Gerry Cooney vs James " Bonecrusher" Smith

He likely will. He took all Bruno had to offer.

 

Bonecrusher is very dangerous but he is easy to hit. The Cooney that massacred a still decent Jimmy Young would be a real handful for Smith.

I think Gerry´s decent jab and brilliant body attack would stop a bloody and exhausted Bonecrusher in about 8.

 

If Cooney is able to throw those slashing uppercuts of his consistently, he could MAYBE get a cut stoppage. We would have to keep in mind that he'd have to do it for a while, though- Holmes needed 12 to do it to Smith.

 

I like Smith here. Sure cannot think of too many matches I pick him in.

Do not like the Cooney defense whatsoever in this match. He leans in. Zero head movement. The only time he moves his head is when it gets hit. Downright comical watching that defense against Mike Spinks and especially the last round---didn't Spinks land like 70 punches that round?

I think Smith fires off a hard right hand and if it catches him on the jaw, its over. But Smith was hardly accurate so I think it lands on the temple. But that punch will hurt Cooney badly. Smith can throw it like he is hitting the heavy bag because Cooney is right there for it. He'll get giraffe legs and Smith will throw 20 hard punches and land 4 but that will be enough to get the ref to wave it off. TKO3.

Would have been a nice underdog bet to take back then. I wanted to see the bout. But there were lots of bouts I wanted to see Gerry in we never got. For example---take his act on the road and fight Coetzee in South Africa with 80,000 people cheering for the other guy. Page. Witherspoon. Bruno. Thomas. Tubbs. Dokes. Even Snipes could not get those managers to sign a contract for a bout between the locals.

 

Power: slight edge Cooney
Chin: Smith
Hand speed: Cooney
Footwork: maybe even N/A
Technique: Cooney
Defense: Both are terrible
Combinations: Smith
Stamina: Smith
Body punching: Cooney
Punch selection: Smith
Ring IQ: Cooney
Raw strength: Smith
Timing: Cooney
Accuracy: Cooney
Heart: Smith

7-2-6 slight edge to Cooney

I think this fight would be tense from the start. I expect Cooney to bring the fight to Smith as he wasn't trained to fight tall and would throw heavy shots up close. On the other hand, Cooney did know how to jab and move a little bit and had better technique and fundamentals.

What this essentially means is that while Cooney is landing the cleaner shots and scoring points, he will be playing a dangerous game with Smith who can suddenly throw a heavy bomb at any moment. Given that Cooney has both leaky defense and a worse chin than Smith, I wouldn't be confident betting a single cent on him even tho on paper he has a slight edge in overall stats and abilities. For all his faults, Smith was a strong, durable guy who could turn a march around even late such as against Bruno. Cooney has more natural talent and skill, but he was rarely tested having beaten mostly past their prime forner contenders.

Gun to my head, I would predict that Cooney gets an early lead with his strong jab, body shots, speed, and better fundamentals. He might even drop Smith with one of his powerful hooks. But then Smith returns fire in the middle rounds making it an ugly brawl. Cooney goes down and is on jelly legs around the 6-7th round. By round 9, a battered and bruised but determined Smith fights through the pain to finish things with a crushing roundhouse right hand to the chin that keeps Cooney on the canvas permanently.

Smith KO's Cooney in the 9th just before the bell while behind on points. Anything could happen in a best of 3 between these two however.

 

The well-qualified Bigfoot Martin said Bonecrusher was the hardest puncher he faced, rating him over Foreman and Bowe.

 

I see this as a late win for Smith, after taking a pounding from Cooney.