"Holmes vs. Cooney" 1982...

Holmes was very respectful of Cooney's power, and admitted it afterwards. He never wanted to 'open up' and go all guns blazing after the knockdown.

 

That was one of the fights in which Holmes' stamina really impressed me. He was still throwing snappy jabs and combinations when he was very tired. Perhaps his finest performance.


On Leonard-Hagler, why call it pathetic? It was regarded as an execution of Leonard with Hagler the bigger man and Leonard retired for a few years, yet it was highly competitive and highly controversial. Whenever the fight comes up even now, twenty five years later, threads still go ten pages in no time... even Lewis-Klitschko pales by comparison. I think that fight delivered big time.

 

Cooney had never been past 8 rounds before tackling Holmes. Forgetting the benefit of hindsight, Holmes had a cushion in his mind about going into the late rounds and coping better. Cooney was unknown in deep water, Holmes wasn't.

 

Yet it's more discussed than any other heavyweight or non-heavyweight 80's bout.

 

How did you score it?

 

I believe Cooney is another fighter that began to believe his managers and the press as to his invincibility from all the early career victories. Once beaten, his aura of invincibility was gone not only in the mind of potential opponents but in his own as well. This has happened to many fighters over the years. Cooney took it extremely poorly and was never able to regain his form or desire.

Cooney's team ideally should have pushed him with a few tougher fights to test his stamina and will. If he should win those fights he would have been a lot more dangerous. As it was, Gerry gave all he had in the challenge to Holmes and for that one night he was pretty damn good.

 

The early 1980s saw a lot of good performances from Larry. His performance against Spinks was basically the whole package: moving and leading his opponent into counters; working on the front foot behind the stiff jab; and firing lightning-fast combinations when he cornered Leon.

It was boring. People can talk about it all they want: I've seen it once and have no interest in seeing such a non-event again.

 

Probably a good idea, although I think the fact that Cooney was left-hook orientated meant that Holmes was in little real danger. However, after the Snipes fight (wasn't it?), it's understandable.

 

Cooney had 2) 1 rd KO's in 2 years and never fought past 8 rds. As a matter of fact Cooney from 12/18/79 to 6/10/82 the day before Holmes/Cooney gerry only fought less than 6 rds. He tKO'd Young in 1,5/25/80 then Ko'd Lyle 10/25/80 then Norton Ko1 5/11/81...the Max rds Gerry went was 8...Larry knew rds were Gerry's enemy