Jerry Cooney: "If the better man would have won, then I would be all right with that. But thats not what happened. I was buffaloed by the press into thinking that I could knock him out early." Jerry Cooney "I was emotinally flat." George Foreman Blamed everything from poisoning to withc doctors to tampering with the ropes after the Rumble. Vinne Pazienza Said he was coming down off of a caffeine rush when RJJ knocked him out.