I don't think he'd stop Ali, though. His chin was unreal.
He'd definitely hurt Ali ,at that point he catching so much. Cooney , whilst green and never tested , would have gone all out IMO Perhaps thinking Ali would be no threat ,he'd certainly lost his KO touch . Maybe throwing those rib crunching left hooks and having Ali on the rope's trying to tire him out. This been a 15 rounder , it would be interesting to see if Cooney keeps up the pace ,or folds as fatigue sets in . But yes , definitely a chance here for Gerry .
This is actually a real possible scenario. This Ali is far removed from Zaire ,where he took the bombs of Foreman.
Cooney wasn't unknown. He was a gold gloves amateur guy from NY, and one who KO'd a Russian on an all amateur heavyweight card in Madison Square Garden. However if we are talking 1977, that was his rookie year and he had not gone past 4 rounds. I'd lean towards Ali using guile, a lot of holding, the ability to take a beating, and smarts to win. 1978-1979? I'd pick Cooney.
I always liked ali in the shavers fight...he was in shape,he was still ali..and his last round acceleration was very impressive...it was the last time we saw a semblance of the real Ali. Consequently i think he beats cooney.stops him around 11. I also think 1977 ali beats any version of holmes...ali had fallen back from zaire but not by much...
I think the 77 ali had enough left to beat Cooney on points .not much but enough probably the last chance to do so.