Was Cooney overtrained for the Holmes fight?

I thought he fought to the limits of his ability.Civilians calling pro boxers bums and now coupling that with two nasty and baseless epiphets ,should leave a bad taste in the mouth of all right thinking boxing fans.

 

Funny to say he may have over trained because he did better later in the fight than in the beginning.
He was chasing Holmes around and landing good shots late but went to the canvas early on.

 

Obesity Heavyweight Keyboard Warrior Champion of the Morlock World.

 

not overtrained. More like overrated.

 

No he was inexperienced and even then made it into the championship rounds before running out of stamina......sparring is no psychological replacement for winning a good tough fight over the distance.....fighting in front of the pressure of a crowd expecting KO's or physical dominance when you can't deliver is a lot to handle

 

It was delayed til June of 82 because Cooney suffered an injury in training.

 

Baseless my ass. You have no idea what you are talking about. I see my post was censored and removed.

Maybe you should have lived through it and been close to the scene. I love you clowns that call everyone a fat armchair quarterback when you dislike a comment. There are a lot of former fighters out there. And some on this forum. Go on defending Cooney. Anyone from that time knows the real truth. And btw, the fight you keep praising him for he lost. The judges were full of crap. It wasn't t close. The low blows were intentional and then he whined for 40yrs. Some hero you got there. All you can bring up is one or two halfway decent rds in a blowout loss. Pathetic.

 

I was trying to recall the guys brought in by the Cooney braintrust for the sparring, but could not recall the names.

I do recall thinking they were not very good at all and more along the lines of guys to build his confidence as opposed to guys brought in to copy the Holmes style. I remember that part clearly and thinking the Holmes side with Futch was doing very well pre-fight while the Cooney side was not.

But that was sparring & not conditioning. But who actually thought that when it came to conditioning, it was nothing but a huge advantage for Larry anyway?

 

It has been said on here that Rappaport and Valle knew that he did not have a good chin, and got him the easy fights coming up with the big money cash-out because they realized that it was going to be a ceiling for him.

I personally have no evidence for it, and don't even believe it. I remember reading that in his short amateur career he displayed a good beard, and certainly there are things that you can do do improve a fighter's chin and defense. Also, along with inexperience, it is well known that drugs and alcohol played a large part in his frailty. But the idea is out there that they actually did him right by rushing him along.

 

I read that they went silly overprotecting him and it probably rubbed off on his psyche somewhat. They were knocking back loads of matches including some against guys not much better than sparring partner level. It's like they had very little confidence in him and it may have rubbed off somewhat. Apparently Valle and the Whacko's were all quite paranoid per opponents.

I think his chin was ok.

 

Cooney was neither a coward or had a weak chin,nor was he racist in any way.
He wasn't allowed to develop into a complete fighter because the Whacko Twins were only interested in a quick cash out with him.Cooney came from an abusive background enduring regular beatings from his Father who was a nasty drunk.
"In the years later I argued with people who claimed Cooney was a bum.He wasn't.He was good enough to become a world champion,if his people had only given him the chance to learn the way a fighter should.I'm surprised he never won the title".Larry Holmes

Ironically Cooney's DNA test a few years ago revealed he has a % of black ancestory on his Grandfathers side.Your post was removed?
Good, so it should have been.

 

Cooney began boxing at 15 ,if his chin was suspect I think it would have come to light early don't you?

 

Yes. We agree on this.

 

Wake up man. History proves his cowardess. Cooney was too happy with the wackkos who by the way made him an undeserved millionaire. HE REFUSED TO FIGHT CONTENDERS AND THOUGHT HE HAD CHERRY PICKED SPINKS AND GOT HIS ASS KICKED. SAME WITH FOREMAN. QUICK EASY ROUTE TO THE TITLE. HE WAS A BUM. ABUSIVE dad boo ****in hoo. Overcome yr youth and be a man. Your hero is a cherry picking lilly livered no taking responsibility for his own life BUM. Now go run to mama McVey and ask to have my post removed and me banned. Go ahead Pocahontas

 

To be fair it was Valle and the Whacko's refusing to fight contenders. Cooney fought whoever they picked.