Gerry Cooney over or under achiever

Cooney simply wasn't developed properly. His management was atrocious for letting him sit for 13 months before the Holmes fight and Valle over trained him for that fight. Simple as that.

 

Thats allot of things he could do.

 

I think the confidence his managers showed made him like they were afraid. He was moved carefully and then Holmes. Jerry had a drug problem and only fought 2 rounds in 2 years both 1st rd KO's and he only fought up to 8 rds ever. I think he was a hard worker and achieved a lot from a southpaw GG winner to a title shot and like John Garfield said he only had the wrecking crane left hook as a major weapon...Cooney was truly a one armed fighter

 

definitely under achiever

when you are 6-5 with a left hook that can pass thru opponents, you do not lose to Micheal Spinks. I personally believe Gerry threw that fight

from the reports that he lost his desire to fight after the Holmes fight, I would be inclined to agree. I've never seen a fighter apologize to his fanz as much as Gerry

 

A good comeback opponent for Gerry back then would probably have been James"Quick"Tillis.If he could've passed that test, maybe his career may have rolled in a different directions.

 

While I agree that Cooney was not the best in the durability department, I have seen you make this claim before about not being able to take it to the temple. Frankly, we really only saw a brief incident where once in his career he got decked by a right to the temple. That was against Holmes who landed a big right as Holmes was lunging in forward, and that brief knockdown may have had just as much to do with Cooney being off balance as it did having a soft spot in that area. In either case, he did not stay down long and didn't appear to be terribly hurt. In any event, he did have durability issues, but I'm not sure that his inability to take a shot to the temple was his main hinderance.

 

It was Larry himself who said Gerry could take it to the chin all night long, but when he was hit on the temple, "He wobbles like a duck." Holmes was a precise enough puncher to be able to clearly discern this. (Stormin' Norm Goins also said Howard Davis, Jr. had the same vulnerability.)

 

Given Cooney's lethal left to the body, I wonder if it may have behooved him to hit holmes in his digestive track, dislodging his Duodenum.

 

Under...

 

Given the assets he had, he should have been able to do more.

 

Just a side note, I was with Gerry Cooney last Saturday night at an Amateur Boxing Show at Donald Trumps Golf Course in Colts Neck, New Jersey. I was the Ring Announcer and I had the honor of introducing him once again. I have done so many many times before.

 

I have always envied your connections and relationships to great fighters, Henry. I think Gerry Cooney and I, are two guys that would have gotten along real well, given our Irish Heritage and similar values on various things.

 

We are all in awe.

 

I think he underachieved because he was fragile.

I don't think it was just a scared management too timid to risk their investment. Gerry had a series of injuries during his career that caused him to pull out of fights.

Am I correct that he was to fight Quick Tillis or Weaver for a title before Holmes, but cancelled due to injury? There were other layoffs as well.