Was Cooney overtrained for the Holmes fight?

If you go back through the posts and factor in a censored and deleted post, more was said than referring to Cooney’s pigmentation.

 

OK, that makes sense.

National origin is generally treated differently from race in the United States. So being Irish-, Italian-, or Polish-American is usually not a thorny discussion topic. The posters you mentioned are probably reacting to your discussion of race, not Irish-American identity.

 

Now youre changing youre story, saying he was popular because he was white, what you said earlier was stuff about white privilege and white racism. We've had enough of that crap, that sh-t don't fly with us anymore. Alverez may have a great Mexican following,I have no idea. I like him because he's a great fighter. And that's why he is where he is today

 

My guess is this post triggered some feelings (that you did not espouse) about a few previously deleted posts that were for lack of s betterword racially toxic. And some thought you were taking that stance (not myself or JT who liked it shortly after it was posted).

I did not detect any racial animosity in your post, and agree with a large portion of what you wrote, even if I would have expressed it differently.

Good luck

 

I'll actually defend the enthusiasm people have over his left hook, though not to the same degree.

He was surprisingly flexible with his left hand -- he could fire off every sort of punch, head and body, from plenty of angles. It's almost all that he had, so it isn't surprising that such a one-handed fighter (and natural leftie) had a hyper developed left.

 

I'm just explaining to you, as a cultural matter, why you're encountering the resistance you are.

 

For the record, were the 70s guys he beat Ring ranked when he fought them?

 

Ok *******. What I said was he was a cowardly bum who refused to fight contenders and hid behind his white skin. All truth. And by the way you little liar. I am white. All my later posts explained my blog. Nice of you to throw the racism around philly who wasnt even around during Cooneys race baiting run.

 

Interesting that you presume to know my age or my race? If I cared what you thought I might share them with you...not sure where I lied but would welcome your articulate insight sharing where or how?

Once again you have proven yourself to be an asset to both this forum and the human race in general. Again well done!

 

And once again, it's good to see you're not man enough to admit when you're wrong.

 

Unforgiven might have worded it better but he certainly didn't intend things to be taken as they were.

The fact is the fight was an extremely racially charged event. Rappaport and King both thrived on this aspect unfortunately. Extreme groups (white and black) were making all sorts of threats and claims about what would go down at fight time. Snipers were placed on multiple rooftops in case there was trouble.

None of this was Cooney's fault. King heavily promoted his skin color. Holmes had a bit to say about Cooney being white and where it had taken him but it wasn't completely untrue. He and Cooney were dragged somewhat into the whole vibe of the event. Cooney wisely kept quiet but anger did build up in him. "Holmes couldn’t resist pointing out how race had propelled Cooney’s rise. He called Cooney the Great White Hoax or the Great White Dope: “If the man was black, he wouldn’t be nowhere. You know it, I know it. Everybody knows it.” Holmes’s anger embittered many whites towards him, and some cast him as a racist."

A lot of the passion was innocent too, the novelty and notability of having a white heavyweight champ after many years. Cooney and Holmes got on fantastically sometime down the track and have the utmost respect for each other.

Here is a decent article on the fight -

http://tss.ib.tv/articles/14751-holmes-cooney-the-last-great-race-fight

 

They knew gerry was gonna fall and fall hard ...they kept him away from tv for a couple years ..fed him a couple of decent fighters who were shells of themselves ...you know names that were names but were of no threat to gerry ...and he did what he was supposed to with them...had they rocked the boat he would have gotten pole axed by a weaver ...they did his career the absolute best they could..the guy was never gonna be rocky Marciano he just didn't have it upstairs ...and his people knew it..were they opportunist greedy jerks ?? Maybe but by god they got gerry paid and that's worth alot! And by all accounts they didn't give him the don king treatment as far as I know

 

Foreman referred to him as, "my brother in power".
I'm sure nobody thinks any of your remarks are racially motivated.
Cooney was the beneficiary of his skin colour but that was hardly his fault. He has said that when he touched gloves with Holmes, just prior to the initial bell ringing, Larry said ,"lets have a good fight",and with those words all the pressure went from his shoulders.They are good friends now.

 

And this is it. We don't know if he would have beaten a Snipes, a Berbick, even a Tillis as we never saw him fight people of this caliber except for Holmes. It's a huge gulf between Holmes and the guys he did actually beat.

I will say tho that if he was brought thru the ranks right with the right guy training him i suspect he would have been a damn good fighter. He would still have to hold up mentally tho but maybe under changed circumstances he would have.

But as it stands he's hugely unproven really. He never overly worried Holmes. I think some of the hype may have stuck to be honest and still lingers. Don't get me wrong, he may have handled top 10 contenders quite impressively but i myself sure wouldn't be handing that out for free.

 

He was managed like many contenders are today. Shannon Briggs, for example.