BoxRec

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Because the thread above has so many videos on it that have been removed, for whatever reason, I figured I would do a fight-by-fight account of Gerry Cooney's career.

viewtopic.php?t=109339&start=50

The above mentioned link is a list of sparring partners that Gerry Cooney had over the years, along with some footage of those sparring sessions.

For some he was a man who "could have been" something more than he was, for others he was a "manufactured fighter" who was more hype than anything else. A polarizing figure in boxing history even today among fight fans.

Amateur Career:
55 wins, 3 losses



1973, Cooney would win the Golden Gloves Sub-Novice Championship in the middleweight division at the age of 17. In 1975, he would reach the finals of the Golden Gloves light heavyweight but would lose to Johnny Davis.



1976, Cooney wins the Golden Gloves Heavyweight Open championship defeating Earlous Tripp. That match is featured here. Cooney is listed as 6'3"-6'4" in this bout.

Turning Professional:



As of this date (September 28, 2021) there is no film footage of Cooney's earliest bouts on YouTube. The earliest bout available on the platform seems to be the 1978 bout with ST GORDON (6-2-0) and Cooney by this time was 10-0-0 with 9 kayos to his credit. Cooney is said to be 6'5" in this bout.

His next 10 bouts are also not available on YouTube which include the following: GG Maldonado, Charlie Polite, Sam McGill, Grady Daniels, Eddie Lopez, Charlie Johnson, Tom Prater, Broderick Mason, Malik Dozier, and John Dino Denis. All of these but two were won by knockout.



Leroy Boone (12-3-0) becomes the next video available on YouTube, and Cooney is now 21-0-0 (17) as a professional boxer. Cooney was already being called a "white hope" by the sporting press. Said to be 6'5" in this bout. Cooney wins by 6th round kayo. Thus concludes 1979, and onwards to 1980.



Jimmy Young (25-9-2) was the first major test of Cooney's career, although his last truly competitive fight was in 1977 with Ken Norton. Young had previously lost unanimous decisions to Ossie Ocasio and Michael Dokes in 1978 and 1979, so clearly on the decline. Cooney would TKO Young in the 4th via viscous cut over the eye.



Ron Lyle (39-6-1) was also on the decline as his best years was in the mid-late 70s, where the last meaningful victory he had was a split decision over Scott LeDoux in 1979. Cooney kayos him in the 1st round. Thus concludes 1980, onwards to 1981.



Ken Norton (42-6-1) was also on the decline as he had three pitiful performances prior to this; two controversial decision wins/draws with Scott LeDoux and Tex Cobb, and a first round knockout loss to Earnie Shavers. Cooney stops Norton in 54 seconds.

Aftermath

Cooney was scheduled to take on Earnie Shavers, but an injury in training prevented this from taking place, and Tex Cobb substituted for Cooney. But ever the gracious showman Cooney showed up to do commentary for that particular contest. Cobb would stop Shavers in the 8th round.

The Craziest Year of Cooney's Career

1981-1982, was a year plagued with injuries and missed opportunities. Cooney was in negotiations to fight WBA heavyweight champion Mike Weaver, but this failed to materialize. The bout would have taking place in September of 1981. However, Bob Arum essentially prevented the bout from taking place arguing that Weaver should defend the title against James Tillis the #3 ranked WBA contender instead of #1 ranked Cooney.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/13/spor ... orted.html

Of course, after Weaver defeated Tillis he would get injured in training for Cooney, and then Cooney would get injured. Weaver would defend the title against Dokes and would lose the strap, and having a rematch clause with Dokes this left Cooney out in the cold.

Cooney had a tentative agreement to meet WBA champion Mike Weaver on October 22, 1981, but the WBA said Weaver had to fight James "Quick" Tillis next or be stripped of the title. Cooney was ranked #1 by the WBA and Tillis was ranked #3, but the organization said that Tillis was the highest ranked available contender when Weaver was due for a mandatory defense in March 1981. At that time, Cooney and #2 ranked Leon Spinks had other fights scheduled.

Larry Holmes defends against Leon Spinks, and gets into a post fight scuffle with Gerry Cooney which left commentator Howard Cosell with a bloody nose courtesy of a punch thrown by Larry Holmes.

The only title belt left to go after was Larry Holmes. The fight was scheduled to happen on March 15th, 1982 but Cooney got injured postponing the fight to June 11th, 1982.

After the Weaver fight fell through, Cooney's managers set their sights on Holmes. In September, it was announced that Holmes and Cooney had agreed to fight. However, Holmes first had to defend his title against Renaldo Snipes on November 6, 1981. Snipes put a scare into everyone when he dropped Holmes in the seventh round, but Holmes came back to stop Snipes in the eleventh and preserve the Cooney fight.

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/16/spor ... fight.html

All in all Cooney would be out of the ring for 13 months before stepping into the ring with Larry Holmes. Nevertheless Cooney-Holmes would be the richest prize fight in boxing history up until that point.

Cooney vs Holmes



It's very difficult to say anything more than what "Legendary Nights" did years ago covering the story of Holmes versus Cooney, but it cannot be emphasized just how crazy the world got over this heavyweight title fight where snipers were literally on the roof of Las Vegas hotels to make sure that nobody made a move against Holmes or Cooney.



Tensions between the two heavyweights were only increased due to race hustlers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, along with Don King, stoking the flames of racial ideologies to only increase dollars and cents.

Cooney was deducted three points during the contest for low blows, and the final judges scores at the conclusion was: 115-109, 113-111, and 113-111. If you give Cooney the three points back scores would've been: 115-112, 114-113, 114-113.

So the fight was pretty competitive, all in all, but inactivity and facing soft opposition ultimately cost Cooney as he simply did not have enough in the tank to continue on.

I've interviewed Larry Holmes before and he was pretty complimentary of Gerry Cooney's abilities and worth as a heavyweight, dismissing the notion that he was just some manufactured heavyweight who had no business fighting for the heavyweight title.

Following the loss to Holmes, Cooney went off the deep end emotionally and mentally engaging in drug and alcohol abuse and wouldn't fight until 1984.



Gerry Cooney engaging in an exhibition with Boone Kirkman sometime in 1983, as Cooney says he's been out of the ring for seven months following the loss to Larry Holmes.



Philip Brown 23-0-2, would get kayoed in the fourth round of a scheduled ten. This fight was held in Anchorage Alaska. Cooney was listed as 6'7" and 230 pounds. Brown, despite his impressive record, never quite fought anybody as the only meaningful victory he had was a split decision win over Jimmy Young in 1982 who was beyond shot at that point.

George Chaplin 22-6-2, for whatever reason is not available on YouTube but Gerry Cooney disposes of him in two rounds. Cooney would go inactive again, not fighting for nearly two full years after this match. He had retired allegedly due to family problems, but by Cooney's own admission years later he was having his own battles with drugs and alcohol.



Eddie Gregg 24-1-1, gets knocked out in the first round. This fight propels Cooney back into the title picture as newly crowned heavyweight champion Michael Spinks is looking for a name opponent who is not as dangerous as Tony Tucker his mandatory.

The timeframe of 1985-1988 was a pretty unusual one in boxing as former light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks dethrones Larry Holmes, only to give up his belt (IBF) and campaign as "the true champion", belt or no belt.

For all intents and purposes Spinks was the consensus lineal heavyweight champion of the world, but the public was losing patience with the two-division title holder for his unwillingness to face off against legitimate threats.

Spinks had defended the IBF title against Steffan Tangstad the European champion, who was rated number 10 in the world, but dropped the belt legally when he refused to defend it against mandatory challenger Tony Tucker.

Tucker would defeat Buster Douglas for the vacant title, and also out on the scene was a young man named Mike Tyson who was the WBC & WBA champion and would pick up the IBF belt 2 months after Spinks fought Cooney.

Nonetheless, facing the popular Irishman who absolutely dwarfed Spinks was an excellent stunt for "The Jinx" because it was a winnable contest although on paper it appeared to be Spinks toughest challenge since Holmes.



Unfortunately for Cooney he never seemed to be in the contest, only having brief moments of success. He would be stopped in the fifth round, and never again would compete for a heavyweight championship or be taken seriously as a heavyweight contender.

Between all the inactivity and rampant drug and alcohol abuse, Cooney simply was incapable of performing at a high level anymore. By his own admission years later, he wouldn't stop drinking until 1988.

The Last Hurrah

By 1990, Gerry Cooney was a promoter of boxing events usually featured on USA Network's Tuesday Night Fights and had been instrumental in the comeback of George Foreman staging many of his bouts.

One day Foreman suggests that he and Cooney should fight each other, and after some deliberation Cooney decides to go through with it. Allegedly it was the only time in his entire career where he trained without drinking or doing drugs.



In preparation for his match with Foreman the three-year inactive Cooney embarked on a series of exhibitions that were on the undercards of shows he promoted. Only this exhibition (15-2 Wesley Watson) seems to be available on YouTube.



George Foreman 64-2, after getting shook up early by Cooney would stop him in the second round of a scheduled ten. Cooney would never box professionally again, but this victory made many observers finally take George Foreman's comeback seriously.



Following the match with Cooney, Foreman appeared on the David Letterman show and claimed that Gerry Cooney hit him the hardest of any opponent he ever faced.

hey, for the Gerry Cooney 'completist" you should also maybe post the fights where he did "ringside color commentery"
( which weren't too many)
Here is one, I think he did a couple of others but can't remember which fights.

Foreman has been known to either exaggerate or to tell falsehoods from time to time, but it has to be said that George Foreman has one of the all-time great chins and boxing history and has excellent recovery from shots.

He took like 20 unanswered punches from Evander Holyfield and came back fighting. So I can believe that he could be hit with a hell of a shot and believe it was the hardest he was ever hit with a single punch and still have the ability to shrug it off.

Foreman has always stated that Ron Lyle and Gerry Cooney hit him hardest. He mentions Cleveland Williams sometimes too. He was definitely hurt by Cooney in round 1.

evrenb wrote: ↑01 Oct 2021, 04:55 Foreman has always stated that Ron Lyle and Gerry Cooney hit him hardest. He mentions Cleveland Williams sometimes too. He was definitely hurt by Cooney in round 1.

He said that one hook got him on the point of the elbow and it felt like he'd been electrocuted

evrenb wrote: ↑01 Oct 2021, 04:55 Foreman has always stated that Ron Lyle and Gerry Cooney hit him hardest. He mentions Cleveland Williams sometimes too. He was definitely hurt by Cooney in round 1.

don't forget southpaw Ione Alexe of Romania at the 1968 Olympics !
( the big reason he avoided southpaws during his pro career)

sheeyat, you just started this thread 4 days ago and already two videos been removed from youtube.
where's the complete video footage of the Cooney vrs Kirkman 'exhbition" ?
that footage there is mostly of Larry Holmes's mug being intervirwd

I remeber one afternoon around 1980 I turned on the TV in the afternoon
and there was a soap opera on, and in the story this guy says to another guy
"Hey you wanna meet Gerry Cooney ?"
so they go down to the docks where it is dark ,cold and foggy( All on a sound stage in a studio obviously)
and there is Gerry Cooney standing in a long trench coat with some other dudes and he says
"Hi, glad to meet you" to this guy
( I think they were trying to creat a "On the Waterfront" type of athmosphere.
it only lasted a minute but I still remember it.
I mean just suddenly out of nowwhere you see Gerry Cooney on TV.
I'm guessing it was done to get Cooney a SAG card.

Caractacus wrote: ↑01 Oct 2021, 14:19 I remeber one afternoon around 1980 I turned on the TV in the afternoon
and there was a soap opera on, and in the story this guy says to another guy
"Hey you wanna meet Gerry Cooney ?"
so they go down to the docks where it is dark ,cold and foggy( All on a sound stage in a studio obviously)
and there is Gerry Cooney standing in a long trench coat with some other dudes and he says
"Hi, glad to meet you" to this guy
( I think they were trying to creat a "On the Waterfront" type of athmosphere.
it only lasted a minute but I still remember it.
I mean just suddenly out of nowwhere you see Gerry Cooney on TV.
I'm guessing it was done to get Cooney a SAG card.

I think he played a heavy in Spenser for Hire in the mid 80's (starring Robert Urich)

Caractacus wrote: ↑01 Oct 2021, 13:56

evrenb wrote: ↑01 Oct 2021, 04:55 Foreman has always stated that Ron Lyle and Gerry Cooney hit him hardest. He mentions Cleveland Williams sometimes too. He was definitely hurt by Cooney in round 1.

don't forget southpaw Ione Alexe of Romania at the 1968 Olympics !
( the big reason he avoided southpaws during his pro career)

Yes that's true

the Cooney vrs Eddie "The Animal" Lopez match was also supposed to have been televised LIVE
as a preliminary to the Kallie Knoetze vrs Denton Ruddock fight on NBC in 1978 ( it was listed so in the TV Guide),
but that fight was being protested by Jesse Jackson and his crew outside the building,
so instead of the Cooney vrs Lopez fight being shown live they gave
'equal time" for Jesse Jackson and his grievences
for about half an hour on the sports show and did not show the fight, but I wonder if NBC taped it anyway ?

Do you mean it was scheduled to be televised under the Knoetze-Sharkey bout? Also, Cooney-Shavers was supposed to happen in August 1980, BEFORE his bout with Norton.

Minor quibbles. Thanks for the thread!

yeah, but Cooney hurt his shoulder and Tex Cobb fought Shavers instead.

HH, I greatly enjoy these posts. My biggest takeaway from this series? S.T. Gordon got a hell of a lot better in a short period of time. You would never guess that he would become a world champion after watching his fight with Cooney.

Joe.Kelly wrote: ↑06 Oct 2021, 09:19 I remember Cooney's career quite well. At the time, I was a big fan. But in retrospect, I don't have much faith in Cooney. See my post above for the reasons why.

Still, I do believe that Cooney would have defeated Trevor Berbick, Tex Cobb, Leroy Jones, Renaldo Snipes, Leon Spinks, Scott LeDoux, and Bernardo Mercado if those fights had ever been made. Those guys wouldn't have had an answer for Cooney's power, aggression, height and reach, IMO. Too bad none of these fights were made. They would have been competitive, and by winning, Cooney would have more deeply cemented his credibility with fans and experts.

Aside from this set of heavyweights that I mention, I think Cooney would have lost to most of the other contenders. Just my guess.

Cooney definitely could win the mentioned fighter. Berbick would be the toughest test probably, maybe even a failed one for Cooney. Also, it's possible to see Weaver in Gerry's victim list, as Weaver was KOed early on several occasions.

Joe.Kelly wrote: ↑06 Oct 2021, 09:33

DrDuke wrote: ↑06 Oct 2021, 09:28

Joe.Kelly wrote: ↑06 Oct 2021, 09:19 I remember Cooney's career quite well. At the time, I was a big fan. But in retrospect, I don't have much faith in Cooney. See my post above for the reasons why.

Still, I do believe that Cooney would have defeated Trevor Berbick, Tex Cobb, Leroy Jones, Renaldo Snipes, Leon Spinks, Scott LeDoux, and Bernardo Mercado if those fights had ever been made. Those guys wouldn't have had an answer for Cooney's power, aggression, height and reach, IMO. Too bad none of these fights were made. They would have been competitive, and by winning, Cooney would have more deeply cemented his credibility with fans and experts.

Aside from this set of heavyweights that I mention, I think Cooney would have lost to most of the other contenders. Just my guess.

Cooney definitely could win the mentioned fighter. Berbick would be the toughest test probably, maybe even a failed one for Cooney. Also, it's possible to see Weaver in Gerry's victim list, as Weaver was KOed early on several occasions.

Cooney might have beaten Weaver by an early round stoppage, as Mike was a notoriously slow starter. But if Weaver were still standing by the fourth of fifth round, he'd take control and ultimately dispose of Cooney.

As to who would have won this fight, that's a tough call. It's either Cooney early by KO or not at all. But I think Big Gerry might have stood a 35% chance of getting the job done. That's a one in three chance of winning in my book.

Cooney vs Weaver would have been great fight in 1980 or 1981. Too bad it didn't get made.

I lean more towards Cooney. It could be a first round KO. Cooney at his best was too explosive for the slow starting and chinny Weaver. If it went further, it would be more likely Weaver. But I see it more likely to be over early in favor of Gerry.

Before the Holmes fight.
Cooney was scheduled to fight
Lee Canalito
Scott LeDoux
Earnie Shavers
Joe Bugner

would have kept him a bit sharper by the time he fought Holmes in 1982 anyway.

Caractacus wrote: ↑06 Oct 2021, 13:01 Before the Holmes fight.
Cooney was scheduled to fight
Lee Canalito
Scott LeDoux
Earnie Shavers
Joe Bugner

would have kept him a bit sharper by the time he fought Holmes in 1982 anyway.

Definitely would have improved his performance. But even at that I am shocked and appalled how poor Cooney was matched up over time. How anyone honestly thought he would succeed without any real tests is kind of perplexing.

From a fan's perspective, it was disappointing that Cooney didn't fight better competition. He showed against Holmes that he was flawed but had something. Would have been interesting to see against a Weaver, or say Dokes, Witherspoon, Thomas, Page etc. We really don't know how he would have done.