Holmes vs Cooney - 43 years ago today, June 11, 1982 - Gather 'round.

It’s weird. If you were to go back 43 years FROM 1982 you’d be in the 30’s.

 

That’s exactly how I look at when a period of this many years seems to have flowed under the bridge so quickly. You’re talking The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind territory - yikes!

 

It was a huge and very exciting fight when I saw it on live tv. I could see from the second round that Cooney was going to lose but he gave the kind of fight he'd never have to be ashamed of.

 

This thread told me to gather round, so I gathered as instructed.

 

I was 82 in 1982 but somehow in 2025 I'm in the body of a 30 something man. I'm a medical marvel

 

I know what you mean.

I discovered that my strength is as the strength of 10 men because I’m pure of heart.

As for Holmes-Cooney, in a lot of ways the biggest (as in hype and all-around interest from casuals to hardcores to just regular folks sucked in by how this bout basically became pop culture at the time.

I remember in high school at the time, EVERYBODY had a side (you were either pro-Larry or pro-Cooney) and it was a daily discussion you could have with just about anyone for a few weeks leading into it.

I was Team Larry and won I think about $20 in side bets taking peoples’ lunch money, haha. I think gas was around a buck, maybe a bit more, and I was of driving age so that got me around town for a little while.

The fight lived up to the hype imo. Good for boxing — don’t know if it’s still the record for highest-grossing boxing event ever but it stood as such for a long time.

It’s also heartwarming that Larry and Gerry became fast friends after when each realized the other hated the whole race-baiting promotion as much as they did.

Cooney wrote the introduction for the special Larry Holmes commemorative edition of The Ring before and said his opinion of Larry started to change when they came out for instructions before the first bell. When they touched gloves, per Gerry, Holmes said merely: “Let’s have a good fight.” No venom, no attempt to intimidate, no ‘**** you’ kind of stuff … just “Let’s have a good fight.”

 

It's almost frightening mate

I still remember sitting there watching the top 4 bouts, live. I was young, but still!!!!!

 

There was SUCH hype about Cooney - he even had a Time magazine cover (posed with Sylvester Stallone, who must have been standing on a milk crate - the photo made it look like they were the same height!). I want to say Reagan had a direct line to his dressing room, prepared to congratulate him if he won. Cooney managed to match Holmes' purse for the bout, which I think was rare for a contender. IIRC, Cooney was introduced last instead of Holmes, also unusual.

Holmes took it mostly in stride, but you can understand if he held resentment over it; the white guy was getting all the fame and press, and Holmes had been undefeated champ for four years at that point. Still, he was a pro, kept his cool, and let his performance make his statement.

 

Maybe, alongside Morrison,the non-racially motivated white hope.

 

That's scary actually.

 

It was a good fight with a solid battle proven champion against an unproven contender. Lot of misconceptions about this fight though. Holmes at the time was living in the shadows of Ali and was considered 'boring' fighter for the most part who would drag out fights instead of finishing his opponent earlier and he wasn't very media savvy either so a lot of the writers picked against him out of spite not that they thought Cooney would win they just didn't like Holmes personally and hoped he would lose. Cooney was knocking guys silly or cutting them really bad regardless of the level of opposition. Boxing fans love knockouts and savage KO's that is going to generate a lot of buzz and hype regardless of opponent (look at Tyson's first 20 or so fights as another example of this) Cooney (like Tyson) was also from New York being the media capital of the world so yes he's going to get attention based on that alone. The ring announcer Chuck Hull who was basically exclusive to Las Vegas cards on several occasions would announce the champion first he did it in another Holmes fight years before the Cooney fight and others so it wasn't done for just this fight he had a habit of doing it. The phone line from Reagan seems to be an urban legend with many people involved in the fight and Cooney himself giving contradicting info sometimes saying it was and other times was not true. This fight was a huge event that had tons of non sports and non boxing media attention it was THE big event of the Summer of 1982 in America.

I read Cooney's book which is a good read and he subconsciously sabotaged himself for this fight he didn't think he could win had a ridiculously long training camp like 6 months with a few week break in between for the shoulder issue and was drinking on and off during his camp. I think Gerry essentially suffered from mild panic attacks and he had a ton of pressure on him from outside sources. He wasn't ready to fight Holmes and even if he had 3 or 4 more fights before I don't think it would have mattered his career was always going to go the way it did based on his personal demons and drinking/drug problems. People **** on Cooney but he had huge potential it was just wasted by his own self sabotaging ways and his inept management. Speaking of Mike Jones and his trainer Victor Valle wanted the Holmes fight and Rappaport wanted to wait it out and fight the winner of Weaver/Tillis for the WBA which would have been a better path and more winnable for Gerry. I think Weaver was injured after the Tillis fight and sat out for several months and Cooney's management was aware of his personal demons and wisely got him the Holmes fight but even then he had a 13 month layoff which is insane. In the end they took the big money fight which was the right thing to do as one misstep by Cooney (which was going to happen eventually with his lifestyle) and the Holmes payday was gone. So, they took a mentally fragile inexperienced fighter who doubted himself coming off multiple injuries (shoulder, back, ankle) and a 13 month layoff and put him out in the boiling heat of Las Vegas under the hot tv lights to fight one of the greatest pure boxers of all time AND on top of all this instead of listening to Valle's game plan which was to try and bore in and rough up Holmes in the first four rounds to stop him Cooney hung back and tried to 'outbox' a masterful boxer so he could "go the distance in case he had to". Cooney essentially tried to 'spar' Holmes for the first 10 rounds and by the time he realized that wasn't going to work he had blown his load and had no power/energy left when he got more aggressive in that 10th round (which is a great round from both fighters)

Either way none of this matters as Cooney wasn't ever going to win that fight no matter how many what ifs you can think of because he lacked the experience lacked the confidence and Larry Holmes was just a damn good prizefighter. No shame in losing to Holmes at that time. I've also seen Holmes say that fight took a lot out of him mentally and physically because of all the preparation and mental stress during the build up to the fight. Holmes took Cooney very seriously.

 

Good post mate, interesting.

 

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