Gerry Cooney ripped Young's face apart like Lennox Lewis ripped Vitali's face apart ... with punches. Yes, if Gerry Cooney didn't punch Jimmy Young in the face, Young may have had a shot. But Gerry Cooney did punch Young in the face and busted him up. It wasn't like it was an accidental clash of heads that ended it. Punches ended it.
Young was past his prime at that point. Gerry couldn't even put away a faded and blind Jimmy Young. Norton would never see the second rd against Cooney, I don't think he could have even fantasised that. Ron could do well with Gerry. I think he may have when they met had he thrown some punches. I don't know what the hell he was doing. I was at that fight. He just kind of went up to Gerry, covered up a little, moved arouind a little, seemed to be moving around like a young boxer, just didn't throw any punches. Was strange.
What? Gerry Cooney busted Jimmy Young's face open with punches and put him away in four rounds. Did you not see it? Young fought for another 10 years. He faced future champs like Greg Page, Tony Tucker, Tony Tubbs and nobody ever stopped the FADED Young. Only Cooney and Shavers stopped Young in Jimmy's 56-fight career. (Norton didn't. Lyle didn't either time.) That's it. Cooney beat him to a bloody pulp and stopped Young in four.
IT WAS A TKO in FOUR. Young was a bloody mess. He couldn't continue ... from damage caused by Cooney's punches. Young fought Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton, George Foreman, Ron Lyle (twice), Earnie Shavers (twice), Greg Page, Michael Dokes, Tony Tucker, Tony Tubbs, Roy "Tiger" Williams, Jeff Sims, Jose Luis Garcia, Manuel Ramos ... who else cut him up and stopped him in four? How in the hell are you bashing Cooney over his performance against Young? And Young fought for another 10 years after losing to Cooney. Hell, he even fought his way back into a title eliminator against Greg Page, who didn't do that to Young. You act like everyone stopped Jimmy Young except for Cooney. Two guys did in 56 fights. Cooney was one of them.
I think the Young fight might have boosted Gerry's reputation than any of the others (despite the startling, beyond-Foreman wipeout of Norton). I had been under two and half years since Young had off-paper beaten Norton for the title, and three since being only the second person to beat Foreman.
He couldn't even dream to see the 2nd again against Cooney even though he did against a prime Foreman?
Lyle is probably trickier (Norton was too perfect for Fore...I mean Cooney). Lyle had the one shot power to knock Gerry silly, and he most certainly would have landed. Nahhh, the Lyle who gave George such a fight would knock Gerry silly. Not even 4 rounds. The only reason the Holmes/Cooney fight went past 2 rounds is because Larry was still cautious from his last fight, against Snipes. Kenny would have sucked up the big shots just as fast in the 70s...Gerry was the perfect type of foil for Ken. Please understand I hate bringing up Ken's seeming uselessness against super-sluggers because I consider him mostly a very great heavyweight.
He didn't even stagger Young. They let it go on a few rounds and still Cooney couldn't hurt him. It's an exaggeration to say he beat him to a bloody pulp. The blood was flowing into Jimmy's eyes. That's why they stopped it. And Young was faded from the form he showed up to 1978. He had lost twice to Ocasio and to Dokes before facing Cooney. Put the 77 version of Young that fought Foreman in against 1980 Cooney and you'd have a different fight.
Did Young have tougher facial skin in 1977? Or are you saying that none of Cooney's punches would have landed against a prime Young? The fact is Cooney caught Young with a right that busted him open. Theoretically, couldn't the same thing have happened if Cooney fought Jimmy at his best? Prime Young was very good defensively, but he was still vulnerable to getting caught.
Whatever. Cooney feasted on past it big names to get an undeserved crack at Holmes, who exposed him. You can believe what you want.