Prime Cooney vs the actual Samuel Peter: intense first few rounds. Both guys could crack and wouldn't be shocked if they had a dual exchange of hooks. Peter gets a flash knockdown in the 3rd with a barrage that catches Cooney off guard. Middle rounds cooney's painful body shots are slowing down the Nigerian juggernaut but Peter is the busier guy. Score cards would be pretty close. Cooney sends peter to the canvas with a savage hook in the 10th, leaving him lumped up and bleeding from the lip. Cooney's reach and superior stamina allow him to steal the last few rounds and win a very close decision. Cooney vs the "invincible" Peter of the Wladmir fight: Peter walks through all of Cooney's punches, eats a flush hook to the jaw and just shrugs it off and snorts whole battering Cooney from pillar to post until it's stopped in the 2nd round.
Peter was almost entirely a promotional creation in and era when there was no one at heavy. He was small, totally unskilled, pudgy, probably ten years older than advertised, and his allegedly great power was not enough to knock out a fat middle like James Toney in two fights. Cooney became a joke, and as the booze and coke ruined him, he became more and more frail, but that hook was for real early in his early career. Norton, Lyle and Young may have been over the hill, but good lord! Cooney in the second.
Peter. tko 5 or 7 once Cooney starts looking for a second wind. bout turns into who takes what the other guy dishes out better. And there just aren't many guys Cooney is going to beat in the resilience and attrition department.
Peter wasn't anything special but here he's like Joe Frazier! Cooney would batter away at him in the first couple of rounds and look a beast. But Sam soaks it up and bulls his way through. Cooney starts to look panicky as Peter is now blasting away at him and his punches have had little affect. The end comes suddenly half way through the 4th, when Cooney is tagged hard and his legs turn to jelly. Peter by rsf 4.
Peter in his prime was a walking tank. Wlad hit him with numerous flush right hands and he just shook his head and shrugged them off. There's a montage of them in the actual fight which I wish I could find but it was crazy when viewed like that. His chin was ridiculous. Peter was as crude as they come, but he could punch and take a punch, and if Wlad couldn't get his respect then there's no guarantee Cooney would either. That makes the fight pretty open IMO as Cooney didn't have one half of the boxing abilities of Wlad.
Cooney wins this one. He might have been over-hyped and his career taken too far, too fast but, this is Peter we're talking about here; not Larry Holmes.
It’s interesting that you’d call Peter a promotional creation when Cooney got one of the largest paychecks ever to fight Holmes and finished his career without beating a single top ten contender.
There was no montage of right hands. The only montage was of Wlads incessant and illegal huggy bear tactics which ill post bellow.. The amount of power punches they traded was equal at 75/74. This says more about Wlads shortcomings than it does Peters strengths. If Wlad was was great as some say he was , he should have been able to mop the floor with Peter who was the HW version of Jeff Lacy. Fact is Wlad simply wasn't good enough to undress and embarrass his one dimensional plodder like Calzaghe did his. Peter actually earned a draw against Wlad and a win if a point had been rightfully deducted. Of all the top guys Peter fought , Wlad was the ONLY one to go life n death. Eddie Chambers at 6 feet with pillow fists had an easier time beating Peter than Wlad did ffs.... Same goes for an old slob version of James Toney who deserved to win the first fight. As for taking a punch , Peters was nearly stopped by a past prime McCline and got absolutely flat-lined by Robert Helienus. He only took Wlads punches only cos Wlad was running around the ring in a state of panic. Cooney , unlike Wlad could tear hooks into guys up close and thats where slow as a sloth Peter would come undone. Left hook to the body , left hook up top.. Good night Sam Peter. This content is protected
Lol@ Peter being able to exploit somebodys stamina. Peter was one of the worst conditioned heavies ever. After 5 rounds he was blowing out his ass. A Cooney body blow turns him into a zombie.