Francesco Damiani vs. Gerry Cooney

ok Charles I am going to give it a try if nobody else will. I am going to say Cooney would land one his famous left hooks and stop him. Damiani could box pretty well and was well on his way to outpointing Ray Mercer when Mercer landed one big punch and broke Damiani's nose, ending the fight. My gut here is if Gerry could hold his own against a prime Larry Holmes for 13 rounds, then he could handle all Damiani had to offer.

 

Damiani is underrated to some degree, in my opinion.

Completely whomped Stevenson's ass as an amateur. Almost stopped him.

 

This matchup surfaced on here about 1 year ago, and my response was much like yours. Although Damiani had well polished skills, he did not have the physical tools to beat elite contenders at the world level. Decent fringe guy though

 

This was the type of bouts Cooney needed--a guy you have to solve or breakdown that didn't hit all that hard & get 6 or 8 rounds in. Cooney cathces the guy eventually, but would have to work to get the win.

 

Absolutely the type of opponent Cooney needed as a tune up before he took on Larry Holmes.

 

Exactly.

In fact, he needed at least a few fights like this in his career in order to ever have a chance at becoming a real world class fighter. As it is, he basically jumped from Point A to Point C - glass-chinned and/or helpless stationary targets, straight to a megafight vs. a long-reigning veteran champion.

 

Damiani beat the **** out of Biggs, even before the cuts surfaced:

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In fact, Damiani was impressive enough in this fight that people were actually talking about a possible Tyson matchup afterward.

Damiani was a genuinely good-looking fighter at one time. The caveat for him here is that he ultimately caved and crumbled against probably the only two good quality punchers he fought (unless you count Johnny DuPlooy, I suppose). That certainly doesn't bode well for him against Cooney, to say the least.

I've always believed Cooney's power was very overrated/overhyped, but it's probably still at least enough to shatter Damiani's glass nose.

 

The other interesting thing w/ Damiani is he was the guy pencilled in to fight Evander and pulled out. I think for good reason. but we got the Bert Cooper fight instead and that's a real good & much more competitive than the Damiani bout would've been.

 

Damiani was a good boxer, but owned a fragil beak of a nose.... As long as Damiani boxes from long range against Cooney, Damiani does well on points... However, Cooney can deliver the wallop if he gets close enough.....
:deal
I like Damiani of 1990 a whole lot better than a 1982 Cooney in a 10 rounder...
:bbb

SR.BILL:hat

 

I see Damiani winning a few, I don't see him getting blastered out fast like the older guys he kod... But I do see Cooney eventually nailing him. Would be a good learning fight for Cooney definitely.

 

I still say Cooney would win this but it would have been a good victory. Damiani was decent