How hyped were you for Holmes vs Cooney?

I was a kid. I was the only guy in my neighbourhood who wanted Holmes to win. Holmes was universally unpopular.

After he won everyone said Cooney was no good anyway.

 

I was extremely young when that fight happened, around 7 or 8 to be exact. I can however remember, after the fight, there was a significant amount of news coverage of the post fight interviews and press conferences. I recall this white man wearing sun glasses, with a horribly busted up face, then asking someone if that was Rocky. Later on, came to know him as Gerry Cooney. A few years later, I saw the fight on VHS tape, when I was maybe 13 or 14, fairly close to the time that Holmes came out of retirment to face Tyson.

 

For what it was Worth Gerry had also taken out fellow old stager Ron Lyle in the First, so along with the Norton Fight, it did indeed look as though Gerry certainly had the perverbial Punchers chance, be it to Head or Body with that devestating Left Hook, if he could find Holmes with a few on target, i went to one of the closed-circuit cinema screening's and they was electricity in the Air, (cinema auditorium)

When Gerry wasa floored there was a massive collective Groan, But the audiance was encouraged by his fightback and stubbon resistence, but as the rounds went by, the feeling was he was not going to do anything spectacular late, that he couldnt do Early, but he gave it a good try, and perhaps paid the Price of being a sprinter against a champion stayer.

Virtually all of the Crowd was for Gerry, but as i recall very little of it was actually racially motivated, it was simply a case of an economic preference for Many, Larry was seen as a Talented, but rather Bland character with little charisma, but a New KO King on the throne, with that hint of Emerald Green, probably had the advertising Execs on Madison Avenue licking their collective Lips at what they could do with nice guy Gerry.

But the Better Fighter Won...and deservedly so ..and thats how it should be.

 

Some folks have implied that they felt Holmes carried Cooney into the later rounds after realizing that he could hurt him early. Was this your impression?

I didn't quite see that myself, though its been years since I've watched that fight from start to finish.

 

not born yet but i am sure i would have been pretty hyped for it had i been

 

Had just been transferred to Cincy and some Indy buddies came down to watch it on Home closed circuit. My friend Mike and I bet $250 apiece (more than I had ever bet - a year later I put $500 on Benitez against Duran) We just didn't think Cooney had a chance; all Larry had to do was stay away from a 'bomb' which really provided the only anxiousness in the fight.

I thought Cooney fought well but then took two years off??? Why? He should have stepped right back in the ring.
IMHO No fighting heart, sort of reminds me of Ingo in that respect.

 

Cooney was known for having bad managment as well as a rather weak constitution. He had some talent, but was not a natural fighter. The Holmes fight hurt him emotionally. He also had a history of using drugs and alcohol, which is likely what kept him preoccupied from 1982-1987. He would occasionally take a fight here and there against men like Phil Brown or George Chaplin, but never truly made a solid effort at coming back. With a stronger mental resolve, plus a better trainer/manager, Cooney could have established a significant prescence in the division from 1983 onward. He worked with hall of fame trainer Gil Clancy in preparation for the Goerge Foreman fight in 1990, and surprisingly looked to be in better shape and more focussed than he had in years. It's unfortunate that he didn't have someone like Clancy earlier on as well as the discipline and maturity to stay on track.

 

My grandfather had taken me into Cooney's dressing room after the Young fight in Atlantic City in May of 1980. I even held his bloody boxing glove untl someone snatched it away from me. I met the late Mrs. Cooney and one of his brothers and his sister. My grandfather (named Dominic) even went to Long Island and entered the backyard where Cooney's mother and sister were sunbathing in the summer of 1981. He said a big German shepard started barking and Cooney's mom gave him a 'Cooney Country' T-shirt and he thanked her and they made some small talk. I met Cooney again in 1987 in AC when he was getting ready for the Spinks fight. My crazy Greek friend who was a decent high wrestler got a littlle wise with the big guy. He 'chastised' Cooney with a remark to the effect of - "Why aren't you training today dude? We are coming to the fight and Spinks is a tough cookie so you better not be taking too many days off." Cooney looked nonplussed and was like - "Thanks for the concern brother but everyone needs a day off." Cooney's brother and Cooney were really nice guys. His brother took a picture of Cooney with his arms around me and friends shoulders. He sure looked impressive throwing his lefthook at the heavybag. Too bad it didnot translate in the actual fight. To answer the post, yeah, I was all decked out in my green and white 'Cooney Country' T-shirt and wool Irish cap for the Holmes fight. Cooney faded from the scene very quickly after the Holmes fight.

 

Of course Rappaport and Jones were being called "The Whacko Twins," and "Flash" Gordon was perhaps their most outspoken critic. But shortly after Holmes/Cooney had been signed, he headlined one of his underground newsletters with a picture of the two of them and a caption to the effect of, "In getting an unproven, untested, inactive, inexperienced contender a purse equal to the champion's, how whacko could the Whacko Twins really be?" Gerry was essentially set for life after that.

I do not recall a single serious professional prediction in Cooney's favor for that one. As was written in KO Magazine, "Unlike most superfights, this doesn't require any deep thought." Some award winning boxing prognosticators flatly stated, "Larry Holmes. Any time he wants to." I was watching ESPN's nightly newscast during the bout, and when Gerry got dropped in round two:

a) None of the ESPN broadcast team seemed the least bit surprised.

b) Some sportscasters on some other channels I immediately switched to openly speculated that Larry was carrying Cooney to try setting up another easy and lucrative payday rematch while rounds three, four and five where actually in progress.

c) I think it may have been the late Tom Mees who said immediately afterwards on ESPN that, "You can take the WBA title, and put it over 'there.' Holmes is THE CHAMPION, there's nobody close, really, and it appears that he will dominate the division for as long as he cares to."

Snipes had provided Larry with a conveniently timed wake-up call, and Gerry was just too slow to catch Holmes, especially since having a great right hand was a necessity to even sustain a prayer against him. The only question had to do with whether or not Cooney could take a punch. The crowd was wildly in favor of the factually prohibitive underdog, but Larry completely defused Gerry's supporters in round two.

When Holmes said shortly afterwards that Cooney could probably take a crowbar on the chin, but "wobbles like a duck" when he got hit on the temple, I became convinced that Larry was indeed carrying him, possibly out of caution for what happened with Snipes. When I saw the broadcast for myself, I was thinking how fortunate Gerry was that he didn't last long enough to touch gloves for round 15. Considering how Holmes closed in his next outing with Cobb, Cooney might have gotten killed. (Gerry could barely stand on his feet at the end, and the two knockdowns Larry scored did not look like they came from attacks intended to end the proceedings. In fact, they were some of the most innocuous looking knockdown punches I ever saw Holmes get credited with. Cooney looked like Mathis in round 12 with Ali.)

I was hyped for Larry to finally establish himself as champion, and felt the round two knockdown should have done the trick. Against the fastest starting heavyweight contender at the time, Holmes produced his own fastest start before a wide audience.

Rappaport and Jones must have known that Gerry couldn't take it to the temple. (Fellow Long Islander Howard Davis Jr. had the same vulnerable spot on his upper head.) Cooney would have never gotten to Holmes through live competition, and I feel that his team got him as far as they possibly could have. If Coetzee couldn't take out Weaver, then Gerry would not have been able to either. Assuming Cooney had gotten to Weaver before the Mancini/Kim tragedy, Mike would have blasted him out late, just like he did Tate and Coetzee.

For all the criticism Cooney's management received, they got him to the big dance unscathed, for a monster payday. That's more than could be said for the management of Duane Bobick and Boone Kirkman, who I think may closely compare to Cooney's true abilities.

 

All valid points, and perhaps Rappaport and Jones deserve some credit for getting him a single big payday. However, I think Cooney's career post Holmes could have been handled better, weather it be by Cooney's own hand or his managment. He was clearly not going to go down in history as another Dempsey or Marciano, as his limited talent would have prevented this, but staying active, beating a few decent contenders, and perhaps challenging for an alpha title, was not out of the question. Gerry had size, power and even some skill. Although men like Greg Page, Michael Dokes, Gerrie Coetzee and Tony Tubbs were certainly a bit more talented, the possibility of Cooney beating one or all of them, was not entirely out of the question. Especially when we look at the fact that in 1983, Michael Dokes had done enough cocaine to make a hoover vacuum cleaner envious, Tubbs was notorious for eating his way well past a reasonable fight weight, and both Page and Coetzee had consistancy problems. We also have to consider that Gerry was off for 13 months prior to meeting up with Larry, and had boxed all but 55 seconds over the previous two years. This doesn't even factor in his war with drugs and the time he had spent in rehabilitation in the early 80's. I think there were more than just a few elements which limited Cooney's success, and lack of talent was probably one of the lesser ones.

 

I was hyped ,expected a good fight with a live challenger,which I think I got really ,it went about how I thought,except for the low blow and Cooney going down so early.

 

As an impressionable teen, I thought Cooney was Rocky Balboa and Holmes was destined to suffer the same Hollywood fate as Apollo Creed, as the fight happened relatively soon after the release of Rocky II.

Many casual fans were probably caught up in the same hype of "Gentleman" Gerry Cooney's being destined for greatness: the underdog, strong, silent type with a huge punch, toppling the capable champion.

On the surface Cooney looked like a monster because he destroyed Norton in one round, the same, albeit younger, man who gave Holmes hell over 15.

I was rubbing my hands together, leaning towards that ON TV broadcast at my neighbor's (and rooting for Holmes in my heart), hyped as could be.

 

Holmes wasn't a Philly guy...but he was close enough!!! While most people didn't like Larry, I was a big Phan. I remember thinking that Cooney was legit, and that this would be a big test for larry...although I probably covered it up with a lot of Philly style trash talking before and after the fight! I don't buy all the talk that Larry took it easy on him or carried him into later rounds, but to each their own! The racial tensions probably served to hype this fight to a much higer level, than if it had just been based on these 2 men battling for the belt. I still rank it as one of my top 10 (possibly) top 5 HW fights to watch, so this fight is a rarity in that it lived up to its billing.