Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney Was Very Competitive

Cooney clearly hurts Holmes near the end of round 4 with a hook to the body his best punch. Holmes for the next nearly full 2 rounds barely removes his hand from his side to throw his right. If Holmes wanted to carry Cooney I would think that would have changed his mind. Gerry was dangerous

 

Larry Holmes wasn’t the kind of person who was going to carry anyone. (And I fully acknowledge that he might have dialed back the ferocity a bit against Ali but he never stopped hitting the man hard.) He was the ultimate professional prize fighter and he was not going to stay in the ring a second longer than he had to.

And Gerry Cooney had zero to be ashamed of for his performance in that fight. I just wish he could’ve kept his head together and come back from it.

 

As I've said previously to those who try and knock Holmes' record , Cooney ( in real time ) was a defining fight for his reign.
Larry had come to the top table beating Norton , who could be said to have been at the back end of the great 70's era and then after beating some decent opponents he beat a very faded Ali which put that era to bed .
Holmes was then fighting HIS era and although at the age of 32 he was coming to the end of his peak the Cooney fight was very much the big fight of his reign.
In real time Gerry was seen as a huge threat and the fight was ultra high profile.
Holmes was a marginal betting favourite and many thought Cooneys punch power may win him the title.
It was a good fight , competitive, although Holmes won comfortably enough in the end.
Larry was probably past his best from that point onwards and Cooney was never remotely the same again.

 

Joshua's considerably more accomplished than Cooney though with actual quality wins. Who did Cooney stop via body attack?

 

Almost as if Holmes is over-rated.

 

Agreed. & he was openly resentful (surprise!) of the attention Cooney was getting, & that he’d been able to wrest away from Holmes half the fight’s purse. I find it very, very dubious, all told, that he carried Cooney.

 

There's some misconceptions sneaking around. Holmes didn't "carry" Cooney so much as take the safest possible route to victory. Cooney's only real way to win was via KO where as Holmes could win multiple ways. Holmes plan was always to drag Cooney into the late rounds where he was unproven and would have lost some sting and danger out of his punches. After the KD i would agree Holmes could have gotten him out of there a lot sooner but by remaining cautious he was giving Cooney less opportunity to land a lucky punch and twist the fight on it's head.

Tho Cooney had been down and hurt he was still fresh and had the power to conceivably turn the fight in an instant.......hence Holmes going straight back to cautiously boxing. To go after Cooney hard straight after the KD was to leave oneself more open to wearing a big punch, it's really this simple. Holmes was a long range specialist where as Cooney was unproven in that are. If Cooney wasn't a huge puncher Holmes would have swarmed him after the KD.

 

Don't forget that via your rematch scenario and in actuality Holmes had actually lasted into the 13th vs Holmes.

 

Hi Buddy.
Correct, on all fronts, perfect synopsis and breakdown of Larry's fight plan, and one I am in full agreement with, and most of the forum I would have thought, mind you back in the day I had a sizeable bet on Cooney, was swept away with all the hype, and the crushing KO of Norton, add to that Holmes was ( at the time ) not considered a great fighter and champ, bit like the Louis/Charles effect, also dare I say it, Gerry was seen as a modern day " white hope " sounds distasteful I know , but it was boxing's elephant in the room , poor Larry, as good as he was, the boxing public just didn't take to him, both inside and out of the ring, he bought some of the feelings on himself, because ( rightly ) he felt undervalued, and unloved, and was quite outspoken about the matter, the Marciano comment and such, much like a lot of fighters, his true worth was only appreciated long after his retirement, which is a pity because he was a courageous, skilled, and tough as nails, and if there is any justice should be in the top 5/6 of all time imo.
Anyway another stellar contribution from a learned and respectful poster, read and learn any newbies, you are getting a free education,
stay safe JT, chat soon matey.

 

I meant to type "won," but now it turns out that a five minute window for editing has been installed that wasn't here when I was previously a participant years ago. (I'm still getting used to other site changes. I see we can no longer post images either. I'm used to features like this at my regular site.)

 

Cheers Mike you are too kind. The hype around Cooney was incredible, and with hindsight crazy looking back. You're comment that it took a long time for Holmes to be really highly regarded is spot on and it was indeed mostly due to following Ali just as Charles followed Louis. You certainly know the era, and others!!!

Keep well mate.

 

I'm not allergic to chuckling at a good old Holmes pile on but i find it hard to believe Cooney went in there with no intention to win, very very very hard.

 

Well you've just clarified something for me. Twice in the last few days the "edit" has disappeared on me with a day in between where i did see it. This is a very very new change.

That's gonna kill me making a mistake here and there, sometimes one that makes an ok post hard to follow, and not being able to fix it. Even the odd spelling mistake drives me nuts when it gets thru and i will edit it. Sometimes i am in a rush and can't proof and you look at it a day later and like ****!!!! lol