Foreman and Cooney meet ten years earlier. Let's say Foreman gets into shape and has a few fights first. Same outcome as '90?
Hard to say. The problem with any Gerry Cooney match-up is that I don't think we ever really found out how good of a fighter he truly was. The Norton and Lyle fights, though impressive, didn't give us much of a gauge to work with. The Holmes fight was competitve, but Larry seemed to be carrying him at times, plus Cooney had only fought perhaps once within a two year period prior to that match..... The Spinks fight of '87, and the Foreman fight of '90 are useless berometers. Perhaps a bout with a prime Trevor Berbick around 1981, would have given us a better reading.. As for Foreman, there are questions to be asked as well. 1. How mentally focussed would he have been, and was a he ready to make a comeback so soon... His first career ended in '77, due to the fact that his head was no longer in the game.. 2. Would Foreman return to the ring in 1980, armed with the same new tools that he had in '87? Foreman and Moore worked together to improve George's defense, strait punches, energy conserving tactics, etc... These are all things that I think could have helped him against a prime Cooney... CONCLUSION: If George Foreman were to return in 1980, fully focussed and in shape to the point where he was in almost as good of form as the Frazier and Norton fights, then I think he KO's Cooney and probably early. If Foreman showed up like he did from about the Lyle fight to the Young bout, when his head wasn't screwed on right, then its possible that he misses his window of opportunity to stop Cooney early, and may get taken out late himself...
yes, only quicker and Gerry would avoid a fight w/ him like the plague. but gerry would nutup to fight a comebacking richard dunn
Quote: Originally Posted by The Morlocks This content is protected yes, only quicker and Gerry would avoid a fight w/ him like the plague. but gerry would nutup to fight a comebacking richard dunn This assessment would make the victory of Larry Holmes over him(Cooney) not very meaningful.
I'm a huge Foreman fan, so keep that in mind when I say that Cooney would stand a decent chance of a KO over Foreman under these circumstances. The question really being, does George have the mental toughness in this matchup that he did during his comeback? If he did, then I don't see anyone knocking him out. But if it was somewhere between the comebacking Foreman and the young Foreman, then Cooney very well could have gotten the KO. Remember that Foreman was seriously wobbled by Cooney in their fight, in fact worse than anyone else really hurt him during his entire 2nd career, from one shot. And that was from a version of Cooney who literally looked like a ghost of his former self.
Interesting matchup. Better timing for Cooney than in 1990. I still say Foreman by 4th or 5th round knockout. Cooney would not be able to stand up to George's power for long.
I firmly believe even the comeback Foreman would have stopped the Cooney Holmes fought before Holmes did.