I agree Young wasn't shot but he had a few losses right before ****ey - to Ossie Ocasio and Michael Dokes. Also, Young won "Comeback of the Year" in 1981 because he won a bunch of fights AFTER the ****ey fight. These were against journeymen, but at least he built a streak. Then, he lost to Greg Page. Finally, yes, ****ey was pounding Young the whole last round - but Young was cut the round before. Clearly the cut affected Young's performance and resulted in the one sided ending.
Okay, you got me on the comeback of the year thing, but my point still stands that he had something left. He also wasn't a guy to typically get cut up like that even in loses.
The guy would be a top 10 contender in just about any era. In some of the stronger ones he'd be fringe. In the weaker ones he could be as high as top 3 and in most eras he'd be middle of the pack.. Under the right circumstances he might even get a hold of a belt. His opposition was understandably criticized. But I don't buy the notion that his record had no substance. Norton, Lyle and young were washed up but probably still top 15-20 guys and got dispatched easily.. Eddie Gregg, Phil brown, Dino Dennis and Eddie Lopez were fringe types and likewise beaten convincingly.. Holmes was an ATG in his prime and received a good run for his money.. We don't have an accurate gauge to exactly "how" good Gerry C00ney was, but we saw enough to know that he defintely had ability.
Really off the beaten path, but I think his best win coming up might have been his 90 second KO over Charlie "Candyman" Johnson. Johnson was coming off a near shutout win over fringe contender Ibar Arrington in Washington and was also paintbrushing up-and-comer Walter Moore until he got headbutted and the local Chicago ref stopped the fight and awarded the fight to Moore as a TKO. Nobody knows about him now, but he was a well regarded spoiler at the time. ****ey folded him up like a cheap lawn chair and left him plastered on the canvas without breaking a sweat. Caught my attention when I saw it then.
Yes and no i think, depending on the goal. If the goals to make a fast buck and get out early they were successful. If the goal was actually winning the World Title and/or getting the best out of the fighter they failed miserably for obvious reasons. Unless they thought/knew he was fragile goods all along and played it out that way.
I'm not so sure. He was apparently in line to fight Mike Weaver in 1981 for the WBA title but Bob arum talked the WBA into having Mike face Tillis instead. Years later in an interview C00ney said his managers tried to get him fights but most of the top contenders were locked up with either king or Arum and wouldn't do business with them. So consequently he only saw 54 seconds of ring action within a near two year period prior to facing Holmes.
I'd be a bit surprised if none of the top contenders wanted a piece of him, given the money they would garner. But yes, Weaver was pressured out of fighting ****ey. Not long after the Tillis fight he lamented he should have just fought ****ey anyway and to hell with everything else. The New York State Athletic Commission was going to recognise it as a title bout as it was ludicrous to make ****ey fight anyone other than the number 1 contender, which Tillis wasn't. Would have been better all round. Weaver would have a shot at some real acclaim, ****ey a better shot at winning as well as furthering his career on a slightly less steep note. The politics of the time were often infuriating.
A lot of potentially good fights from that period were never made, and consequently, a lot of careers may have suffered from it. C00ney and Weaver in particular were hurt from inactivity.
I hate to say it but the 'white hope" thing really made it possible for his management to get him a title shot without really having to fight that "live" contender that we are all admitting he never faced. The $$$ he was able to generate through all the publicity and hype made it attractive for Holmes to face him. All he had to do was get a top 10 rating and this was accomplished by facing some faded former contenders. Once he got the rating, they could sit on it and negotiate the Holmes fight. His management did a masterful job of low risk/high reward Of course, it probably re****ed his development in the long run but made him great $$. BTW I don't buy Magoo's assertion that his management looked to fight top contenders around or after the Norton fight. They may have tried to get a WBA title shot with Weaver, but no way they were going to risk a title shot at that point in time by facing live competition. It was probably an either Weaver or Holmes situation i imagine the Holmes fight offered bigger money but a bigger risk of loising and they opted for it. It was probably smart because he could well have lost to Weaver and made less $$. I do think he had a better shot at beating Weaver than Holmes, though.
[/QUOTE] Meh.. Being black didn't exactly stop green versions of Tim Witherspoon, Carl Williams, Marvis Frazier, Mike Weaver, Leroy Jones, Leon Spinks or David Bey from getting their shots at Holmes, even though most of them had done arguably as little or less to that point. Of course Gerry got a lot more money than those guys did but its not his fault the public was willing to pay out the ears to see it. A few of them may have had perhaps "one" signature win that was better than Gerry's best, but fewer fights overall, less impressive performances and in some cases, didn't do diddly to get in that championship ring at all.
Yeah. The split titles situation plus Larry Holmes' tendency to fight more often that most other HWs, meant that a lot of guys were getting title shots on the strength of very little in terms of wins over fellow contenders. Nowadays things are probably worse though.
Probably so. He seems to be a happy guy. Yeah, he definitely ended up better than Jerry Quarry. But it would have been nice to see him fight some of his contemporaries.:good