New Gerry Cooney AutoBiography !

[Caractacus]

has anyone here read this new book to review it ?
It was released in June of this year.(2019)
I only just found out about it by accident a few minutes ago while looking at some youtube clips.

[Caractacus]

Here is the youtube clip I just saw moments ago when I first heard about the book.

[Caractacus]

an interview done in August to promote his book.

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

for a second or two there at the very beginning of the video in the lower left corner
thought it was James J. Jeffries coming back to watch a fight !

[Caractacus]

-2016-

[Caractacus]

I thought Cooney moved very good around the ring, that and a terrific jab.
If Cooney's managers had accepted that contract with Don King,
Cooney was scheduled to fight Michael Dokes
as a preliminary on the Holmes vrs Ali title match.
I think Cooney would have 'creamed" Dokes.

[zuru]

I thought Cooney moved very good around the ring, that and a terrific jab.
If Cooney's managers had accepted that contract with Don King,
Cooney was scheduled to fight Michael Dokes
as a preliminary on the Holmes vrs Ali title match.
I think Cooney would have 'creamed" Dokes.

Me too.I think Cooney is very underrated.I think he should have waited to fight Holmes & got more experience against different styles.
But as he was,I think he would have done excellent against the top 10 .He had good handspeed

[sweetsci]

I thought Cooney moved very good around the ring, that and a terrific jab.
If Cooney's managers had accepted that contract with Don King,
Cooney was scheduled to fight Michael Dokes
as a preliminary on the Holmes vrs Ali title match.
I think Cooney would have 'creamed" Dokes.

Cooney vs. Dokes scheduled? Never heard this one, and I was paying attention at the time. Interesting.

[Caractacus]

yeah,, I just heard it not too long ago.
I think the reason that it did not happen
was because King wanted Cooney to do a long tern contract with him in order to get the chance,
but Cooney did not want to be caught up in any long term contract with Don King.

[HomicideHenry]

Cooney vs Dokes would have been a very intriguing matchup. He certainly would have benefited from fighting such men as that whether he was on the winning side or the losing side. Before Dokes got on cocaine bad he had all the potential in the world to have been a really great fighter.

But as he said he trained on Jack Daniels and cocaine for Gerrie Coetzee (1983) and basically from that point on it was hit and miss for my fellow Ohioan. He would get clean from time to time and give individuals like Evander Holyfield tremendous fights, but he never again quite became the fighter he once was.

1980 Dokes.... Gosh.... Quite hard to gauge, as he had only beaten Ossie Ocasio and Jimmy Young... So on paper they definitely would have been basically evenly matched, but 1981 & 1982 he beat John L. Gardner and Tex Cobb and Mike Weaver. So who knows.

I'd like Cooney to win, but I also want Dokes to win. And if I had to place a bet I would probably go with Dokes, mostly on the basis of his later performance against Evander Holyfield (1989) because as much as I like Cooney I don't think he would have performed as well against Holyfield as Dokes did.

[evrenb]

I would pick Dokes....

[Caractacus]

I say Cooney would have knocked him out in the first round.
The pRESURRE....THE PRESSURE !

[Nile4000]

Michael Dokes was tougher than people give him credit for, He was a good boxer, though not top notch, and had a decent chin. If he can take Cooney's left hook, he wins, if he can't Cooney stops him within 5 rounds.

[Ambling Alp II]

Cooney was effective only against stationary targets who couldn't beat him to the punch. By that, I mean flat-footed guys who were easy to hit. Remove these conditions and Cooney's effectiveness plummeted.

As Gerry was being moved up the heavyweight ladder, he was deliberately kept away from two types of fighters. One was anyone who could hurt him. Second was anyone who could neutralize Cooney's offensive by dancing away and boxing efficiently.

I think Cooney was rushed into the Holmes fight because everyone involved in the promotion knew he was vulnerable. Cooney was a box office bonanza and could pull in record-breaking revenues in a fight against Holmes. But that kind of high-yield promotion was only viable as long as Cooney was undefeated. Therefore, Cooney's managers preferred to keep him inactive for 13 months leading up to that June 1982 super-fight. Nobody wanted to run the risk of Cooney getting exposed and knocked off by some inferior opponent.

To Cooney's credit, he did put up a gritty, courageous effort against Holmes. Gerry had Holmes on his backfoot for some of the rounds in their bout. But on the other hand, Cooney's weaknesses, especially regarding durability, were exposed that night.

Pretty much agree with that. Cooney had some ability, but his managers kept him away for tough competition. They weren't really boxing guys but knew that they had a goldmine in an undefeated Cooney.
Financially it made sense to not fight too tough of competition before fighting Holmes.

Would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Cooney fought guys like Thomas, Page, Witherspoon, Coatzee, Dokes etc. after the Holmes fight.

Ultimately it's tough to know how good Cooney really was. Going by the Holmes fight(which is the by far the best indicator) he was pretty good (better than some people think) but certainly had his flaws.

[Caractacus]

Michael Dokes was tougher than people give him credit for, He was a good boxer, though not top notch, and had a decent chin. If he can take Cooney's left hook, he wins, if he can't Cooney stops him within 5 rounds.

He would not have been able 'to take" Cooney's left hook tho
( either to the chin or body)
I dont think he would have even been able to take a (rare) good right from Cooney.
Dokes was pretty much built like a cruiser-weight except he had large hips and a large behind,
that is were most of his weight was it looked.

[Ambling Alp II]

Not sure at all why you would say that about Dokes. He was a heavyweight all the way.

As for the matchup, yes Cooney had a big left hook. But Dokes had his advantages too.

[511875]

I agree that Cooney's 0 made him even more of a cash cow, but I can't help but wonder why really?

He had enormous KO power and he was white which is a recipe for big commercial success certainly. Did people really lose interest in Tommy Morrison after he lost? It doesn't feel like it. I guess what I'm saying is, I agree that Cooney's handlers were cagey with him, but I think they would have all made a ton of money on a Holmes fight even if he had a loss or two on his record, and Cooney might have been a better fighter with a different career plan.

On the other hand, he was clearly fragile mentally, so maybe he would have been destroyed by a loss even before the Holmes fight came to fruition. Maybe that is what his handlers knew. He's an interesting story, I'll definitely read the book.

[Ambling Alp II]

I agree that Cooney's 0 made him even more of a cash cow, but I can't help but wonder why really?

He had enormous KO power and he was white which is a recipe for big commercial success certainly. Did people really lose interest in Tommy Morrison after he lost? It doesn't feel like it. I guess what I'm saying is, I agree that Cooney's handlers were cagey with him, but I think they would have all made a ton of money on a Holmes fight even if he had a loss or two on his record, and Cooney might have been a better fighter with a different career plan.

On the other hand, he was clearly fragile mentally, so maybe he would have been destroyed by a loss even before the Holmes fight came to fruition. Maybe that is what his handlers knew. He's an interesting story, I'll definitely read the book.

If he had a loss ot two on his record before he fought Holmes, the fight would not have been nearly as big. It was a huge Pay Per View event. He made a ton of money on it. If he had lost before that, everyone would have known he had no chance against Holmes.
Cooney- Holmes would have been just another Friday night title defense on network TV. Cooney (and Holmes for that matter) would have made much money on it.

Not saying Cooney would never have got a shot. And of course being white helped. But it would not have been as big of a deal.

[Caractacus]

If he had a loss ot two on his record before he fought Holmes, the fight would not have been nearly as big. It was a huge Pay Per View event. He made a ton of money on it. If he had lost before that, everyone would have known he had no chance against Holmes.
Cooney- Holmes would have been just another Friday night title defense on network TV. Cooney (and Holmes for that matter) would have made much money on it.

Holmes vrs Cooney was not a "pay-per-view" event.
It was shown on closed-curcuit Television.
back in those days you had to go to Down-Town to a Movie House or some sort of arena to watch it.
I think the cheapest tickets were about 15 dollars then for admittance.
also no way would a Gerry Cooney fight have been shown on "Network TV"
I missed most if not all of his fights that were shown live
because they were all on HBO, and you had to have cable television to get HBO and I lived out in the country.
btw Hagler vrs Hearns in April 1985 was the first fight I remember being on 'pay-per-view" home tv
but at that point I was living in town and had cable tv by then.

[Ambling Alp II]

If he had a loss ot two on his record before he fought Holmes, the fight would not have been nearly as big. It was a huge Pay Per View event. He made a ton of money on it. If he had lost before that, everyone would have known he had no chance against Holmes.
Cooney- Holmes would have been just another Friday night title defense on network TV. Cooney (and Holmes for that matter) would have made much money on it.

Holmes vrs Cooney was not a "pay-per-view" event.
It was shown on closed-curcuit Television.
back in those days you had to go to Down-Town to a Movie House or some sort of arena to watch it.
I think the cheapest tickets were about 15 dollars then for admittance.
also no way would a Gerry Cooney fight have been shown on "Network TV"
I missed most if not all of his fights that were shown live
because they were all on HBO, and you had to have cable television to get HBO and I lived out in the country.
btw Hagler vrs Hearns in April 1985 was the first fight I remember being on 'pay-per-view" home tv
but at that point I was living in town and had cable tv by then.

You have some of this correct, and some not.
You are right Pay Per View. It was closed circuit. Pay Per View was not available yet. You had to pay money to see Holmes-Cooney on Closed Circuit.

However, you are a little off about Network TV (ABC, CBS, or NBC) fights. They were very common in the early 1980s and would be for a few more years. HBO got one once in a while but fights with name fighters on the networks were still very common in 1982. That would gradually chance throughout the 1980s.

The bigger ones were in primetime and others were in daytime on weekends.
He won the WBC title from Norton on network TV. I watched Holmes made several title defenses on network TV. His fight against Renaldo Snipes (the fight before the Cooney fight) was on ABC. He had title defenses after the Cooney fight that were on network TV.

Had Cooney lost a fight before he fought Holmes, his reputation would have take a big hit. There is no way that Holmes-Cooney would been a Closed Circuit fight in that situation. It probably would have been on one of the networks in primetime.

[Nile4000]

Michael Dokes was tougher than people give him credit for, He was a good boxer, though not top notch, and had a decent chin. If he can take Cooney's left hook, he wins, if he can't Cooney stops him within 5 rounds.

He would not have been able 'to take" Cooney's left hook tho
( either to the chin or body)
I dont think he would have even been able to take a (rare) good right from Cooney.
Dokes was pretty much built like a cruiser-weight except he had large hips and a large behind,
that is were most of his weight was it looked.

Let's be real though, I think Michael's speed could be a major problem for Gerry. That in itself, could cause problems before Cooney gets set.