Could Gerry Cooney’s Comeback Have Been Successful?

Money.

 

Hard to say. I’m wondering if he could have been the backup man to fight Holyfield in November 1991 instead of Burt Cooper because of his name recognition

 

Holy would have hurt him bad.

 

Well naturally yes as did Holmes, Spinks and foreman did.

 

Only if Gerry Cooney could have fought a successful Mac Foster from another thread, Lol.

 

Your timeline’s wrong here. He would have to aim for Tyson,Holyfield or Douglas as the title was unified at that time. His name could have got him a shot without any elimination fight but which one would he beat? Bowe is a couple or three years later.

 

90-91=beats bums
92=blows out Dokes and does nothing else
93=fights Bowe in place of Dokes

 

Good call. 93 Bowe destroys him.

 

Honestly If Cooney beat Foreman and if he was able to get a title shot against Douglas. He has a good shot of winning judging by how Douglas came into the Holyfield fight.

 

Yes it could have. Despite what a lot of people say, the problem wasn't Victor Valle or Rappaport and Jones. They were all good to Gerry, were fair and didn't rip him off. The problem was Cooney himself. Cooney was pushed into boxing by his abusive father, he was like Golota in a way, he had a lot of self doubt, and he started drinking and drugging after the Norton fight. I think deep down Cooney never wanted to be a boxer. The potential was there, and I think he was a good fighter. That left of his was wicked, he could jab, and hook equally well to the head and body. Anyway it's nice to see him doing well, so many 70's and 80's heavyweights are dead right now. I'm glad that him and Larry Holmes are good friends as well.

 

Jones and Rappaport didn't do Gerry any favors by being more concerned about cashing in rather than taking the time to develop Cooney for the big fights and though Cooney loved his trainer, I found Valle to be an underwhelming trainer.

 

Here's the reality .. Cooney had not been an active fighter since 1981 and even then he was being crafted to a super fight opposed to being a real fighter ... he beat a soft Jimmy Young, an ancient Ron Lyle and an old Ken Norton that never defeated a puncher in his career .. .. all as a build up to Holmes , an excellent fighter but nit a huge puncher and Cooney fought the fight of his life hanging in there as long as he did .. By 1990 Cooney was looking for a short cut to immediate big money and thought Foreman , extremely well promoted and crafted himself would be the perfect foil to launch him into a Tyson fight .. Foreman, a brilliant matchmaker Jimmy Young aside, knew he had to fight someone either with a pulse or a name and likely couldn't believe his luck when Cooney was an option .. the same Cooney who had not fought in three years since getting thrashed by little Michael Spinks ... as Tex Cobb said in a dozen roasts since, "everyone wanted to fight the white boy (Cooney) , even him .. Foreman went on to ruin him ...

Cooney would not have succeeded because he long before lost the drive to dedicate himself with consistence plus he was physically fragile plus he was never that good to begin with ...

 

I remember the story of a friend I had-the best friend. His name was Doug. Doug Minchin. He said that he buttered some toast for breakfast at Gerry's home one day. He double-dipped the butter knife into the butter and his toast had been very charcoal-y; Black crumbs had gone from the toast to the knife to the butter. He said he saw Cooney's jaw clench, and the vein in his forehead-the temp-...temporobandibulust...vein. It had become prominent, quite venously. Gerry's jaw clenched, it's true, and it spasmed o'er his face like a cow jumping over so many moons. The muscles knotting up like so many landings. Teeth could be heard in the background and foreground near the facial area. He (Doug Minchin) was oblivious to his actions upon Gerry's butter, and he was humbled as a guest when his host (Gerry) calmly said "A gentleman doesn't double-dip into the butter for toasting, in the event that crumbs be carried on the wings of the Furies, sir." Doug didn't know what that meant. Why, he didn't know what much of anything 'round ole Gerry meant, it seemed. For Gerry could be a philosophical man. And, often enough, those philosophies were completely made up in his head.

Then Gerry started talking what Doug called "Cross talk" which was difficult to describe. Gerry would go somewhere else, eyes rolling backwardforth in his very head, words spewing out and forth from his cavernous oral cavity. "I"m a guy, ya? YOUR anus! Alecto, Tisiphone, Megaera!" And with this utterance of magical gibberish he shot out and forth his pointer finger (the devil's finger) and did so, so powerfully that it crashed forth into Doug (Minchin) in the center of his labrum! Doug went flying back into the foreground of the refrigerator. Agony swept through his body as the handle of the great and terrible cooling machine's lower handle region inebriated and desiccated his very spine and scrotum! "Curse you, Gerry Cooney!" he cried! "Curse you and your human physical strength!" he...frimdicated...before ceasing to remain on his feet and collapsing to the very floor of Gerry's kitchen (not a euphemism). "It is the strength of the Furies, James." Gerry remarked, dully, as if in a trance, and getting Doug's name wrong, for the umpteenth time. "I have frimdicating to do in the study before lunch and you may see yourself out." Gerry quickly murmured to the vast region of space growing between he and his not-quite-friend, Doug Minchin. Anyway, if that doesn't tell you something of what a comeback under these circumstances would've been like, I don't know what would, Farmboxer. Because this incident happened around then.