Been a greater HW? Consider that within his first 4/5 years of being pro he had KOd Norton, Lyle & Young & fought ATG Holmes in what was ultimately a losing effort but one in which he pushed him close for most of it.. After Holmes he fought sporadically with literally years between fights but never achieved much again. What's not often mentioned is that from Oct 80 to June 82 (the Holmes fight) Gerry had fought all of 53 seconds in a ring KOing Norton in 1.. that's all.. & Cooney says himself that after he KOd Norton he started drinking heavily. Self esteem issues etc.. the gulf in experience between Holmes & Cooney was pretty wide also.. Could Gerry Cooney with better management, guidance & maybe a little more seasoning before fighting Holmes have had a greater career? Or did he just beat a handful of over the hill fighters that made him look better than he actually was? Great guy though, still a noteworthy HW but a lot of 'what ifs' surrounds him imo..
Yes the Cooney of 79-82 was a very good heavyweight. He was off for over a year by time of Holmes fight and was coming off a 1 round win in his previous bout. Even with that rust he fought a competitive bout against a prime ATG. After that bout his career basically ended, Cooney suffered alcohol and drug addictions and confidence problems. He was a plodding shell by time he went for the cash grab bouts of Spinks and Foreman. He had hard time getting fights as division was controlled by King in early 80s (and rest of decade too) he needed more rounds before the Holmes fight. Talks were made for him to fight Weaver I believe. Winnable fight - but he wanted Holmes. He should of fought Cobb for rounds or the durable past prime Bugner. Big John Tate also, all 3 would have been very winnable for Gerry. He was a cash cow though and his poor management didn’t want to upset the apple cart.
Strong & durable HW with ok abilities. I think he may have been a bit of a mental-midget- self esteem. I remember Legendary Nights tale of Holmes-Cooney revealing how his pops wasn't to positive about his son. IMO it kinda shows in his demeanor, just a nice guy, can't say soft. Met him in Canastota just a mellow fellow! Holmes beat him mentally, I guess is my point. So no matter the time taken to build ring skills, a sound defeat would've crushed him regardless. or as the previous poster stated on alcohol & drug use may have been more about drowning out emotions as opposed to using it like a DLH or Tyson in the get high- get booty-I'm the man type of user scene!
Fury & Kovalev are better placed than me to give you a take on that, I was just quoting Cooney (from his book) himself..
