BoxRec

He was another one that made you wince sometimes from watching him spar,especially when he delivered the left hook to the body.

Here are the names of some of his sparring partners.

Joe Bugner
LeRoy Caldwell
Kenny Brown
Tim Witherspoon(broke Cooney's nose and suspended from camp for 3 days)
Jeff Simms
Phil Brown
John Turco
Bill Roethel

Walter Santemore was Cooney's main sparring partner.

Mitch Green was also his sparring partner from what I've read.Wonder if Gerry got frustrated when he couldn't floor Mitch?

I recall seeing some footage of him sparring, he did not go easy
on the guys he employed to spar.

Big man with a big punch.

According to a 1987 issue of sports illustrated back in the mid-1980's when Cooney was making a comeback,
he did an exhibition with Harold Rice at Gilley's bar in Pasadena Texas who reportly showed Cooney up and embarresed Cooney.
Shortly afterward he lured him with 1500 dollars for Harold Rice to be a sparring partner at his training camp and then Cooney proceeded to,
break two of Rices ribs with one left hook,
broke an eardrum with another left hook.
broke his nose with a riight cross,
and left Harold Rice parylized from the waist down for several days.

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".

He sure didn't do much to tim Witherspoon.

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).

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.

Nile4000 wrote:Mitch Green was also his sparring partner from what I've read.Wonder if Gerry got frustrated when he couldn't floor Mitch?

Anyone have Mitch Green vs. Trevor Berbick? Can't find it on Youtube.

Didn" Green and Iran Barkley belong to the same street gang in NYC?
I seem to rmember the Gerry Coney did an exhibition with Iran Barkley for a benefit
for 9-11,for the police and firefighters I think shortly after it.
I wonder if the exhibition was filmed?

Brutu wrote:Didn" Green and Iran Barkley belong to the same street gang in NYC?
I seem to rmember the Gerry Coney did an exhibition with Iran Barkley for a benefit
for 9-11,for the police and firefighters I think shortly after it.
I wonder if the exhibition was filmed?

Never heard about that, but wouldn't surprise me.

I heard the movie The Warriors (1979) was in some way based on Mitch Green and his gang activities.

...when cooney was being built up to challenge holmes, i think there was a help wanted ad saying"wanted...middle aged gentleman of the colored persuasion to stand still in a boxing ring and let a large prize fighter hit you until you fall down." thought i had it once but i can't find it among my clippings.

Cutman Scabbers wrote:

Brutu wrote:Didn" Green and Iran Barkley belong to the same street gang in NYC?
I seem to rmember the Gerry Coney did an exhibition with Iran Barkley for a benefit
for 9-11,for the police and firefighters I think shortly after it.
I wonder if the exhibition was filmed?

Never heard about that, but wouldn't surprise me.

I heard the movie The Warriors (1979) was in some way based on Mitch Green and his gang activities.

The Warriors was based on a novel that reworked a story from ancient Greek history and set it in the near future.

I remember Larry Merchant saying that when mitch green was a gang-leader,he employed 120 men.

That one scene in THE WARRIORS were the dude clacks those glass bottles on his fingers always annoys me for some reason.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0nn8KiGrJc

some footage of Cooney sparring not sure whos scales they weighed on!!

Jose Ribalta sparred with Cooney and said that he hit harder than Tyson.

According to Jose, Bonecrusher Smith was the hardest puncher of all he faced and he said Tyson was such a knockout puncher not for power but for volume. Bonecrusher would hit you and pause while Tyson hit and hit and hit.

enrique wrote:Jose Ribalta sparred with Cooney and said that he hit harder than Tyson.

According to Jose, Bonecrusher Smith was the hardest puncher of all he faced and he said Tyson was such a knockout puncher not for power but for volume. Bonecrusher would hit you and pause while Tyson hit and hit and hit.

Wouldn't doubt it. Didn't Foreman say Cooney hit him harder than anyone (except maybe Ron Lyle)?

BarryWashington wrote:

Ezzard wrote:

Cutman Scabbers wrote:
Never heard about that, but wouldn't surprise me.

I heard the movie The Warriors (1979) was in some way based on Mitch Green and his gang activities.

The Warriors was based on a novel that reworked a story from ancient Greek history and set it in the near future.

Love that movie.

Me too, mate...

..foreman said cooney hit him so hard that had he followed up he (george) would have been in trouble, but george didn't show he was hurt and cooney let him off the hook. i think this tells about both cooney's power and foreman's ability to take a punch.

I think the real downfall for Mike Tyson began with the 1988 street encounter with
Mitch Green.IMOP I dont think Tyson would appear as nearly formindable and intimidating as he did before that incident.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Green

Brutu wrote: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 wrote:

Brutu wrote: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?