Gerry Cooney vs Joe Louis 1941

A 1941 Cooney would not have been as strong and would not have possessed modern boxing technique.
A modern day 'Brown Bomber' would be stronger and would have possessed modern boxing technique.
To even put Cooney in the same sentence as Louis is an inane insult.
Let Joe get put into a time warp into the future; more chiseled, more modern and see what happens.
Nuff' said.

 

Cooney was decidedly better than Buddy Baer, they aren't close frankly

 

Louis would obliterate Cooney.

 

If this was who was greater Cooney would be laughed at...even now some will. On the biggest stage he tested ATG Holmes, and went 13 rounds and landed some solid shots on Larry also.

Thoughts: if joe drops him in round 2 he might just finish Cooney there as he was a great closer.

Cooney looked pretty good for 8-9 rounds (been a while?) and the fight was competitive. I see no reason he couldn’t give Joe (and I am a huge Joe guy and insist he is the HW GOAT) a stiff test and possibly even taste the canvas once himself?

Cooney was not built nor trained nor experienced the deep waters of 15 rounders prior to Larry. He slowed down noticeably in the double digit rounds and was done by 12 prior to the official end...

I envision something similar with Joe stopping him a round or 3 earlier?

Joe by KO 10, with some tough moments along the way

 

Why was he better?

 

And true too. Take it to the bank.

 

Cooney was a much more aggressive fighter who seemed to know how to use his power, footwork, trapping fighters on the ropes better than Baer and in corners once he started throwing with leverage he threw alot of hard fast punches.....Cooney hit harder....if Louis gets out of the first 3-5 rounds he stops him mid-late if Holmes can stop him Louis annihilates him once he starts throwing in combos and gets his range.

 

Just compare Cooney - Holmes and Baer - Louis.

Baer has a horrible mobility, total disproportion a upper und lower body mass. They didn´t have squats these days?
Therefore, he´s absolutely not able to keep a proper distance to Louis for a) keeping away from the bomber and b) using his raech. Very very uncordinated fighter. Its quiting shocking to see that fighter knocking Louis out of the ring. So much for Louis "H2H quality"....
Compare that to Cooney fighting an always moving target in holmes. While beeing in range, he´s putting better punches together also. Good head movement as well avoiding Larrys jab.

Its really not a big art telling whos the better fighter here. Everybody can see the film...

 

Excellent post! I agree with your analysis. Cooney was always dangerous with that left hook, particularly in the early rounds, and may well have dropped Louis, but I don't see him keeping him down. Although Cooney lost the Holmes fight, he did not disgrace himself. He got up from that second round KD and fought a competitive fight for quite a while. As you point out, if Louis scored a second round KD as did Holmes, Joe might end it there as he was a great finisher once he had his man hurt. At the very least, if the fight goes past the early rounds, I see Cooney's lack of experience telling on him and Joe finishing him quicker than Holmes did. Sadly, Cooney remains one of those 'what might have been' stories.

 

No one that Cooney knocked down ever got up and won. Not saying Louis wouldn’t but just putting that out there.