Cooney was looking for shortcuts to the money .. he took the Foreman fight because he thought George was easy pickings and over rated himself .. he was not up to making the dedicated effort needed to have a shot ..
of course its possible, after all Bentt managed it but i dont see it. Cooney may have got lucky 1-2 times outta 10 but if i had to put money on it it would be on Tommy. Younger, faster, at that point more explosive too. And the first legitimate world class puncher that Cooney has faced on the list of opponents i picked for him. Great thread this
CANNONBALL, thank you sir! Wow, 2 million to jump off the couch for one fight, that’s a great payday! I don’t blame Cooney for taking the fight haha.
First define successful. The best that he could hope for, was a big pay day in a losing effort. Don't forget that poor old George Foreman was meant to be the safe option for him. Perhaps he did the right thing, by just taking the big money fight, while it was on the table. Could he have done better by knocking over a bunch of tomato cans, and creating a media circus? Very hard to say.
I'm pretty sure Cooney regretted taking the fight. I recall him saying somewhere that he felt like he nearly died from that KO.
i was in Fuengirola on holiday when i first heard this fight was happening - i was 15 at the time. Surprisingly, more than a few people actually thought Cooney had a chance v Foreman, whose comeback had been derided by the majority of the boxing press at the time even tho GF had scored a decent win against Bert Cooper a couple of fights previously. Cooper, at that time was still a credible opponent and had some good wins/performances left in him but was totally outgunned and outsized. I didnt think Cooney had much of a shot of beating Foreman, who entered the fight looking much more serious than he had during any of his previous comeback fights. The fact GF beat Cooney didnt really surprise me but the way he did it - great accuracy and power for a truly chilling highlight reel KO
I'd given up on Cooney long before that but yes, very chilling walking left hook. Incredibly, he nearly landed flush with that on Holy, but the latter, though really stunned, stayed up!
I guess I mean, could he motivate himself enough to work his way through the ranks and beat some legitimate guys along the way, ultimately culminating in a shot at the title? If so, which guys could he beat along the way and how, and how would he do if he were to get a title shot? If he beats some legitimate guys at that age and after coming back from the addiction issues and the long layoff, eventually earning a shot at the title, win or lose, I would consider that a successful comeback.
