What If...... Gerry Cooney Had Gone The WBA Route

[Caractacus]

was the phone call between Cooney and President Recorded re-corded ?

[tiny_acres]

was the phone call between Cooney and President Recorded re-corded ?

I don't recall if it was recorded. I do remember it fondly being talked about on airing the fight live. It was talked about like it was just an honor to have the president call.
I'm going to go through my old magazines and see what I find

[Caractacus]

Well Cooney and Reagan were both American's of Irish extraction.
(and St. Patrick's Day was still really big and cultural in New York back in the early 1980's)
i could be wrong but I'm sure President Reagan could probably identify more with Gerry Cooney
Do you think any of Larry Holmes relatives back in Easton PN were hoping Cooney would win ?

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

Slow starting Weaver was tailor made for fast starting Cooney. I think it would be a
KO in 1 or 2 rounds.
He could beat Coetzee and Page. I think Dokes gives him the most troubles. But it all depends if after beating Weaver would Cooney dive into alcohol and drugs like he did after losing to Holmes

- Initially it was Weaver's WBA that was solid that was Cooney to win that would've made him a different fighter going forward. Don't remember how it unraveled, but most certainly DKing had his greedy hands in the change up.

That was a vicious match up vs Holmes what all the white supremists making noise with the FBI snipers on hotel rooftops if a race riot broke out.

Tillis was rated #2 and Cooney was rated #1 with the WBA.
King pressured the WBA and the WBA caved calling the Tillis fight Weavers mandatory.
It was so strange.
And yes the racist crap with the Cooney vs Holmes was over the top. Reagan calling Cooney before the fight telling him to bring the title home was blatantly racist.
Bring it home??? WTF? Holmes was an American what did he mean bring it home?
Bring it home from where?

- Poor Lar one of the most unpopular champs ever always had an inferiority complex of being the giant sucking sound when Ali/Frazier, Norton, and Foreman retired. I mean Dwayne Bobick knocked him out of the the Olympic team in front of his mentor Ali on national TV.



In fact he spent his entire IBHOF speech ripping Foreman to shreds, just pitiable.

When Reagan appointed a black justice to the Cali supreme court, he found out that he was the black kid he rescued as a lifeguard. Reagan in spite of Democratic Hatred was one of the most popular folksy presidents ever with the populace. He was never the same after the fragging explosive bullets entering his braincase just about did him in.

[Caractacus]

Dang, Duane Bobick had some well developed "Latissimus dorsi" didn't he ? lol
( if he had a better tan it would have stood out more I'm sure)