Cooney thought he had a shortcut to huge money , that Foreman was stylistically a great match up for him and made the fight .. huge mistake .. Foreman had been very active rebuilding himself against useful suspects as he got reasonably sharp and conditioned .. George may have had twenty fights under his belt from second career .. Cooney hadn't fought in over two years and had been inactive for half a decade .. Foreman absolutely brutally crushed him, the most vicious KO of Foreman's second career ..
Yeah what He Grant said. It’s well known George had 19 bouts under his belt by time he set up the fight with Cooney. Cooney had something like 7 total rounds of boxing in the last 5 years leading up to the fight. A one round win and the loss to spinks. Cooney’s heart it could be argued was never really in the sport although I believe he gave a great effort in the Holmes fight and was a real threat top fighter in the late 70s early 80s. However after that - he clearly was showing up angling for paydays. He wanted a short cut to that Tyson money. First spinks then Foreman both times he got burned. You can’t face a puncher like Foreman with no real fights in 5 years. Your body isn’t built for the shock absorption coming in cold like that. Anyway he had a good first round and then fell apart in the second round to the far more prepared fighter. Cooney was a good fighter whose peak was mishandled because he was also a red hot commodity. A white heavyweight that could produce sensational knockouts. The business side controlled the development side out of fear of losing and risking big payday. Today it’s not about color but same rules apply Wilder was handled in much the same way because quite simply America is not producing many top tier heavyweights. So Wilder got fed even worse boxers than Cooney and here he is at age 36 with a paper thin resume after 40 plus fights.
While searching for something else i just found a bit on Spinks - Cooney. I never knew Larry popped up and had a crack with Frazier's band! Apparently Frazier went alright. Larry Holmes, the only common opponent, is predicting a sixth-round knockout by Cooney. "(Cooney's) right is about the same as mine," Holmes said. "But his left hook is 10 times better than mine." Holmes stopped Cooney in the 13th round of their 1982 fight and lost 15- round decisions to Spinks in 1985 and '86. "He don't like me," Spinks said of Holmes' prediction. "He is a bad sport and talks like a child. He said he hates me. For what? I beat him fair and square both times. He should grow up." -- Inside the ring, Holmes may have been more of a stylist than Joe Frazier. But on stage, Frazier proved to be the song stylist Saturday night at the Sands. Featured for one night only at the hotel's Copa Room, the former heavyweight champions each took the stage for one set. Frazier proved capable of carrying a tune. Holmes, who mumbled his way through a few rap songs, fell behind on points almost as soon as he opened his mouth.