awesome gerry cooney interview

When I was a kid we would watch Cooney train (after Holmes fight). He was tough on sparring partners as the guy could whack. Very nice guy once training was over. Took pics, signed and chatted for a long time about all sorts of things. He is a great guy and F.I.S.T is a long overdue idea.

 

Thanks for posting the link Cotto.

I haven't heard Gerry's voice in a long time and it was refreshing to see that he's still looking, sounding and doing well. The F.I.S.T program sounds like an interesting project and one that seems to address a lot more issues than I originally thought. At first it was my impression that the operation simply raised money to help guys who were a little down on their luck, but it seems to go much further. F.I.S.T. assists fighters in developing new job skills, finding work, getting medical attention and dealing with substance abuse. I don't know how extensive it is, but it certainly sounds wonderful on the surface.

On another note, it was interesting to hear Cooney comment on why he was so inactive after the Ken Norton fight.. According to him, Don King would not set him up with any of the premier heavyweight opponents unless Cooney signed his career over to Don King Productions and gave them exclusive rights. Was this fact or excuse? Who knows. But, it certainly offers some answers to questions that I've had for many years.

 

Thanks for that CDBK

 

I have introduced Gerry many times, including 2 or 3 times this year. I have even been in his home a couple of times as well and was also on a couple of talk shows with him. We disagreed on something on one of the talk shows that got pretty heated. I said that a lot of people when watching the fights on TV will be influenced by the commentators and Gerry strongly disagreed. I said if my good friend Harold Lederman, Larry and Lampley score the bout one way, then you will lean that way too. Gerry stated that the commentators had no influence on how the average fan scored the bout.

As far as F.I.S.T. go, I don't think it's still in operation. On the tape, Gerry said he was 48 years old, so that was approx. 4 years ago. I have been to several of affairs that F.I.S.T. had run over the years.

 

That's too bad if F.I.S.T went under. I could see how it would be a difficult operation to keep afloat though. Organizations like that are sponsored by donations ( usually ), and most contributions to such causes are often driven by sympathy. As sorry as I feel for some of these men, its difficult to capture the empathy of the public for a group of athletes who at one time made far more money than the average Joe will ever make, but managed to lost it all due to their own reckless behavior. I realize it goes deeper than that, but that's what it looks like on the surface. Its very different than that of a foundation that raises funds for say children born with disabilities.

 

I recall hearing the same thing that Cooney said about Don King having all of his fighters locked up under contracts and that it was ridiculous trying to bargain with Don. Cooney's managers Jones and Rapport wouldn't agree to many of Dons stipulations for future fights and purses. They looked after Gerry pretty well and his fight with Holmes was the first time where the challenger split the purse 50-50 with the champ.

 

The reason it went under has to do with a lot more things then that, BUT I really can not get into it, if you know what I mean.

 

Cooney is often shown on Golden Gloves programs in the United States (MSG for any of you interested). As a matter of fact, Cooney was on earlier today talking about his amateur experiences.

 

I thought that was interesting, too.

Not sure if it's an excuse or not.. maybe his promoters were just biding time to make the fight bigger, it's a common trick. But he seemed very honest and doesn't really have any reason to lie about it; he doesn't really make any excuses for his losses, for instance. Well, he said that he'd rather have a few more fights before going in there with Holmes, but that's probably true.




One sidenote, i thought that interviewer was a *****.

 

I didn't care for his demeanor either. Some of these interviewers can come as being so disrespectful sometimes, and one has to wonder if that's really necessary.

 

It was a good interview, how many times does a boxer get an interview on a mainstream type show, unless it's after a fight. Neil Cavuto (the interviewer) is one of Fox networks financial guys, he also has MS or Parkinson's I believe. I didn't take him as coming off like a ***** though.

Not sure when that aired but, but nice to see Cooney in good shape. Regarding his comment on Don King, that was a big thing back then. To get a fight with one of his fighters, you had to get tied in for multiple fights supposedly, so you became an indentured servant so to speak. I don't know if true, but it was claimed allot back in those days.

 

I wonder why Cooney vs Weaver never came off. Wasn't MW promoted by Bob Arum, and NOT Don King? I seem to remember hearing that Cooney was supposed to fight Weaver for the WBA belt, but Hercules sustained an injury that kept him out of the ring for a while. In the meantime, Cooney's people had secured a fight with Holmes for like 4 times the purse size..... But, I don't know if that's the right story.

 

it is true. King wanted options on all challengers in case you beat one of his crap fighters. That way King could literally not lose. It is amazing how in King's 30 plus years in Boxing the only person to really screw him was Dennis Rappaport with that 10 million a piece split for the Holmes/Cooney fight. Rappaport knew he had the draw in Cooney and was able to squeeze every nickel out of King for that fight. Well, maybe Buster Douglas who King did not have options on when he beat Tyson.

 

They tried to make Cooney vs Weaver after Gerry KOed Norton but the WBA said they would strip Weaver if he fought Cooney before their mandatory challenger who I can't remember who it was off the top of my head right now it might have been James Tillis.

Cooney vs Weaver would have been a good fight for Gerry before Holmes to get him more experience it was certainly a winnable fight for Cooney as he was a fast starter and Weaver was a very slow starter.