Who else would have beaten Gerry Cooney in 1982?

You must be joking

 

83 Tim whiterspoon destroys him, a peak tubbs schools him, smith could ko him, even pinklon thomas and berbick would have great chance to beat him

 

I think Cooney could have done well by fighting more of the contenders of the time, before being thrown in with a Top-5 ATG Heavyweight, before he was ready.

I get the impression Holmes thinks so to:

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Larry Holmes



https://www.ringtv.com/502457-larry-holmes-gerry-cooney-helluva-fighter/

 

Cooney is overrated. His hand-speed and vicious power is all he has, like quite literally. He's as fragile as a china tea-pot and can't out-box anyone past regional level, anyone with a bit of know how could steer him into some sharp punches, and a lot of guys around that time could bang and finish people off.

His power could take a few heads, but he'd have his own sliced off in the process. He'd lose more than he'd win.

 

I think The version of Cooney that Larry fought would have beat everyone in the planet at that time apart from Holmes. That fight literally was a fight to decide the best heavyweight in the world.

The problem was, because Cooney fought Holmes, he Was never going to be the same again. He took a beating. And Gerry did not get to active and busy again. The effect of that fight was worse because Gerry had no decent ten round type fight between sparking out Norton and meeting Larry. He did not have the right kind of seasoning leading up to it.

Had Gerry fought say Tex Cobb or Renaldo Snipes he might have maintained that level... but Cooney just didn’t get those kids of fights so he stagnated and withered away.

Had Cooney fought Weaver the night he fought Holmes I think Weaver gets smoked. But another blow out was never going to be preparation for Larry.. so he still would have taken that beat down.

Larry really was the man at that time. Nobody was going to get close to Larry 79-83.

But the next best guy really was Gerry Cooney. Forget all those belt holder guys. Cooney was better. I will go out on a limb to say it. It’s just that the guy was not getting the right fights to show it.

I mean the Witherspoon that Larry fought was a good fighter. But until then, like say when Tim fought Snipes, he really was not special. Cooney takes that guy because Tim was not yet his best.

Who else was there? Dokes? That guy barely got past Tex Cobb. His best win was against a guy he then drew with and it took Dokes two fights to beat Ossie freaking Ocasio. Cooney would have smoked him too.

Page was a good fighter but Berbick put things into perspective and Berbick is never a guy anybody ever puts ahead of Cooney. Yet Berbick beat Thomas who is considered some kind of hot shot.

In fact, Scott Frank drew with Snipes. And Snipes is a guy who fared well with Berbick and Witherspoon.

When Cooney demolished Jimmy Young it was the ruin of him. Because he was fast tracked. But when you consider that Young would go on and test a lot of guys like Tony Tucker, Greg Page And Tony Tubbs And fare better with them than he ever did with Cooney I think it shows how far ahead Gerry was potentially to those guys.

 

It is pretty evident that Holmes is not going to say that he did beat a mediocre guy

 

I don't and never understood the venom Cooney received. One only has to watch the Holmes fight in its entirety to see he could fight, and if he had won, the confidence he would've gained probably wouldve ensured a decent championship run. Cooney after Holmes was not the same fighter he was prior to Holmes. Their was no one until Tyson that I would've felt good enough to bet the house against him. I believe an active, confident Cooney defeats everyone available that year. Most by KO.

 

I suspect that he would have got mixed results at best, against the belt holders of that era.

 

I think that’s how it would have transpired because of the order that things happened.

Had the order been different, like had Cooney fought more often or just had more rounds that year, the form Gerry produced against Holmes could have been replicated and I believe that version would have taken out the rest of the champions during the 79-83 era. The others did not stand out.

He was never going to replicate that form because Gerry had so little activity going into it.

I really think Larry Holmes beat a potential champion when he beat Cooney. Because what Gerry showed against Norton and Young was more than any of the other contenders showed ...and most of them ended up with a belt.

 

If that's all you took away from what Holmes is quoted as saying then you missed the larger part of the point that was being made.

 

A peak Tubbs beat nobody a comeback version of Joe Bugner could handle. That guy Tubbs... I just don’t get it. I lived through that time. I just never was convinced that Tubbs ever was better than a top six heavyweight.