COONEY IN PLACE OF FIRPO?

I would pick Gerry over a few champs... even guys like Coetzee and Dokes.

 

There are a lot of champions that Cooney could beat. Cooney was a big puncher with a good amateur background. If you've only seen him fight Spinks and Foreman, that wasn't the best Cooney. The Cooney who fought Norton, Lyle, and Holmes would be a dangerous opponent for anybody.

 

heck yeah he was! it took me a long long time to come to the realization that Cooney was not the cowardly awkward, bad balanced bum I thought he was when he had a career. After reading on these very pages how he would KO Dempsey, Louis, Liston Ali, Jeffries, Frazier and many inferior heavyweights, I finally realized that like fine wine and cheese, The Long Island Mauler, The Caucasion Bomber and New York Blockbuster Gerry Cooney gets better with age and as the years go by. Sure, when I saw him in his prime he never would even fight an old Shavers or Bugner, much less a Page or Berbick or Coetzea, but the Cooney of history now is the crusher of heavyweight history. Sure, his greatest KO may have been over the mighty Dino Dennis, but that pretty much tells you that any other heavyweight in history is doomed once the ferocious Cooney lays his sights on them. Man plans God laughs and Cooney decimates the landscape in heavyweight history. Dempsey, maybe at his best wins a decision, a decision. After he gets the experience against these greats then the "Cooney of the Holmes fight" goes against the Holmes of the Holmes fight and this time KOs him in 36 seconds. Because he proved his big power against these top 10 contenders when he was fighting( ................... ). Yessiree, the beast would be unleashed when Cooney fights the greats.

 

Cooney was a very carefully managed fighter. They avoided live opponents in order to not derail the money train to a championship bout with Holmes.

 

Dempsey wins by KO.

Firpo probably beats Cooney too.

 

Who should he have fought in 80 or 81 that he avoided?

 

Exactly.

For years, people have said Cooney was protected, unlike the other young guys like Page and Dokes. But in 1980/81, Page was barely getting past the likes of George Chaplin (who Cooney destroyed) and Dokes was fighting to a draw with Ocasio and squeaking by people like Tex Cobb, after Cobb lost to Norton (who Cooney also destroyed).

Cooney was fighting the same level of guys Page and Dokes were fighting in 1980/81. Cooney was just destroying his opponents while Page and Dokes were struggling with similar comp.

I'd have taken Cooney over Dokes and Page at any stage of their careers, frankly.

 

As for the topic, Cooney had better technique than Firpo, and Cooney could get up from knockdowns (like Firpo), but if Dempsey came out like a buzzsaw, as he did against Firpo, I don't see Cooney holding him off.

 

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Dempsey was too athletic and gave too many angles for Gerry. Faster too. Dempsey by Ko.

 

This is why we can't have nice things.

Firpo wouldn't beat Axel Schultz or Lionel Butler. Firpo wouldn't beat Mark Hunt. Firpo probably wouldn't beat Butterbean.

But don't let me stop the hilarity from continuing. Please keep telling me how this manmountain would rule the roost in any era.

 

Yet he didn't consistently give these angles to the hapless Firpo and that's why he got his ass knocked out of the ring. The question is not how he would do at his best but as he fought Firpo.

 

The only person Firpo beat was Willard, and that aint saying much.

 

Good point I strayed from original question.
The Dempsey of the Firpo fight still wins Imo. Two fast and Gerry was a hooker I don't think that style would stop what Dempsey was doing in the ring that night.