Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney

Yes, in fact there were some who were favoring Cooney to win. Most of the die hard experts however, were fairly certain that Cooney was in over his head though.

It was the highest grossing fight gate to that point in history. It wasn't until exactly 6 years later in June of 1988, that the record would be broken by Tyson vs Spinks.

I was only around 7-8 years old at the time, but I have since seen the match on several occasions, and have read quite a bit of literature on the fight. I don't however have any recollection of what happened in the development of this affair.

 

Cooney pickers.

Johnny Bos
Teddy Brenner
Bobby Czyz
Lou Duva
Marv Albert
Tony Ayala snr
Vito Antuofermo
Gil Clancy

Holmes pickers.

Ferdie Pacheco
Murray Goodman
Johnny Bumphus
Mike Katz
Ron Katz

 

I felt that Cooney was Ill Prepared for a fighter that could fight 12 rds at the level Holmes could perform...Cooney had 2 1st rd KO's over the course of 2 years leading to Holmes he need a 10 rounder with Tex Cobb to get at least 10 or 12 under his belt (for confidence) also there was the drug use and alcohal use that I knew of 1st hand and the stint in rehab...I had seen him fire the hook so I thought he still had a punchers chance but a slim one...Holmes knew he was a onehanded fighter stayed clear of the left and let Cooney run out of gas...then began to let go......could Cooney have been better prepared...I think so

 

for those that were around at the time what were the thoughts of fans and Boxing writers leading up to the fight? Did people actually think Cooney had a chance?

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It seems like this fight got a lot of attention in the media at the time and was a big event so to speak.

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What were your thoughts at the time before the fight?

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I knew that Holmes was going to win.In what way, no, but I knew Larry was going to take Gerry,thought only 9 at the time.

 

Despite the layoffs looked well prepared.

 

Ironicaly Larry Holmes lost money betting on Cooney at least twice after that fight.

 

Clancy always was very fond of Gerry Cooney. At the time Cooney faced Holmes, Victor Valle was his trainer, but years later, Clancy trained Cooney for his meeting with Foreman. I wonder what might have happened had Clancy trained Cooney from the very begining. Would Cooney have been any better, worse or indifferent? Who knows. I think its telling however that Clancy, Duva and other great boxing personalities saw so much in him so early. Obviously there was talent present there.

 

Clancy even had the bottle to say Monzon wasn't a great fighter. Maybe because Valdez and Griffith were beaten by him.

 

Yeah, that didn't make any sense. I do think that Clancy was a great boxing personality though. He contributed quite a bit to the game in my opinion.

 

I was in high school back in '82. This fight was huge.. All the white boys hanging around were sold on Gerry Cooney; I wasn't.... I knew Larry Holmes was a better boxer with more experience and all, plus, the owner of an undefeated record that consisted of roughly 32 pro fights.... And, Larry Holmes had almost as many KO's as Gerry Cooney had fights.... I was all for Larry Holmes....

MR.BILL:hey

 

I think the general reasoning behind some folks picking Cooney was that he had made short work of guys like Norton, Lyle and Young while Holmes was barely gotten by Norton along with others namely, Weaver, Berbick and Shavers. Additionally, Cooney was 7 years younger and had a 4 inch height advantage. What people had overlooked however, was that his managment had failed to keep him busy during the most critical developmental period of his career. From 1980 to 1982, Cooney had fought but one time, consisting of his 55 second destruction of Norton, which incidently occurred 13 months prior to the Holmes fight. What's more, he had never been beyond 8 rounds, and had only gone beyond 5 on a handful of occasions.

 

I saw the excellent HBO documentary "Legendary nights: the tale of Holmes-Cooney", and Cooney said he had never gone past 8, and how this put some doubt and insecurity in his mind, because he knew it was likely to go into the late rounds, so he was holding back a bit but was inexperienced in how to pace himself.

By the way, have you ever seen Cooney in the New York amateurs?






I wasn't around at the time, but my hindsight judgment is that Cooney was very talented fighter, and although he hadn't beaten many live contenders, he did look devastating against the likes of Young, Lyle and Norton. Particularly the Norton fight, was as brutal a slaughter as you can get, almost similar to Mercer-Morisson. The way he was wacking Norton in that ringpost with big shots, that was no Gentleman in there. Memorable sight. I've never seen the Lyle fight though.

I agree with Bummy here; a few more fights and perhaps a different trainer could've honed his skills better. Not just experience in longer fights, but i think he could've been quite a good boxer. He had all the physical tools: quick handspeed, long reach and devastating power to boot. Against Holmes, he relied too much on landing the hook, or even a one-punch KO... which is asking for disaster, especially against such a disciplined guy like Larry. Against Young he seemed to box fairly well, but he never sustained the upward arc of developing that because he had only a few fights between 80-82 and then got in there with the Champ.....

Like Quarry he didn't have the nicest of fathers and went into alcohol/depression when his career went bad. I think he recovered pretty well though, and he sounds/looks pretty healthy these days. He comes across as a good guy.