Regardless of Mccall's chin,he did n't have the style to move away for a sustained period. Cooney by tko.
Cooney's durability is a bit of a question mark to me. Some Holmes opponents who were a less qualified (or should i say less hyped?) than him went the distance. The problem i have is that Cooney never beat a live contender during his entire career. McCall has, and quality ones, too. I'm picking McCall to win by 10-12th round TKO, after a slow start.
Cooney had a excellent left hook, McCall had an excellent chin. McCall had power but could be outboxed. I have to lean towards McCall because of his record and durability but If Cooney can keep him at bay he may be able to pull it off over 10 but my fear is Gerry is fragile and if Mccall sets the pace and puts pressure on he could stop Gerry but over 10 he would have to amp it up.
I believe McCall would knock Cooney out in the middle rounds, between the fourth and sixth. My reasoning is that McCall had the durability and toughness to walk Cooney down. As others have pointed out, Cooney was fragile, and when he couldn't dominate his opponents with impunity, he tended to get confused and fall apart mentally. Sure, Cooney's left hook would be a potent weapon in this fight. There's the possibility that Cooney could hurt McCall early, and keep him at bay for the rest of the fight. Maybe Cooney's hook could even score an early round kayo. But I doubt it. I believe McCall's granite chin would enable him to weather whatever early round trouble Gerry's hook created. After about three rounds of tough, torrid, action, it would become clear that Cooney was being hurt and fended off by McCall's blows. McCall would be like a tank. After the third, McCall would probably walk right through Cooney. Once McCall had Cooney hurt, it would be all over. Gerry wouldn't be able to recover. This is just my guess. Of course it's possible that Cooney's height, combined with his powerful jabbing and hooking style could enable him to decision McCall the same way that Frank Bruno did. But I say there's only a 25% chance of this scenario unfolding. There is a 75% chance, in my book, that McCall beats down Cooney and wins by mid round stoppage, as I described earlier.
I think some of you are overating Mcalls offense and overall skills for that matter. Lets face it he weathered Brunos barrage and had him basically needing a wheelchair in the last two rounds, yet all Mcall did was plod forward offering no real offensive threat. He was just a glorified sparring partner in the 80's that hung around the top ten because of Don King. No real great skills, and to say he would weather Cooneys barrage, who cares, then what? Mcall was happy just being in fights it seemed, he never had a sense of direction, gameplan or anything besides the Lewis fight where he was trained to throw one punch when Lewis made a certain move and he landed the punch with his eyes closed. Hes just a guy with a great chin and decent power with average skills, and that was good enough to win a title in the 90's and today, but not in the 80's. Cooney would have beaten Mcall by decision easy in my opinion.
It is a valid observation to make that Cooney's stamina and durability left behind some question marks. He did however, manage to linger for 13 competitive rounds against a peak Holmes, while taking a pretty good beating and returning a fair amount of fire. This is something that I don't even think he'd have to do against McCall, in a match that would likely not be scheduled for more than 10-12 rounds. Oliver was good at the right moments against the right kinds of fighters, but I don't necessarily think that he had better skills than Cooney, who could have potentially out pointed him over the long haul. If were talking about Gerry vs Oliver any time after the Holmes fight, then I'd pick McCall to destroy him, but Cooney between 1980-1982 would have been a formidable foe for just about anyone.
