Let’s say that Gerry Cooney and David Bey sign to fight each other in the spring of 1985 rather than Bey fighting Holmes for the title in the actual time line. Bey was 14-0 and had just beaten Greg Page in august of the previous year. Cooney chalked up a couple of wins over George Chaplin and Phillip Brown in the fall of the same year. Now that Cooney has shaken off a little rust he’s looking to step up against a fringe contender. Bey meanwhile is hoping to get a decent pay day by sparking another named opponent and better positioning himself for a belt... both guys were still in their 20’s I believe.
I think Bey could win this. Cooney for me never regained confidence after Holmes. Anyone that could possibly stand up to his initial onslaught in with a good chance.
David Bey did put up a spirited performance against champion Larry Holmes in a televised fight that was shown on HBO in 1984. As another talented poster had mentioned, Gerry Cooney had lost all confidence following his defeat at the hands of champion Larry Holmes. Bey was not an elderly contender that Gerry is accustomed to fighting. I see Bey boxing Cooney early, then taking him out by round 10, David would not allow himself to be assaulted like Gerry's elderly opponents on his way up.
That could very well happen but at least in this instance Cooney would be coming off of some recent activity as well as still having some youth unlike his fights with Spinks and Foreman
That's true, and does give Cooney more of an edge for sure. It's df more of an even fight than the others, I just don't see Cooney winning a fight against a name heavyweight after Larry. Obviously he's the big punchers chance to but Bey, just my opinion, wants the fight, puts up enough resistance to battle back to stop him. Good match up tho Mr M!
Bey is pretty underrated nowadays. I think he'd have a decent chance of beating Cooney, particularly a delapidated version of him.
I believe that after the defeat against Holmes, rather than losing confidence, he lost his ambition, he was never seen fit again and began to have fights infrequently. According to him, he started strong with drugs, alcohol and parties
I never saw anytthing in Bey, looked very ordinary to me. Just the type of fight Gerry needed at the time, without his usual long layoff. I think he would be up for this fight and would blow Bey out of there in a rd or 2
It should be noted that David Bey was stopped 8 times in his career and most of those stoppages weren’t by guys who could punch like Cooney
Thank you. Good post and thank you for waking us up. Bey was good, just the type of opponent that someone like Gerry Cooney would need to get his confidence back. I could see Bey troubling Cooney from the outset but not having a great defense and definitely not stopping Cooney form landing power shots. I see a similar outcome to Bey vs Biggs: Bey getting too overconfident and walking into Cooney's hooks and getting bludgeoned by the 6th or 7th round.
I like your enthusiasm with the 80's heavyweight scene. I share that enthusiasm with you Magoo. Keep em coming my man!!
I wish that some poster would make a thread with Gerry Cooney before the Larry Holmes fight vs Tim Witherspoon of the Larry Holes bout in 1983.
