I watched this fight last night and although Chaplin was stopped by Cooney in the second round he fought impressively. Despite giving up 6 inches in height and 9 inches in reach Chaplin was easily slipping Cooneys punches and connecting with his own. Also for a fighter that didn't have a lot of power Chaplin bloodied Cooney's nose and also cut him on the bridge of the nose. Cooney did stun Chaplin badly and did have him hurt, although I think the stoppage was a bit premature. Chaplin was hurt, but didnt get knocked down or cut, he was still in defensive mode the whole time he was taking power punches. If Chaplin was allowed to continue and make it to the bell and reestablish his boxing skills, I think Chaplin had a good chance of retiring Cooney with a loss. I remember Cooney talking about that fight after he was out of boxing and he mentioned he was drinking a lot even while in training and that he was lucky that he stopped Chaplin when he did or it could have been a long night.
Haven't seen the fight myself, but your assessment only confirms that Cooney was basically shot for the Spinks fight.
Christ, I taped "Cooney-Chaplin" off national TV in Dec. of 1984 when I was back home in Los Angeles..... Cooney fought Chaplin in Arizona and Angelo Dundee did the "Guest" commentary for the fight....... The fight meant nothing, but proved a lot......... Cooney was still Cooney in 1984..... All the horse**** talk about Cooney becoming a more complete fighter and using his right paw more so as a lethal weapon was utter hogwash.......... Also, Cooney was talking and acting like a win over George Chaplin would lead to bigger and better things..... Come 1985, Cooney announces his retirement from boxing.... Cooney claims: "The feeling just isn't there anymore." By 1986, Cooney says he wants to fight again and he smokes out New York heavyweight--Eddie Gregg in ONE round....... That win led to a fight in 1987 with Michael Spinks........... BUT! Back in 1984 out in Arizona, Cooney and Chaplin had a slow opening round... Come round 2, Cooney froze Chaplin with a left-hook.... Cooney than went left-hook crazy and forced the TKO with Chaplin totally frozen, but standing along the ropes....... Cooney wins.......... No biggie........ Fights / opponents like a 35 year old George Chaplin in '84 later proved not suitable in getting Cooney ready for big and better things........ That also applies to Eddie Gregg as well........... These type of KO's that followed his loss to Larry Holmes in '82 were merely confidence builders; not serious progressive type bouts......... Off topic...... But I thought Phil Brown fought like a scared ***** against Cooney in 1984 out in Alaska........ Brown had no fire or desire to even try to win........ I hate seeing that............ Cheers..... MR.BILL
He was an ex-sparring partner if memory serves correct. As for Chaplin, he was at the end of the downside of his career and nobody gave him much of a chance in that Cooney bout. What it showed though was Cooney was going to have a tough tough time dealing with the division's elite. He had those warts. Insert a Thomas or Witherspoon or Page or Tubbs or Coetzee. Actually, not the premier guys but 6-10 guys; Snipes. Bruno. Bey. Smith. I don't think Gerry beats many of those guys at the time. And that's exactly why he was facing the Chaplin types at that stage of the game. He was pretty much walking a tightrope and it just felt like the guy was going to fall off soon.
I have this fight on DVD along with all the other post Holmes fights mentioned. Cooney just could not get it together after Holmes. I would have loved to see him fight Page, Dokes, Snipes, etc. or any of the other contenders but I think Cooney's management knew if they put him in there with those guys and things did not go his way he would fall apart. Cooney was such a waste he was never properly developed. I don't think he would have beat Holmes but he could have won one of the other trinket belts if he had his head on straight.
I'm not even sure if Chaplin boxed again after his KO loss to Cooney in '84....... Hmmmm.. MR.BILL Note: I'm also too lazy to look up Chaplin's record on Boxrec as well.........
Mr. Bill I was reading some old newspaper articles online and stumbled across one about the Cooney/Chaplin fight. Cooney was paid 400k for fighting this guy. For a fight of that caliber that is a lot of money especially for 1984. There are fighters now that don't make that much. It is unreal even post Holmes the amount of money Cooney could generate for fighting nobodies.
I agree........... I never saw Cooney's KO over Gregg in '86, but it was on national TV.... I bet Cooney made bucks there as well.......... ONE round KO....... :admin Cooney made 2.5 million against Spinks in '87 and a cool million bucks against Foreman in 1990......... **** me off...... :twisted: MR.BILL
