Did gerry Cooney's management make a mistake?

Another often forgotten thing about Cooney:

when he first turned Pro he wanted Cus D'Amato as his trainer, Cus agreed but wanted to be both trainer and manager. Jones & Rappaport did not agree with this as that would have cut them out of the picture so Cus recommended Victor Valle for Cooney and that is who he went with.

Wonder how things would have gone under D'Amato?

 

He wasn't going to get along with those guys & they would've stayed in the picture as promoters or taken a nice % of Cooney. Jones & Rappaport were like Butch Lewis--they open doors for you and at the same time close a lot of doors.

I'm not sold on that D'Amato style and it would've been interesting to see if they'd have tried the peekaboo with Cooney or tried something more conventional.

 

Holms was considered the Champ...so it was sill back when there should have been only one champ, so one went after the Champ...had Cooney not retired then, he could have gone after Weaver and a Rematch...

 

Holmes was the more complete fighter of the division, not the puncher than Weaver was and I think Cooneys people felt that Cooney could stop Holmes. I think it was a mistake because Larry was a mover and had tested 12-15 rd stamina, Weaver fought at a slower pace but did not move. I think Gerry would have had a better chance to land his lethal hook on Weaver. Larry had a problem with the Right over the jab, Cooney had no right hand. Cooney may have went out quicker vs Weaver but he would have been able to make Weaver feel his power early in the fight, Weaver was a slower fighter and stationary.

 

My thoughts exactly. I didn't know that he got 10 million for Holmes. That's awesome. Pretty sad looking back on this compared to todays heavyweight title purses. Dudes today don't make squat.

 

I think that Victor Valle was the right fit for Cooney. D'Amato's style wouldn't have been good for a man like Cooney imo. Too tall. Perfect for a shorter fighter like Tyson.

 

I see no way Cooney could have done the peekabo style it would have been interesting to see what Cus would have done with him.

 

And the last time I saw Cooney, he looked pretty pimped out. Nice clothes, some bling, etc.

 

You make a lot of good points, Cooney probably could have knocked out Weaver. But he never would have gotten 10 million for fighting Weaver like he did for Larry Holmes. And Weaver was a kill or be killed fighter. He was knocked out alot, but he had dangerous power and could end a fight in one punch.For Cooney it was a lot of risk for alot less reward if he fought Weaver.Cooney actually was going to fight Weaver before the Holmes deal was made, but the WBA was threatening to strip Weaver if he didn't defend against James Quick Tillis, their #1 contender, who Weaver would decision but for a lot less money. Weaver got a raw deal in that he got ****ed out of a very big payday by not getting to fight Cooney. For Cooney, fighting Holmes instead, although much tougher an opponent, was a financial windfall.

 

I just read an interview of Kevin Rooney and he said that he has it from an inside source that Larry Holmes did not make his projected 10 million because Don King and his son charged like 8.5 million for expenses, and he had to pay trainers fees as well. Is this true? Has anybody heard about this? Here is the link:

http://fighthype.com/pages/content3399.html

 

Gerry Cooney's rise to stardom pre Holmes was all about the marketability and Big Ca$H. His handlers/management did the correct thing if the end result was all about money. If it was for developing a fighter, they srewed up big time.

 

Okay---he got big bucks for the Holmes and later the Spinks fight. But imagine how much $$$ the guy gets for fights if say he beats Weaver. And lets face it--if he beat Mike, it'd probably be another devastating ko result. Then a few title defense softies with beatable guys like Ledoux. Or a ruined John Tate. Or a Leon Spinks.

There was plenty of beatable cannon fodder around at the time that was not signed to Don King. They could've been like Holmes and faced a Rodriguez & an inexperienced guy like a Bey even. Now all of a sudden the guy has 5 or 6 title defenses. Plus, Larry is steadily going down the ladder and by 1985, Cooney has a better chance of winning and maybe it's a $25 million fight & not $10, since it'd be a WBA/IBF unification.

So there were other paths that Cooney management team could've taken. But they didn't. They could've parlayed that career into $40-$60 million, not $15. Plus, 86 rolls around and you could've fed Cooney for big $$ to the upcoming Tyson for a huge payday.

 

The Wako Twins wanted to keep him undefeated rather get him a fight vs a durable Tex Cobb to give him 10 round confidence and work....It was all money with them...where they wrong for a fight fans perspective yes, for a businessmans point NO

 

...........Again, all this looks just spiffy on paper 26 years down the road. Boxing history is only static and as objective as you'e making it when you're looking in the rear-view mirror. It's a lot more fluid and fraught with risk when you're the one presented with the big-money contract to sign.

From a business angle (which of course is why they were there in the first place) Jones and Rappaport did the job. Any sensible person would have signed to fight Holmes precisely when they did.

 

This isn't hindsight. This is the path they chose with the guy at the time. Foresight is what the manager has. Or is supposed to have with the capability to oversee the landscape for the near future for their guy.The Cooney management team had other paths they could've taken and selected not to. But to think they only possible way to make big $$$ with the guy was the Holmes fight is incorrect. If cooney was WBA champ do you think any title challenger is going to receive any sort of equitable payday?

I disagreed strongly at the time and still do with the management of Cooney. You even had Harold Smith throwing big $$ around for awhile and Cooney could've got in on that while it lasted.