Gerry Cooney vs Wilders opponents.

Ortiz is a bit of a dilemma for me as well. I don’t know if Cooney ever faced any south paws nor any good ones for that matter. Ortiz has fast hands and thunderous power. His chin isn’t all that bad either.

 

Cooney's people avoided the good fights like the plague. Weaver was made to fight Tillis by the WBA or be stripped of his title. Weaver was lusting after Cooney.

Things were still in place at that time for Cooney to fight the winner. Madison Square Garden made Cooney an offer to fight Page in the interim but Cooney's people did of course decline. Then Cooney and co ended up fighting Holmes of course.

It's a fascinating story. He was white, had a huge punch and a good story and they had built him on on impressive names that were shot or on the down and took no risks in getting him that immense money against Holmes vs bringing him through the ranks properly and potentially giving him the best possible chance to beat Holmes.

It certainly worked financially and there's every chance one of the top contenders might have knocked him off.

It's a good debate tbh.

 

I wonder if they could have put Cooney with good fighters who weren't as good as Holmes and let him gain experience.

Then Cooney could have challenged Holmes around late 1983/early 1984. In a 12 rounder, he stands a much better chance. He might just sneak past an aging Holmes in a 12 rounder instead of being dominated by an 1982 Holmes.

Badly mismanaged fighter.

 

Cooney was born to be a 12 round fighter. I think he has slightly more skills, but less speed than Wilder. The differnce is Wilder has excellent management and doesn't seem to have the outside the ring issues with alcohol.

 

Wilder has yet to beat one Ring Magazine Ranked opponent under the age of 35 and in shape. Think about that one for a moment...

He's a belt milker NON-PAREIL who picks very few punchers, and was often " exposed " in victory.

 

It's two fold which is what makes it fascinating. He'd beaten guys just outside the top 10 and one on the fringe so the next step up was a contender.

Around the time contenders were guys like Dokes, Page, Coetzee, Berbick, Spinks, Tillis, Cobb and Snipes.

Spinks, Snipes, Tillis and Cobb would have been matches i'd be looking at first. He'd have been a decent fave against those guys. Snipes could get easily intimidated at times, Spinks was on the down, Tillis could forget to fight at times and Cobb was tough but limited.

The flipside is what if he loses? Does he lose heart with boxing like he did after the Holmes loss and basically turn it in? I know there was a lot of talk that the weight of peoples expectations and the feeling he let them down got to him big but who knows if any old loss wouldn't have had a similar result? At the end of the day the question is did he have his heart in boxing deeply enough to rebound from any loss? In an ideal world if he did happen to keep on winning he certainly would have been a much better prepared and experienced title challenger. Admittedly the inactivity surely can't have helped him going in against Holmes.

Less than 4 minutes of boxing in 2 years and just 54 seconds in about 1 year and 8 months going in to a title fight. Seriously, how stupid is that???? Guy hadn't fought in over a year.

 

I agree. Heart is so crucial in boxing. If Cooney had the heart of a Jerry Quarry, he may have ended up as the 3rd or 4th best heavyweight of that era.

I do think he beats guys like Snipes, Spinks etc. but Thomas, Coetzee, Dokes, Page and even a young Spoon are tougher buts to crack.

I have heard rumors of a young Spoon dominating Cooney in sparring. Not sure how true it is. Perhaps that's why his team protected him.

It turned out to be a bad idea. I agree that less than 4 minutes of boxing in 2 years is incredibly stupid.

On a side note, Cooney-Coetzee is one of my favourite fantasy matrch ups. The dynamite left hook vs the dynamite right hand.

 

Cooney wasn’t capable of making ten title defenses, regardless of opposition.

 

There’s been so many mixed stories over the years. About 20 years ago I saw an interview with a retired Gerry Cooney talking about how he tried to stay active inbetween the big paydays but all the premiere opponents were locked up with Don King and Bob Arum and his people couldn’t get any deals going. I suspect the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle

 

Exactly. I don't think his choice of opponents was Cooney's problem. The guy had issues.

Even when they handed him old guys from different eras, like Bugner or Shavers, he'd say his back was sore, call off the fight, and then go out dancing and binge drinking.

He became a fighter because his dad wanted him to be one. He didn't really want it.

You can't reign for any period of time if you don't really want it. There are too many examples of that to name.

 

Cooney early tko

 

I've always preferred Coetzee over Cooney.

And it's not like Cooney was a master at slipping the right hand.

 

Seriously, Wilder never beat anyone who would beat Gerry Cooney that Larry fought.

That includes Ortiz.