I Feel Fine wrote:So, granberry, you're saying that when Young loses to Cooney, we should be mindful that Young was out of shape and didn't normally fight that way, and should not take that to mean that Cooney would have beaten a better version of Young, and yet when...
Oh, nevermind.

Ali tried like hell to beat Young.
He threw as many jabs and right hands (or more) than he did in any fight he had.
And he missed every one. Many by a foot to a foot and a half.
But he was trying like hell to win. He was desperate.
After the fight he and Dundee and Bundini stood in the corner as they waited for the decision with their heads hanging like little kids who knew they had done something they were about to be chastened for.
In comparison Young did not try to do anything against Cooney except stand right in front of Cooney and let a fighter as inept as Cooney hit him continuously.
As the youtube poster says, Young's 'performance' was so phoney that it would take someone who never saw Young fight (or a member of the Cooney is one of the best of "all time" like certified idiot Herbert Goldman) to think that Young, who had boxed Ali silly and beaten Foreman and Lyle twice, would be so totally inept against a second-rater like Cooney.
Look at Young's 'performance' against Greg Page. In twelve rounds, Young threw one right hand -- in the 12th and final round.
Why? Because Don King (just as he did with dozens of others poor souls) said Young "owed" him hundreds of thousands of dollars
and that the Page fight would reduce the "debt" on paper while Young got nothing.
For what was left of the mentality of Young at that point his reaction was to show up in the ring---but not to fight--since he wasn't getting paid.
That was obvious.
The Cooney fight was worse. It was an obvious phoney on Young's part.
Why weren't the regular cornermen from Philly in Young's corner for the sham with Cooney?
Why was
Eddie Futch in Young's corner?
Futch was never in Young's corner for any other fight.
The fact that Futch was in Young's corner ONLY for that fight stunk to high heavens.
Futch was the tip of the iceberg who was sent to work for the overall promotion and keep the agenda in place.
The Don Kings and his herd of paid off "news" men make a living selling their garbage to devout "believers" like buzz and company.