BoxRec

Cooney was supposed to fight Mike Weaver in 1981.... How do you think it might have gone down?

The fight was mentioned following Holmes-Spinks, after Holmes basically busted Howard Cosell in the mouth trying to get after Cooney.

Mike weaver was a notorious slow starter.
That spells doom against Cooney.
Cooney wins in 2 rounds

1981 was the worst possible year for Cooney the fighter, because it only set up the heartbreak of 1982. Only one fight, in May of 1981, against the inactive & shopworn Ken Norton. A year and one month later, it was Holmes.

October 22, 1981 would have been Weaver. But the WBA made some absurd claim that if Weaver didn't defend against James "Quick" Tillis then Weaver would be stripped.


Had the WBA not of done so, maybe Cooney would have won and there would have been a WBA/WBC unifier with Holmes next--- or the fight would have been postponed until 1983, with Cooney defending the title against someone like Tillis and Dokes.

It sure would have been better preparation for Holmes than how things really went down. 1981 onwards wasn't good for Weaver, with losses to Dokes and Smith and Thomas and Ruddock by 1986. It's plausible Cooney wins--- after all Dokes did stop Weaver in the first round, controversial as that stoppage was in people's eyes. But if Dokes could hurt Weaver, when Dokes wasn't that big of a banger, it makes you wonder.

Weaver would have stopped him mid to late.

Another missed opportunity for Cooney occurred in 1980 when an injury pulled him out of a fight with Earnie Shavers, which would be a win for Tex Cobb. Cooney did commentary for the match. In retrospect, maybe a fight with Cobb would have benefited Cooney considering Cobb was nearly impossible to put away.

HomicideHenry wrote: ↑12 Jun 2019, 22:19 Another missed opportunity for Cooney occurred in 1980 when an injury pulled him out of a fight with Earnie Shavers, which would be a win for Tex Cobb. Cooney did commentary for the match. In retrospect, maybe a fight with Cobb would have benefited Cooney considering Cobb was nearly impossible to put away.

Cooney couldn't have taken what Cobb did. That may have been a blessing.

Onetimeonly wrote: ↑11 Jun 2019, 23:03 Weaver would have stopped him mid to late.

This. And Michael and Greg would have destroyed him. Even Charlie Z would have clowned Gerry if around back then.