Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney Was Very Competitive

Thanks Big Brother

 

Yes.

 

Bwain Auto Cowwect is vewy underwated.

 

I agree with the line of thinking that Holmes
simply fought Cooney with a high degree of caution.

This is part of the reason why I rate Holmes a far better chance against Tyson (prime vs prime) than most - since he would be duly wary of Tyson.

A lot of examples of Holmes being hurt (including by the right hand) appear to be when Larry wasn’t so careful and/or past prime.

I know old mate @Ney will agree with me since we are both, obviously, Holmes fanboys.

 

I do agree with the logic here. I figure Tyson vs the real Holmes to be a nigh on 50-50 proposition. Both are pretty vulnerable to each other IMO.

 

Prime Holmes was too smart, too deft, and had too much heart for Mike imo.

 

If you watch what was going on in there fight Holmes had the right idea. I don’t know if he’d win but he knew how.

 

You’re right, you don’t fight Tyson any other way than patience - you get him thinking with the lead and see where he goes… it never played out perfectly but another way is getting your shoulder deep in his chest with his hips square you rip the uppercut up the middle and punish him for wanting to rest there. The Holmes fight had lots of clues so did the Mathis one despite what happened lol.

 

He didn’t fight a murderers row but he did fight a consistent stream of solid to good pros frequently, all of which who wanted to take his head off for the title, in the fight of there lives.
That’s where he got his smarts from lots of fighting with endless quality sparring - Holmes was a lot like Toney and JCC Snr there was no S&C magicians trying to run corners or take over the trainers role lol just LOTS of sparring and a bit of conditioning.

 

The 88 version of Holmes was certainly a far cry from the prime model. That Mike could hurt Larry if he connected flush as he did, even with a single shot, was no surprise.

Not so easy to land same against a prime, perfectly conditioned and uber cautious Holmes whose ability to take a shot and recuperate would’ve been that much better at his peak - and even when cautious, prime Larry’s offence was nothing to sneeze at.

 

If Gerry had been more relaxed and not stood straight up like he did, he would have done better. I never saw a fight where the champion
gave such respect and or caution to the challenger and the challenger also gave too much respect and caution to the champ.