Gerry Cooney over or under achiever

Underachieved. He didn't do **** with his talent.

 

Agreed. He had potential, but his career best achievements were victories over washed-up opponents who were brought in to get beat.

 

Under. Poor management, and indecision and emotional issues on Gerry's part held him back, big-time. In those days he was considered physically huge, but he just couldn't stay active enough to take advantage of his talents and natural edges.

 

Underachiever... Cooney should've been a beltholder.

 

He should have atleast won a world title,gave a prime Holmes a decent fight,huge puncher..

 

i think he hit the spot actually. he became a genuine top contender with quickfire destructions of the old guard and put up a valiant effort against larry.

I think his showings after Larry were poor and a man of his power should have troubled spinks a lot more, especially that version of spinks.

maybe he was overpaid during his contender days and didn't need to take the sport seriously after the holmes fight, I dunno. but considering the era he fought in, I wouldn't have said he should have been a champ ahead of holmes, spinks or tyson. I'd expect spinks to soundly outpoint him bu history shows he got battered.

 

Totaly underacheived through no real fault of his own. Trouble with cooney was he became too famous too soon. Once he made a splash he was already a milion dollar fighter. He needed a lot more fights but there was too much money riding on him to chance blowing his price tag and the opponents who could have brought him on wanted too much cash to fight him. Gerry would have been better off losing the norton fight because he could have re-built away from the spot light.

 

For a guy with only a wrecking-ball left hook, Cooney achieved a lot.

 

The prototypical underachiever if there is ever one. Cooney was always divided mentally about being a fighter due to the upbringing and was extremely fragile emotionally. With his brutal power, killer instinct and at least middle of the road boxing ability, he should have never ended up a punchline in comedy skits. I always wondered what would have happened if he had come out against Holmes looking for blood at the opening bell.

 

Cooney needed the "other" title first, then gone after Holmes.

Being a "Champ" usually means 10-15% improvement....and adding that additional amount might have been enough to have beaten Holmes.

 

Underachiever, with that power he could've beaten Weaver, at least.Though with his lack of experience fighting a contemporary opponent, Weaver possibly could have ended his career also.

 

Under, a few reasons


A. He was rushed into a title shot without having faced enough quality of opposition, to gather his $10 000 000 with no possible deterrents.

B. The guy never learnt a lot of the basics, let alone the advanced skills. This was evident vs Holmes.

C. The result of having been rushed in and pushed to win by so many of his home countrymen and fans was depression and basically giving up on any future serious efforts in boxing.

D. As per C the perhaps the biggest negatives from the Holmes loss were the feeling of letting so many poeple down and the loss of confidence and desire.

Cooney went a decent way on just a massive left hook and flawed basics as well as limited experience. If he maintained the rage post Holmes he could have really done something with his career.

 

I agree.

Overall, Cooney was respectable. He had the devastating left hook, which he threw skillfully to the head and body. He could use his left as an uppercut or a hook, and he threw the shot in bunches. He also had a nice jab, and pretty fair combination punching ability from the stand-up position. But Cooney couldn't do much more than this.

The downside is that Cooney's defense was porous, and he didn't take a good punch. He was also somewhat slow and awkward. He never proved his ability to fight ten or twelve tough rounds against a contender. He never showed that he could fight back under pressure. Cooney was a front runner who fell apart anytime someone stole the play from him.

I credit Cooney as being a legitimate contender because he could beat most guys on power alone. But I don't think Cooney could have accomplished much more at the top than he actually did.

 

Inability to take it to the temple would have always hindered him, but not being able to clinch in a crisis certainly didn't help.

Some prominent athletes just don't have the mentality to recover from setbacks. Nancy Kerrigan gets whacked on the knee by a thug, and goes on to nearly win Olympic Gold, while Monica Seles gets knifed in the back by a lunatic and awards her attacker by letting it destroy her tennis career, just as he intended. Cooney's loss to Holmes revealed more of the Seles mentality. If you want a boxing analogy, think of Foreman after Kinshasa and Young. In 1971, Ali (one of the mentally toughest and most resilient athletes ever) took on Ellis (less than five months after losing Frazier I), Mathis and Blin following the FOTC in 1971, and got right back in the ring with Norton less than six months after having his jaw severely fractured. Gerry should have been back in the ring competing before 1982 was over (a comeback Cooney-Young II would have been perfect for).

Victor Valle actually helped Gerry develop a pretty serviceable right which was inexplicably missing against Holmes. Cooney dug it to the body well, initially stunned Norton with it, later decked Philipp Brown with it, and tore open Young's face with a long right (much like Frazier ripped Jerry Quarry's face with a similar right in their rematch). Gerry needed to get immediately back on the horse after Holmes, needed to continue cultivating that right, and needed to work much more on the execution of his jab so he wasn't so dependent on his hook.

Prior to Holmes, ten round rematches with Eddie Lopez and Young in 1981 would have served him extremely well. He admitted after Holmes that self doubts about his stamina hindered his performance, self doubts which may not have plagued him if he'd had a couple ten round decisions under his belt.

No, I don't think he dethrones Weaver if the more skilled and experienced Coetzee couldn't do it. But I'm absolutely convinced he could have gotten a second lucrative shot at Holmes if he'd gotten back on the horse in short order and taken some competitive risks. He had seven fights in 1979, then two in 1980, only Norton in 1981, then he's shelved for two and a half years after Holmes. When it mattered most, inactivity did him no favors.