Primo Carnera vs. Gerry Cooney

You had Young winning for 2 1/2 rounds? It would have been nice to see the cut not factor but it's extremely rare to find anyone giving Young a single round. Cooney was surprisingly composed and too good and powerful.

 

Cooney knocks Primo out. Primo didn't take a punch that well and he didn't hit that hard. At one point he was described as having a velvet punch and a glass jaw. He had quite a good jab and plenty of heart. I'm no huge fan of Cooney but i think pre Holmes he'd get it done here.

 

Man there's been some excellent debates in here the last few weeks. The place is on a roll.

 

I have to disagree Cooney won every round from memory, and according to the fans scorecards here only one person gave Jimmy Young a single round.

https://eyeonthering.com/boxing/gerry-cooney-vs-jimmy-young

Yes the cut was unfortunate but it still was legitimately done by punches, and it didn't look like to me that Young was going to win the fight anyway. It's a good win due to the fact no one ever stopped Jimmy Young after Cooney did it, and Young fought on for 10 more years.

Also overall Young was only stopped twice in 57 fights, once by Shavers when he was novice and once by Cooney. So on paper it's a pretty solid win for me.

 

Agreed - Young didn't win a round.

Moreover, I'd say he better acquitted himself against the up and coming Tucker and Tubbs, 4 years later, than he did against Cooney.

 

There's no time like the present!!

 

To be honest i thought Young was performing reasonably well and was going to be a good learning experience for Cooney, particularly in regards to being extended into the later rounds vs a wily opponent. Young's face put an end to that but to be fair Cooney simply tore it apart with a punch much like Lennox Lewis punched half of Vitali's face off. If you're melon can't stay intact to the point where you need to be saved then you just can't win on that night. The catchcry that they barely ever cut and were unlucky could well be replaced by........well Jesus how good did that guy bang him to cause that.

 

What frame rate were you running your Carnera footage at?

 

Agreed. Young just had that awkward style to test the highest Boxing IQs and it initially looked like it was going to be a bit of campaign for Cooney. But Cooney was pushing for opportunities to attack and land hard shots, taking any that arose.

Exactly!

 

It was actually a good performance for Cooney and is all too often dismissed as Jimmy being “ washed up. “ Of course Young wasn’t in his prime. But he wasn’t some washed up bum either. He was still at least fringe level and was winning fights and taking good men the distance

 

I would probably favor Cooney to land some meaningful shots on Carnera early and get the stoppage win. But I have to consider that both men were big…. Both men could punch… neither exemplified durability but Carnera DID take a pretty hefty beating from Max Baer for many rounds before he was finished. It might have been a better fight than some thing.

 

Completely agree. Young was fringe but in fair form. It was the perfect fight for Cooney at that time.

 

You consider Carnera a puncher?

 

Doubtful.

I agree. I don't think it's a given he even gets past faded versions of Lyle, Norton, and especially Young.