sparring partners of Gerry Cooney

[Caractacus]

Here is a link to a three round exhibition that Gerry Cooney had with a sparring partner,
the 1985 AAU Champ Wesley Watson
December.19.1989 when Cooney was preparing to fight Big George Foreman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nYGnlXnvJA

[Caractacus]

Here are some quotes from Time magazine and others from Joe Bugner when he was Cooney's sparring partner a few weeks before the Holmes fight,wearing 16 oz. gloves.
"This young man has the greatest left hook I have ever felt and that includes Fraziers.
"He takes a good shot,Gerry does,He also delivers a bloody harder one".
He wants to put it right through you".
"He hits you here and the punch comes through there",said Bugner,pointing first to his liver and then to his kidney..
"He is the most powerful puncher Ive ever seen.Frazier had a more vicious hook,but Cooney's has more force".

Bugner on Cooney's left hook.

[Caractacus]

After his loss to Holmes Gerry Cooney trained with Ritchie Barathy who put him on some type of weight training regime
supposedly to add speed to his punches.
(who owned a gym in Cooney's hometown of Huntington NY)on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1979.
Do you think liftting those weights may have taken some of the "Zing" out of Cooney's vicious lefts for the Spinks fight ?

[Kalan]

Here are some quotes from Time magazine and others from Joe Bugner when he was Cooney's sparring partner a few weeks before the Holmes fight,wearing 16 oz. gloves.
"This young man has the greatest left hook I have ever felt and that includes Fraziers.
"He takes a good shot,Gerry does,He also delivers a bloody harder one".
He wants to put it right through you".
"He hits you here and the punch comes through there",said Bugner,pointing first to his liver and then to his kidney..
"He is the most powerful puncher Ive ever seen.Frazier had a more vicious hook,but Cooney's has more force".

Bugner always had the chat. We had to put up with this kind of bs for years in Blighty.

Bennie

I saw him being interviewed on KOTV the other week and thought what he said was very interesting.

He went the distance twice with Ali. Went the distance with Frazier. Lost a split decision to Lyle. Other than Lennox Lewis I don’t think there’s been a British Heavy who could have done so well against those guys.

His style was annoying. We Brits will forgive a guy who goes out on their shield or who fails heroically. Bugner never did this.

You know the British scene and that era far better than me. Do you think he was a bit hard done to?

Bugner was a punching bag... Uncoordinated Frank Bruno battered him out... Bug was cheeky as Hell before that one... Bug said "I'm going to give Ron Lyle a thrashing" .... Lennox Lewis, David Haye, or Anthony Joshua would have knocked Bugner out in 2 rounds each... Frazier was a teeny, tiny little tyke with high blood pressure and Ali couldn't hit for shitt.

[Caractacus]

just thought bump this thread back up.

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

Joe Bugner was as solid as a rock as any HW fighter had been.
He fought Ron Lyle with a broken foot that was treated just before the fight and was completly numb
that prevented any decent foot movement.
Earnie Shavers 'knocked him out" with an illegal punch
( cupping his neck with his left glove whilst delivering a vicious uppercut (ala Jimmy Ellis)
he was given a title fight in Indonesia, a hot, sticky humid climate he was not accustomed to fighting in )

[Caractacus]

sheeyat Bugner with his Eurasian steppes adapted scrotum was probably prone to contraced "Jock-Itch" in that type of climate if you were to Arsk me.
anyway this fight was just a couple months after the Holmes vrs Cooney fight in 1982.
check out the volley of body punches Bugner delivers at about 2:00 of this clip.

[JMac]

Here is a quote from the book FACING MIKE TYSON by Ted Kluck,
in the chapter about Sammy Scaff,
who Im guessing sparred(or was asked to spar,its unclear) with Cooney when Cooney was (im presuming)training to fight
George Foreman(as Scaff stands 6 ft 7 inches,250 lbs)
page 30.
"Gerry Cooney's people offered me a thousand bucks a week to come out and spar with him,but everybody knew that Cooney would work his sparring partners to the bone
and then bring in the media and knock them out in front of the reporters.
...Cooney was kind of a dick".(quoting Sam Scaff).

If you run into Cooney today, he is one of the nicest people you ever met. I've seen him over the years at different boxing events and is always super nice to whoever comes up to him wanting pics.

[Caractacus]

yeah, I meant the original schedule date for Holmes vrs Cooney which was supposed to be in March 1982
and Bugner was his sparring partner.

[Caractacus]

Cooney vrs Bugner was supposed to have happened in December 1981 from what I remember.
also Shavers claimed it was an overhand right that cut Bugner,
but Bugner seems still bitter that it was caused by a butt.

[Caractacus]

here is the interview with Joe Bugner where he says (allegdly) that Don King told Shavers to win
either by hook or by crook.

https://ringtv.com/330445-best-ive-faced-joe-bugner/

as far as the Hagler/Minter fight, I remember just after the ref stopped that fight the British ringside commenters had said thats what the crowd at Wembly
was really angry over (the buttings causing the stoppage)at even before the bottle throwing.
The ABC commentery made it a racial thing.

[Caractacus]

Here are some quotes from Time magazine and others from Joe Bugner when he was Cooney's sparring partner a few weeks before the Holmes fight,wearing 16 oz. gloves.
"This young man has the greatest left hook I have ever felt and that includes Fraziers.
"He takes a good shot,Gerry does,He also delivers a bloody harder one".
He wants to put it right through you".
"He hits you here and the punch comes through there",said Bugner,pointing first to his liver and then to his kidney..
"He is the most powerful puncher Ive ever seen.Frazier had a more vicious hook,but Cooney's has more force".

Bugner's 'own words" about the left hook of Gerry Cooney.

[Tony1244]

Dino Denis had sparred with Gerry Cooney a couple of months
before they signed fortheir fight together.
Denis was training to fight someone and came to the gym
and tried to rought up Cooney and show him up.
Reportly Cooney got the better of him
there were some insults traded and Denis left the gym.
Fast forward a few months later to the weigh-in for their fight,
Denis calls Cooney a f*g ,there is a fracus at the weight
with some punches thrown in by Al Braverman,Denis's manager.

I remember Denis saying that he told Gerry he hadn't sparred in a while and he was just getting back into shape. Supposedly, Gerry agreed to go light and didn't. Denis got pissed off so they scheduled a real fight.

I also remember a Bugner quote predicting Gerry would KO Holmes with a right hand!

[Caractacus]

Joe Bugner may have let "The Cat out of the Bag" with that comment.
because Cooney had really hurt Jimmy Young with some right hands.

Cooney had also used his right hand (to some extent)
in this fight too.