His dad didn't help by ruffling Larry's feathers in the runup to the fight talking about he owned him in sparring
Good stuff here. I've always said Cooney gets dumped on unfairly on this site. If one watched him fight prior to Holmes it's plainly obvious he had very good ability. The guy could fight and had great tools to work with. Above average jab, a very destructive left hook height and reach advantages over most heavy's in history. It's unfortunate he didn't have that mindset to get back on the horse after his loss to Holmes. Mentally is the difference of greatness and simply good in his case. Some great punchers for whatever reason after a loss, never seem to be the same. It happened with Foreman after Ali. Mugabi after Hagler. Cooney after Holmes. But I wouldn't call him great. Only great potential.
Cooney got a 10mm purse for that fight. In 1982. That's something like 25-30mm in today's money. I think he lost the desire because of that huge purse. Hand me 25mm today and I'm not working ever again.
So you’re saying that Scott Ledoux, Scott Frank, Alfredo evangelist, Lorenzo zanon, Bonecrusher smith, Tex Cobb, mike weaver, Carl Williams, Lucien Rodriguez, and Leroy Jones did more to earn their respective shots ? How ?
Gerry Cooney? No thanks. Decent fighter but in my opinion not an ATG. At least hold a title. Of some sort. Respect others opinions.
An interesting point in an interesting thread. Holmes falls at #3 on most people's lists, right below Ali and Louis. Most people here pick him against guys in their head to head top 10 lists. Why do we treat their fight like a surprise exposure of Cooney? Cooney faced Holmes basically in Holmes's prime. We'd expect Holmes to beat Cooney unless Cooney was incredible.
Not sure, CT. I always thought that Gerry fought well against Larry. He did about as well as he ever could have up until that point in his career. He gave a prime Holmes a good argument, until Larry started to pick him apart. Larry also fought very well. We can talk about Cooney's subsequent issues, but in that fight he did good.
I think the point about their fight was how much of a good showing Cooney made for himself. I think I might rate Lewis as #3 over Holmes if it weren't for old man Holmes being a top contender in the next era.
How come no top contenders like Greg Page, Tim Witherspoon, or Pinklon Thomas?. Cooney fought those guys you mentioned after their peak years which is standard for him, he feared peak fighters it seems. They would have gotten in the way of him getting to Larry Holmes, he was used by his thuggish management, a cash cow Cooney was. He was tall and clumsy, no balance.
Tim Witherspoon, Pinklon Thomas and greg page weren’t top fighters on the scene when Gerry signed to fight Holmes.