In late 1984 Gerry Cooney made sort of a comeback by scoring back to back stoppage wins over George Chaplin and Phillip Brown, earning him the #10 spot in ring’s 1984 ratings. Around the same time, David Bey upset the highly ranked Greg Page to gain a spot in the ratings as well which catapulted him into a title fight with Larry Holmes. Suppose Bey never got that offer while Cooney’s people decided to take a chance and get their man a win over a ranked guy? How would this have played out ?
Likely would be a tough fight for both men, but I think that Bey's wins at the time look a bit more impressive than Cooney's. If Bey takes him deep then Cooney gets knocked out.
Bey was a little rushed to fight Holmes and never really got back on track. Cooney had huge issues outside the ring and was never the same as he was pre Holmes. If in doubt I'd always take the guy on the way up. I'd take Bey , RSF rounds 4-6
Hard to guage Cooney because those 2 wins of his were against former sparring partners. You have to look closely at his management team's choices. So I gave him a pass for beating 1 former sparring partner to get him on his winning ways. But not 2. Lots of other guys around at the time to fight instead. Was never sold whatsoever on Bey. He was stationary enough that Gerry might blitz him out of there. And Bey's best punch was a left hook and it was not in the league of Cooney's. And Gerry had a devastating left uppercut as well and I think that punch wins the bout. But one of those bouts that would have proved little. The winner was going to exploit the other guys flaws is all and not really worry other better contenders.
I'd have to favor Cooney. The only remotely decent win Bey ever had was over Page who simply didn't try hard enough. That said it's better than any Cooney win with the exception of Young probably. I like Cooney in this one, by a fair bit.
Hey John---how would the job have been for a trainer to prepare Page for that bout? Greg would watch tapes of that guy & there is no way he is preparing 100%. Maybe 25%. So there was always going to be Page with his B game or C game for the bout & that's what we got. And Bey still could not look all that good against a C game Greg Page. Yikes.
Well we certainly did not see the version that showed up for Coetzee, did we? That ability to watch opponent's fights can be a huge advantage when used properly. Holmes and Foreman and Ali and others were great at it. But some other guys like Page have so much belief in themselves they do not bother to get anywhere remotely close to top condition. So for some guys it is a huge plus. For other guys--a big subtraction. Very interesting.
After the Holmes fight Cooney still owed CBS one fight. In the book The Black Lights it is detailed the negotiations Rappaport and Jones had for the opponent. CBS wanted John Tate in a 'crossroads' fight. Cooney was set to make 1 million and Tate 600,000. Cooney wouldn't accept it because he was still sitting on bar stools at his Huntington LI bar he and his brother owned drinking his problems away and claimed he wasn't ready to return. After that CBS gave a list of like five top 10 contenders all of which Jones and Rappaport rejected. Several of which I thought Cooney would easily handle some would be a toss up. Bey was on that list. Jones and Rappaport submitted a list of 3 opponents they thought were suitable all of them were soft touches like Scott Frank, David Jaco and one other I can't remember which CBS of course rejected. Moral of the story - Cooney was reluctant to fight because he was deep into alcohol, cocaine and depression. Jones and Rappaport were not letting him fight anyone better than John Tate who was done/finished at the time and Cooney likely would have savagely KOed him. Cooney was horribly managed and it wouldn't have mattered anyway as Cooney also wasn't interested in fighting. I read Gerry's book and he admits his career was essentially over after the Norton fight. Alcohol and drugs took over and he was never the same fighter after the loss to Holmes as depression set in with the alcohol and drugs. Gerry is a good guy and had a ton of potential that was never realized by his own doing and his managements doing.
Would've been a good fight. David Bey was a top US amateur. He was on the USA travel team in 1979 and 1980, fighting on all those USA vs. (pick a country) that ABC used to show on Saturdays. He was a fat guy as an amateur (270s-280s), known more as a banger. (More of a Big Baby Miller guy.) That's him in the afro near the end the clip below. This content is protected When he turned pro, he started dropping a ton of weight. But he could still bang. In his first 14 fights, he knocked out Buster Douglas in two, George Chaplin in four (first guy to stop Chaplin) and then outpointed the #1 contender Greg Page. The WBA (which included IBF champ Larry Holmes in their rankings at the tail end of 1984, had Bey the #3 heavyweight contender in the world behind Holmes and Weaver). He likely would've been the favorite over Cooney if they fought in 1985, given Cooney's lack of activity. Both Bey and Cooney totally fell off the cliff after losing to Holmes. But this scenario is Bey wouldn't have fought Holmes yet so wouldn't have gone off that cliff. He'd still be streaking. Between the two, normally, I'd lean toward Cooney. Cooney only lost to Hall of Famers. Bey didn't move his head much. Seems like Cooney wouldn't have a problem landing the left. Psychologically, though, Cooney may not have been up for it ... given, in real life, they turned down Bey as an opponent. (As noted above.) Toss-up really.
