Gerry Cooney/televised-filmed fights(1977-1990)

[Bricks]

I will never understand the apparent CDR.
"Cooney Derangement Syndrome"
that still seems to exist 25 years later.
I dont think its roots have anything to do with Cooney's boxing abilities(or lack of according to some people).
The bottom line is,that he didnt fight enough during his prime years
to be accurately judge by anyone..

I still remember that HBO show Legendary Nights,Holmes-Cooney.
smarmy Barry Thompkins adds his 2 cents at the end implying the fight was essentially just
a P.T Barnum-esque stunt to get ass's in seats and that Cooney was a fraud as far as being a legitament contender
to get a shot at the heavyweight crown.

I like and agree with all your comments here which are excellently put.
Going into the Holmes fight Cooney had more or less been inactive 2 years. I dont buy the whole gym fights thing either. A man needs to step into the pressure cooker that is the public arena.
So many coulda beens shoulda beens with Cooney

[Brutu]

You can see one of the Wacko twins actually get up into Cooney's corner in between rounds of a fight
while his trainer was talking to Cooney giving him water.
What could he have possibly needed to say to Cooney?
also shortly after the Norton fight(May 1981)Cooney was supposed to or planning to fight Mike Weaver later that Fall
for the WBA hvywt title,but the WBA instead ordered Weaver to fight James"Quick"Tillis(ranked #3) Oct 1981.

And if Weaver didn't fight him, Page and Tillis were fighting for the vacant belt.

The WBA ordered the WBA heavyweight champion(Weaver) to defend their title against the third ranked(Tillis)instead of defending it against the first ranked(Cooney)or the WBA champ would be stripped of his title?
sounds like a bunch of mularky to me.
what was their reasoning or did Cooney's managers just refuse to pay the the WBA for the priveldge?

[Flump]

You can see one of the Wacko twins actually get up into Cooney's corner in between rounds of a fight
while his trainer was talking to Cooney giving him water.
What could he have possibly needed to say to Cooney?
also shortly after the Norton fight(May 1981)Cooney was supposed to or planning to fight Mike Weaver later that Fall
for the WBA hvywt title,but the WBA instead ordered Weaver to fight James"Quick"Tillis(ranked #3) Oct 1981.

And if Weaver didn't fight him, Page and Tillis were fighting for the vacant belt.

The WBA ordered the WBA heavyweight champion(Weaver) to defend their title against the third ranked(Tillis)instead of defending it against the first ranked(Cooney)or the WBA champ would be stripped of his title?
sounds like a bunch of mularky to me.
what was their reasoning or did Cooney's managers just refuse to pay the the WBA for the priveldge?

Well Bobby Chacon got stripped of his title for fighting his mandatory, Boza Edwards, instead of Camacho. The reason? Seems Camacho was promoted by Don King.

[Brutu]

In Quick Tillis autobiography autobiography,Tillis said that Cooney's co-manager Dennis Rapaport offered Tillis
"One Million dollars"
to step aside so Cooney could fight Weaver.But Tillis(then trained by Angelo Dundee)) refused because he thought the hwy championship was better.
However who did Tillis beat to deserve a title shot anyway?

[Brutu]

A few of Gerry Cooney's exhibition fights were televised or filmed.

ABC WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS May.23.1982,aired live exhibitions from Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas,NV .
Larry Holmes did 2 rounds each with Marvin Stinson and Jody Ballard.
Cooney went 2 rounds each with Walter Santemore and Muhammad Hussein.
Holmes wore regular headgear and Cooney wore special headgear with a face mask to protect a cut nose
he recieved earlier in sparring.
(also shown on same program was the world lumberjack championships, taped)

[Brutu]

Gerry Cooney's scheduled 4-round exhibition with 38 year old Boone Kirkman at the Lane County Fairgrounds
Eugene Oregon,February.11.1983 was filmed.
Cooney landed a left hook to Kirkman's head in the third round and knocked him down.
Kirkman's coach stepped in the ring and asked the ref to stop the fight.
the crowd was over 3,000.

[Brutu]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3091926058#

IMOP Cooney's fightin style was unique,among a sea of Muhammad Ali wanna-be's.
He fought like a huge raptor bird of prey,
always on the attack.
Cooney was relentless in those days.
Cooney was ranked number 3 after the Jimmy Young fight,so why didnt the WBA demand that Cooney
get a title shot after this fight,like Tillis got later?

[actjac]

Gerry Cooney's scheduled 4-round exhibition with 38 year old Boone Kirkman at the Lane County Fairgrounds
Eugene Oregon,February.11.1983 was filmed.
Cooney landed a left hook to Kirkman's head in the third round and knocked him down.
Kirkman's coach stepped in the ring and asked the ref to stop the fight.
the crowd was over 3,000.

I remember this one and actually commented about it in a thread about Boone Kirkman....is there a link to viewing this one?

[Darling]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3091926058#

IMOP Cooney's fightin style was unique,among a sea of Muhammad Ali wanna-be's.
He fought like a huge raptor bird of prey,
always on the attack.
Cooney was relentless in those days.
Cooney was ranked number 3 after the Jimmy Young fight,so why didnt the WBA demand that Cooney
get a title shot after this fight,like Tillis got later?

[Brutu]

Gerry Cooney's scheduled 4-round exhibition with 38 year old Boone Kirkman at the Lane County Fairgrounds
Eugene Oregon,February.11.1983 was filmed.
Cooney landed a left hook to Kirkman's head in the third round and knocked him down.
Kirkman's coach stepped in the ring and asked the ref to stop the fight.
the crowd was over 3,000.

I remember this one and actually commented about it in a thread about Boone Kirkman....is there a link to viewing this one?

I have never seen it myself but a seller(silversurfer91.homestead.com) has the highlights of it in a sparring and training dvd.
It also has the ABC Caesars Palace broadcast of Cooney exhibition against Walter Santemore and Isaac Hussein,as well as Larry Holmes exhibition,also the Cooney-Wesley Watson exhibition.

[Brutu]

I noticed that the same seller has listed,

Gerry Cooney vrs Austin Johnson
KO1(scheduled for 6)
January.27.1978
Calderon Theater,Hampstead,New York.

That was Cooney's 9th professional fight.
I guess this fight was only recently found,as I dont remember it being listed at the sellers site,when I last checked a few months ago.
It would also appear to be his earliest pro fight on film/tape,so far anyway.

[Brutu]

What became of Lynn Ball?
He was at one time considered a possible contender for the heavyweight crown in the late 1970's.

He ran into Marty Monroe.

here is a link to youtube bout of Marty Monroe vrs Lynn Ball(September 1980)
also check out the short clips of LaDoux vrs Monroe and the devastating knockout in Ball vrs Ron Lyle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-8PTOdY6rE

[Dart340]

The earliest fight I have ever found is the Grady Daniels fight. I have a feeling the seller in question actually has the Charlie Johnson fight from later down the road and not the earlier Austin Johnson fight, but it would be a good find if it's the latter. I have the Tom Prater fight and it appears to have been filmed with a Super 8 camera directly off a TV when originally broadcast.

[Brutu]

Somebody was kind enough to re-post the often youtube scrubbed Cooney vrs Lyle.
So watch it while u can!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiOYJImVuFM

[Brutu]

The earliest fight I have ever found is the Grady Daniels fight. I have a feeling the seller in question actually has the Charlie Johnson fight from later down the road and not the earlier Austin Johnson fight, but it would be a good find if it's the latter. I have the Tom Prater fight and it appears to have been filmed with a Super 8 camera directly off a TV when originally broadcast.

You'r probably right.
Silversurfer91.homestead.com has the Cooney-Austin Johnson fight listed,but not the Cooney-Charlie Johnson bout.
classicfights.net has Cooney-Charlie Johnson,but not Cooney -Austin Johnson.

I wonder if the Cooney-Prater bout was originally on HBO(taped)?
(there appears to be a tv listing for it,but im not going to pay the New York Times to see it)

[Brutu]

I think there is a short clip of Cooney brutally knocking out Dino Denis somewhere on youtube.

[Brutu]

Here is the link to the brief clip of Cooney vs Denis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czIMOUAe4F4

[Brutu]

I came across this in a newspaper televsion guide for the week of May.6.1977.
on the CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR.
Lee Canalito vrs Jerry Cooney"
It was to be one of the preliminaries to Michael Spinks(vsLuis Rodriquez) and Leon Spinks(vs Pedro Agosto)
fighting to have been fighting on the same show.

[actjac]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfh4RQwRwdA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsyorbcSS5o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPQl42jaUNQ

[ThatOne]

He made a fight of it against Larry Holmes and wasn't that far behind on two of the cards and would have been ahead if not being penalized for low blows. He had some talent.

[Nile4000]

He made a fight of it against Larry Holmes and wasn't that far behind on two of the cards and would have been ahead if not being penalized for low blows. He had some talent.

He had some talent, but yet didn't fight Page, Dokes, Coetzee. Cobb, and Snipes.Weaver had a damn good chance to beat him, and he didn't fight him either.Because of the charged atmosphere of the fight, certain people make the Holmes fight closer than it was.

[drunkenpiper36]

I know for a fact all of these exist because I have them.

George Chaplin
Eddie Gregg
Phillip Brown
Ken Norton
Ron Lyle
Jimmy Young
Dino Denis
Tom Prater
Charlie Johnson
Grady Daniels
S.T. Gordon
Earl Tripp
Larry Derrick
Larry Holmes
Michael Spinks
Gerry Cooney

The vast majority of these are now on youtube.

[Caractacus]

Here is Gerry Cooney vrs S.T Gordon March.17.1978 (St. Patricks Day) which aired on the CBS Friday Night Fights.
(This was Cooney's 11th professional fight)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peBjX9Iq6MM

[Caractacus]

Here is Gerry Cooney's 18th professional fight vrs Tom Prater June.29. 1979.
Which aired on the Friday Night Fights from MSG on WOR-TV in New York City
(listen for the crowd chants of...Gerry...Gerry...Gerrry !)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJDCM_zvRz8

[Caractacus]

here is video footage of MSG Friday Night Fights that aired on WOR-TV ,NYC of Gerry Cooney vrs John Dino Dennis.
Which aired November.9.1979.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV9m6po0u84