While looking into the Holmes-non-unification thread, I was looking at a few of the rare successful title defenses. In the Weaver write-up it said he was scheduled to fight C00ney who was #1 but the WBA made it Tillis instead (article said he was 3rd but bumped up to first). What was the WBA thinking? It isn't Holmes-C00ney, but still had to be much bigger than a Tillis fight. Pretty sure to be some real fireworks in that one too. Sent from my NS-P10A6100 using Tapatalk
****ey's management probably opted not to take a Weaver fight, instead going for the big $$ against Holmes.
So it could be a case where WBA saved face a little with the deal not being accepted on C00ney's side? Still it might have been just the thing he needed -- provided he could beat Weaver -- in a buildup to Holmes. Sent from my NS-P10A6100 using Tapatalk
Yeah, in retrospect he may have beaten Weaver, but I feel like Rappaport/Jones didn't want to risk a Holmes fight.
Bob Arum and the WBA stuffed it, Weaver was going to be stripped if he fought C00ney and not Tillis. C00ney and co were absolutely ready to rock and roll as was Weaver. Later Weaver lamented not fighting C00ney regardless of stripped titles.
That would have been a helluva fight. Both fighters were on ascendent career trajectories but by entirely different means so it would have provided a good story, too.
Absolutely. If ****ey beat Weaver in decent fashion then a Holmes fight would have been even bigger. The win would have truly legitimised him. If Weaver won Holmes - Weaver would have been a much bigger fight and the promoters may have made it happen. In hindsight we lost out i think.
As someone who was following boxing at this time, I always thought this was a very winnable fight for C00ney. Had they fought, it would have prepared C00ney better for Holmes, too, and probably made even more money.
