Would Gerry Cooney Have Gone Out Fast, Against Lennox Lewis?

It could be Lewis Grant all over again or a more cautions fight like he did vs Tua or Tyson. Under 3 rounds if he decides to bomb him out, and maybe 8 rounds if he plays the careful route.

 

I think Holmes main problem was he had to follow a ATG act. Charles did not nab the America crowd because he follow Louis nor was Tunney or Corbett able to follow Dempsey or Sullivan.

 

Excellent point and analogies. And it’s not just that they were viewed as not scratching up to their predecessors but were in fact out rightly rejected because of them - particularly in the instances, as cited, where they have directly prevailed over them H2H - Larry was off to a bad start just for following Ali..and then he beat him badly…

I don’t have my finger in the pulse for the era but it seems that perhaps Marciano came off best even after beating a legend in Louis - and perhaps the potential backlash against him
was negated not just by the qualities of Rocky as upstanding man in his own right but also for the fact that The Bomber had already begun and was well into the transition from a great fighter to one who was by then well past his best….

 

I don’t think Lennox had any KOs after round 8, did he? Not that I recall anyway.

And he often fought with caution. Now sometimes he’d fight with caution and still land one on the button and it was over, but I think he is pretty careful with Gerry and boxes his way to a 12-round decision that sees some encouraging moments for Cooney but not a lot of rounds in the bank.

 

Marciano was able to escape this fate because there was time between his rein and that of Louis. By the time Marciano was champ, It was already Louis-Charles-Walcott-Marciano. Perhaps had he beaten Louis in 1950 for the title or a title comeback like Charles did, it would be another story. Even then the media and papers compare Lous and Rocky as Champs with major credit going to Louis. Marciano really did not get the credit as being a great champ until after he retire, so in some ways, Louis's rein did effect how Rocky was view as a lesser champ. Yeah Marciano got backlash in beating Louis with the prime Louis beats Marciano argument, but it settles down by the time Marciano retire. Holmes was never able to escape that even with 20 defenses and about 7 years as champ.