Trevor Berbick vs Gerry Cooney

Proof is in the pudding. Berbick would find some way to pull this off.

Berbick logged wins over Thomas and Page, the guys Holmes never fought.

 

True, not enough information. But it's fun to imagine Mike and Gerry in their respective primes. I was thinking of Coetzee when Mike beat him...but Gerry was bigger and even more powerful...

That said, Coetzee might have had at least a slightly better chin than Gerry, so if Weaver lands the big one (and as we both know, it could be any time in the fight)...

 

Seek and yee shall find...

 

Man, the possibilities for Cooney facing an early 80's contender were endless. Weaver, Coetzee and Berbick are possibly the 3 best opponents on paper, IMO. And as someone posted earlier, had Cooney beaten Weaver, a Cooney-Holmes match up would've been that much bigger.

Side note: I was too young to remember Holmes-Cooney. Was Tyson-Spinks considered the biggest heavyweight SuperFight of the 80's or did Holmes-Cooney take the cake?

 

Well, the Holmes-Cooney fight was unfairly fueled by the racist perspective. Ronald Reagan had a phone installed in Cooney's dressing room to congratulate him for winning (no such phone existed for Holmes grrrrrrrr ). The promotion definitely made it into a race thing.

Cooney EVEN GOT PAID MORE THAN HOLMES for the fight, so the race side probably did make it the biggest of the decade (adjusted for inflation). A lot of people were expecting (and wanting) Cooney to win, even a huge mag like Sports Illustrated predicted Cooney in 2.

I saw it the day it happened, and it was disgraceful. Holmes was introduced first, and the crowd went crazy whenever Cooney even moved air.

I LOVED that Cooney had his buttocks handed to him But was mad at Larry for letting the fight go on too long. He had him in the 2nd.

 

I was 5 years old in 1982 and with boxing I only knew about Sugar Ray, Hitman Hearns and the Rocky movies. At the local newsstands, boxing was second best behind pro wrestling as far as multiple magazine publications went. But I do remember being fascinated at reading an article on Holmes-Cooney around 1985/86 (around the Holmes-Spinks fights). To me it seemed like Holmes had overcome the challenge of this Giant Gerry Cooney, the undefeated great white hope who was knocking out everyone. Not sure why I had that perception, but I was only a kid. Completely different scenario once I understood this boxing thing.

 

Probably ranked 1 and 2 for biggest hvy bouts in the 80's.

 

Does anyone else think Berbick is very underrated?
Usually the reason is because of his image losing against Tyson but he made a good fight against a prime Larry Holmes and if you had put someone like Tim Witherspoon in Berbick's place the result would be exactly the same against Tyson

 

At his best Berbick very durable and had tough mauling spoiling style
that Cooney's camp would wisely avoid. Berbick pts.

 

We know Weaver could go 15 rounds. We know Weaver had late rounds KO power. We know Weaver could win a tough fight against a live opponent. Cooney's career didn't really answer any of those questions, so unless Cooney manages to blast him out early like Dokes (especially with the Dokes ref), you'd have to favour Weaver.

 

Fair assessment.

 

Actually, I tend to think that Berbick is overrated. Kind of.

Going into the John Tate fight, Berbick looked like a very safe choice for Tate to begin his comeback against. He'd been kayoed in one by Mercado, drawn against Leroy Caldwell, and had beaten a bunch of nonentities. He proceeded to prove himself against Tate, Larry Holmes in going the distance, Page, and to a certain extent Ali. Though some people say the ancient Ali pulled that fight out.

But then he goes and gets decked in 1 and loses to Renaldo Snipes, and follows that by losing to relatively mediocre cruiser champ S.T. Gordon. I thought he was done at that point.

I give Berbick credit, however, for getting it together and winning nine in a row, culminating in a victory over thought to be heir-apparent Pinklon Thomas. But then he gets himself blown out in two by Mike Tyson.

At his best, a focused and determined Berbick steamrolls Cooney. However, a less-than-best Berbick has the potential to be kayoed early or outworked over ten rounds.