This fight happened in May of 1986. Gerry was now 29 years of age and this was the first appearance he had made in 17 months and only the third in five years. Before the fight he was interviewed and told by a reporter that a lot of people felt that his campaign towards another title shot was weak and that he simply hadn't done much in recent times to warrant another shot. Eddie Gregg was rated #3 by the WBA but in the eyes of most honest experts and fans he was in the fringe category.. Gregg was 32 years of age and had a fine record of 24-1-1-18. He had recently beaten an aged Tex Cobb and a 15-0 prospect along with some of the usual suspect journeyman in Walter Santemore, Danny Sutton, Marvin Stinson and Mike Perkins. Overall his record was a sound one and worthy of fringe status. At 6'5", 222 lbs he was of above average size for a heavyweight of the day and seemingly in decent shape. Gerry got to work early and scored a first round stoppage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quJMLgWpE40
That fight had folks buying into ****ey again. Funny how that works with the hitters when they get the quickie ko. It's not the break an opponent down and create openings that gets the casual fans back on the bandwagon, it's the blowouts. But nobody was buying into Eddie Gregg either. The fact he was selcted by the ****ey management--out of lots of other beatable heavies--speaks volumes. But all it takes for the heavyweight punchers to secure another $$ fight is pretty much 1 big kayo. And ****ey got that result in this fight and did look good. But it was not an A+ result against an A fighter. And with Tyson on the block at that time, it was clear there was a new sheriff in town 7 he would have to deal with that kind of thing if he could get back in contender status. Just think of the big Payday Gerry gets f he wins that Spinks bout. He'd have no chance of course, but it would have been a huge fight Don King would have put together for record purses.
I agree. But it was a nice performance for a guy who hadn't fought in 17 months and only twice in 4 years. Gregg's #3 WBA rating was farcical.. No way should he have been rated that high. but anywhere from about #9-#13 would have been reasonable and beating someone like that with such ease certainly shows that there was some ability left. Thing is like in the case of so many of his other good performances C00ney didn't follow up.. He took another 13 months off and declined into atrocious shape before fighting Spinks. It was a wasted opportunity and wasted opportunities are what basically defined C00ney's career.
Yep. And then he fights a guy that wins. What a big big step up. He fights beatable guys and then steps up to the plate against a guy with a history of winning title bouts. What a pendulum swing. That's why I always like the Angie Dundee type trainers--they'd put their guy in with different styles and styles they would have to solve. And would not let them remain inactive. But anytime you find a mismanaged guy, you'll likely find an underachiever. But like I said earlier, he was on borrowed time once Tyson arrived. He was another guy walking the plank.
Of course. There wasn't anybody around in the 80's that I think could have beaten Mike Tyson. Hindsight tells us that Holyfield and MAYBE Douglas might have done it around 88-89, but I'm not even sure that they were ready to beat that version of Mike. A properly managed and trained C00ney might have beaten Spinks or at least grabbed an alphabet strap but it just wasn't in the cards for him. On that note his management did a good job of protecting him as well as making him a millionaire at the same time, so they didn't fail too badly as handlers.
I think it would be fair to say Gregg was a little past his sell by date come this fight. However, C00ney looked quite impressive, pressing forward with his vaunted left hook. He got the job done, which is what counts. Its always a bit frustrating watching Gerry as I think if he had had better management from day one, it would have resulted in a more complete fighter, capable of winning a belt. Looking at his layoff periods, it seems comebacks were made when finances were starting to run low.
In hindsight, you're totally right. But in the 80's I was a C00ney fan and was mighty impressed by his one-round blowout of Gregg. I'd seen Gregg on cable and thought he was a decent fighter. C00ney taking him out so quickly made me think he would steamroll Michael Spinks. Oh how wrong I was.
