Gerry Cooney - an analysis

That's right. I said MOST people. Do you consider one of the hardest punchers of all time as passing for most people?

I did not see the fight, but boxrec has it listed as a first round KO.

Fair enough, but they were still better than MCline and Guinn.

Agreed.

 

I think most of what you say is true, but I think Cooneys had a frail body, his legs wobbled and were shakey, I dont know if it was his chin,Cooney was too nice of a guy for this business, dont get me wrong,he had a great left hook and could hurt you but most of his right hands were awkward slaps, I watched Gerry as a middleweight, (he went 5=0 all KO's) N,Y, Middleweight golden gloves)I believe he was a southpaw and they switched him but he had trouble as a lightheavyweight(frail legs) and he got stopped for the N.Y. Golden Gloves by Eddie Davis. I think Cooney could have been a better fighter if he fought more before his title shot and gotten some rounds in(to gain confidence). He had great power in the hook but had some major weaknesses and he and his brothers struggled with substance abuse

 

McCline KO1 Grant was a legitimate KO.

Grant's busted ankle was the result of McCline knocking him down with a solid punch, a KO punch. Grant didn't twist it, McCline did that to him.

 

Hey, that's the guy Dokes knocked out in well under a round when he was considered a featherfisted puncher. I didn't realise he beat Lyle actually.

 

That's rubbish. Cooney never ever beat a fighter as good as Weaver at this time (Young and Norton were mere shells, tho Young a little less), the man beat Coetzee and Tate who both did a lot more in boxing than Cooney ever did. Weaver and his power have every chance of putting Cooney to sleep, and he was probably a better boxer to boot. Weaver is definitely a better fighter than Cooney. Cooney had the potential but he sure never got there.

 

Weaver was the harder puncher of the Champs but he was there to be hit, Cooney may or may not have had a better chance but he would have landed his left hook on Mike, that may have been the better route but after watching Foreman/Cooney Spinks/Cooney who knows

 

The man said, and i quote

This statement is rubbish as i said. Utter speculation concerning a man that never beat as dangerous a fighter as Weaver, and in turn Weaver had beaten and would beat fighters i would consider better than Cooney. Weaver gave Holmes hell, Cooney gave him a 13 round spar and sore balls.

 

And as long as you've brought that up, let's also point out that Hercules starched a once beaten Carl Williams in two, dropped Quick Tillis from the unbeaten ranks, gave Dokes 15 rounds of hell in their rematch, and produced too many other good performances against opposition far better than any which Cooney ever defeated. Comparing Cooney to Hercules is an absurd analogy.

Mike got the better of Bert Cooper, once beaten Bernado Mercado, the resourceful Stan Ward twice, shut out Scott LeDoux over twelve rounds in LeDoux's Minnesota, took Donovan Ruddock the 12 round distance, and came off the deck to take Bonecrusher Smith a full 12 rounds in their rematch. Cooney would not have blown out a well prepared Weaver in one round.

 

I agree that Cooney was better, he´s legacy-wise better and probably head-to-head, but I meant that a comparisoon between him and Grant isn´t that bad...

 

Good stuff!!

 

Cooney was a ridiculous hype job.
I have to give Jones and Rappaport credit for masterful marketing and entrepreneurship.

 

Spot on post. Weaver would certainly not be a walk in the park for Cooney nor any other early 80's HW. I'd argue infact that at his best he was perhaps a better fighter than Cooney, certainly better than Grant. :good

 

Thanks. As much as I enjoy our disagreements, it's always a pleasure to share the same side as well.

 

Remember the special "Valle Bag" which his trainer devised to help develop the muscles in his atrophic right arm? Ringside observers for his match with Holmes reported that Larry was muscling Gerry around in the clinches. It's been widely alleged that Cooney's physical strength was anemic, not at all representative of his size. Gerry might be fortunate that his blowout at Foreman's hands was only a boxing contest. If that was a wrestling bout, or in MMA, George might have broken him in half. Granted, the most skilled boxers are able to neutralize superior grappling strength in more physically powerful boxers, but Cooney didn't have a style conducive to that.

I've had my reservations about muscle isolation resistance training for boxers, but in the case of somebody like Cooney who's slow anyway, it might have been highly beneficial for him to undertake such a regimen, so he'd have the muscular strength to support his size and punch.

 

Ditto mate, ditto.