If Gerry Cooney had beaten spinks

So if Gerry had won, rather than lost, people would view the fight differently?

No sh1t, Sherlock.

 

If he quit after beating Spinks he would be remembered like Marcus Dupree: "The Best that Never Was"

 

I agree with this. If I had to hang my hat on my historical view based on a win over lineal champ Spinks, I’m not too sure I’d have too much to brag about. Interesting what if though. I think Gerry would’ve needed a couple big wins in addition to that.

 

But in all honesty, I would have kept Gerry Cooney away from Mike Tyson at that point in time, Tyson would have won, good fight maybe but there is no bragging rights in moral victories. You either win or you lose. I do not believe in moral victories. Just victories.

 

Cooney has a very thin resume against elite opposition.

He never beat anybody currently ranked in the top ten by Ring Magazine.

A win over any lineal champion, elevates his currency somewhat in my eyes.

I would still regard him as one of the weakest lineal champions, down with the Briggs's of the division.

Of course there is a reason why he got to fight Spinks, ahead of a legion of more qualified challengers.

He would have had enormous commercial value as champion, but Spinks obviously had other ideas.

So my answer is, that if he had beaten Spinks, and become the champion, you would have seen an obscene marketing exercise.

He would have been fed bums, to make him look good, and he would have been a mainstay of commercials.

It would have played out, until he could not longer be kept away from a top contender, then it would have ended.

 

I strongly agree.

 

I meant if he beat Spinks. It's a typo.

 

I know, mate. Just pulling your plonker.

 

Consider my plonker pulled.

 

Pulled pork, as the nouvelle cuisiniers would call it.

 

Well if Spinks somehow still ended up dethroning Larry Holmes, then its clearly a big win. Gets him a lot more credit for hypthetical matches and moves him up a few spots.

 

Slightly unrelated to the topic but when Michael Spinks was sparring as a Heavyweight, some recognized names said he had pretty decent power as Heavyweight.

One funny story i heard was when Michael Spinks was sparring Tex Cobb, apparently Michael Spinks hit Tex Cobb with a pretty good punch. Then Tex Cobb threw a round house kick at Spinks, and Spinks run out of the ring and Tex Cobb replied "You hit me too hard".

 

That was a very very bad cut Spinks had in there. Most other heavies would have boxed a round or 2 maybe and let the ref waive it off. But Cooney was in there still blasting away instead of using boxing smarts. But comparing the boxing smarts of the 2 is on par with with comparing their power.

But spinks was very vulnerable and fortunate he did not get stopped on cuts. I bet Cooney has watched the bout since and saw what a silver platter he had==but did not take advantage of.

 

Such a scenario is so far removed from reality I choose not to ponder it.

He was systematically exposed by Spinks,

I prefer to think what may have been if he had dusted himself off from the Holmes loss and remained focused and dedicated to the sport, instead of licking his wounds and counting his millions. By staying inactive for two years, then fighting carefully selected opposition once a year, he ensured he would stagnate and fail to improve until he faced someone good for big money. If he had beaten Spinks it would have been a fluke once punch type win.

 

Totally agree, Gerry Cooney could not beat a single reputable opponent, only the oldies but goodies, Lol.