Is Gerry Cooney delusional or does he have a point?

Cooney could never have given Foreman (any version) too much of a fight, as he didn't have the capacity to take a heavyweight's punch...Foreman would have gotten him out of there as soon as he had him hurt..like in the 2nd round, max.

 

well Cooney would beat Foreman to the punch and he even countered him nicely in the first round with a nice left hook, he would be doing this to prime george too except prime george didnt have the chin that old george did.
The only time cooney was knocked down with a single shot was against holmes, and that was as perfect as any punch could be. In the spinks fight and the foreman fight he was knocked down with a flurry of shots. You're right, he didn't have a very good chin, but it's not like he was facing powder punchers either.

 

cooney had a lot going for him. he had bravery and desire but even lacking activity and seasoning he gave a good larry holmes a life and death war. If he had not made so much money against holmes he would have came back sooner been more active but gerry lost too much ground deciding what to do. having not quite fullfiled his potential coony lost the window of opertunity to be what he could have been.

against spinks and foreman cooney just had not been a full time fighter for a long time. He did not deserve either fight. he traded on his name to make a "money fight " both times. he just banked on being bigger than spinks and younger than george and blew it both times. both failures were a big finantial success for him so gerry cant realy ***** too much. cooney leaped over more worthy full time contenders to make that money.

 

Cooney never seemed to "want it" very much...he never really proved himself against a contender who wasn't past it...laid off a long time after defeats...got DESTROYED when he got beat...

 

The Cooney who faced Noron would, IMO, have stopped Spinks early.

By the time the fight actually took place, Cooney was a mess.

 

I think Cooney was under-prepared to fight for the title, with only having went 8rds, being mentally weak (this would affect him) Gerry only fought 2 rds in 2 years...he looked horrible vs Spinks and folded from the 1st offensive attack by Spinks. Gerry should have gotten 10rds vs a Tex Cobb Type or a Chapin type guy who did not hit hard but knew how to survive. Fights were 15 rds at that time so a 12 rounder would have only helped him. From a managers point of view they knew Gerry was fragile and had a problem with drink and cocaine abuse so they figured get the shot before Gerry got picked off. They could not have expected an early blow-out over Holmes, they knew Holmes would look to take the 8rd guy into deep waters. Had Gerry been prepared he may have mounted a better win but "if my Aunt had balls she would be my uncle"

 

Spinks deserves credit for the Cooney win. Cooney had looked just as destructive against the mediocre competition he had faced previous to the fight with Spinks. Cooney just couldn't get off, and I suspect that has something to do with Spinks's awkwardness and sneaky counters. Holmes looked the same for much of the Spinks fights, except he didn't get hammered to the canvas of course.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tJgpN1hDok[/ame]


Not saying Cooney was anywhere near his best, but I bet he would have looked like the Cooney of the early 1980's had he fought another "opponent".

 

Cooney just didn't have a heavyweight's chin...and against Spink's onslaught, he reminded me of Duane Bobick in his having no clue at all as to how to protect himself.

 

every fighter does the same thing Cooney does. They lose to a great and say they would have won had they done this or that. This is common talk. Fact is the greats could take it up a notch and fight even better. Holmes would have always beaten Cooney.

 

Delusional.

 

I don't want to say that Gerry Cooney was "delusional", but I don't think that we can draw any conclusions about what he "might" have done, had he been better prepared. I'll agree that he looked dreadful entering the ring against Spinks that evening. He was at a career high 238 lbs, flabby and didn't appear to have an ounce of focus. He had also fought only something like once in 3 years, with his last meeting lasting all but 1 round some 18 months earlier. Its enticing to think that had he laid off the booze, trained his ass off, and fought a few tuneups, that he might have faired better, but again its all speculation.

 

I do remember Holmes saying that Cooney could possibly beat him and after Larry retires he picks Cooney to be the next heavyweight champ. Fighting Larry at the top of his game I don't see Cooney beating him. At that point Cooney still had a decent chin. He wasn't much on head movement and took some hellacious shots from Holmes but managed to go 13. After that, Cooney had all sorts of issues from depression and alcoholism that hurt him.

With Spinks Cooney was in serious trouble from substance abuse and took Michael too lightly figuring to get this blown up light-heavy out of their early. Spinks was nearly out on his feet in the last fight with Holmes and Cooney had said he didn't feel Spinks could stand up to the pressure. Had this been the Cooney that fought Holmes I believe that indeed Cooney would have had him out of there early. That is life though. One can always look back and say what might have been......