Homes-Cooney 1982

[sport historian]

During the 1980's, the first of every month I would go by a bookstore that had a magazine stand. I would buy 2-3 boxing magazines. One day I bought a magazine that had Gerry Cooney's picture on the cover. The young woman at the counter said, "I sure hope he wins." I ran into that almost everywhere before Gerry Cooney challenged Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title on June 11, 1982, 27 years ago. A lot of white people were pulling for Cooney to win. Would that happen in 2009?

Gerry Cooney first started getting a lot of attention in 1980. Being from New York was a big advantage. The boxing magazines were there and wrote about Cooney a lot even though most establishment journalists downgraded him.

I recently watched Cooney's wins over Dino Dennis, Leroy Boone, and Jimmy Young. After the Young fight, CBS analyst Gil Clancy shouted, "Gerry Cooney is the hottest heavyweight in the world." It looked like Cooney could take Larry Holmes in a year or so. Things didn't work out that way.

Cooney started a pattern of signing for fights, then getting injured causing a postponement, or a cancellation. His next fight after Young was Ron Lyle. When Lyle was injured, Earnie Shavers (who was on a losing streak) was substituted. Cooney's managers then announced that Gerry had a back injury, even though he was seen dancing at a disco. Some said that they were afraid to let Cooney meet Shavers. Two months later Cooney stopped Lyle in one round with body punches. On May 11 1981, Cooney knocked out Ken Norton in 54 seconds.

He didn't fight again until meeting Holmes 13 months later. The Holmes fight was supposed to be in March 1982 but Cooney was injured while sparring yet again, causing another delay until June. Surprisingly, these inuries and the layoff weren't considered a factor in the fight!

A writer named Steve Losch, who was a Cooney supporter, felt that Gerry Cooney lost his edge after becoming a celebrity. Before, Cooney always beat up his sparring partners. Prior to the title fight, he looked bad in sparring sessions. Losch wrote in the January 1983 Boxing Today, "Larry Holmes never learned that Cooney came into the fight in less than perfect form, and the ticket-buying public believed to the very end that they saw the real Gerry Cooney."

Losch wrote that reporters saw a special press screening of "Rocky III," and came back to a press party to find Mr. T there, looking exactly as he did on the screen, reality and fantasy became dangerously blurred. I had noticed at the time that Cooney took the Rocky movies far more seriously than he should have.

I watched the Holmes-Cooney fight again a couple of days ago. In the ring before the fight, Cooney looked like he expected to lose, unlike before Young and Norton. I thought Cooney won 4 of the first 10 rounds with one even. He collapsed in the 13th through exhaustion as well as Holmes" punches.

The fight did great business. The live gate was $6 million and closed-circuit business was big, especially in New York. Eventual gross was near $50 million surpassing the $37 million for Leonard Hearns. Some said that in the HBO and ABC showings of the fight, Cooney seemed to do better than on theater TV. In the theater showing, Cooney seemed to be getting the hell beat out of him. In the HBO and ABC viewings, Cooney gave Holmes some trouble while being outpointed. I only saw the ABC version and Holmes was very careful of Cooney's left hook.

 

[space hillbilly]

historian! is it true that the ring that night was the hotest in history! somthing like 129 fahrenheit?

 

[Charles Martel]

historian! is it true that the ring that night was the hotest in history! somthing like 129 fahrenheit?

Then the sweltering heat would give Holmes, who's ancestors evolved in tropical Africa, an big advantage over Cooney, who's ancestors evolved in cool temperate Ireland.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

sport, interesting stuff! Not trying to be picky, but you need to check the title of the thread.

 

[sport historian]

historian! is it true that the ring that night was the hotest in history! somthing like 129 fahrenheit?

According to the New York Times account, the temperature was nearly 100 degrees because of the warm desert night and hot TV cameras. It was hotter when Jack Dempsey beat Jess Willard under the Fourth of July sun in 1919.

 

[sport historian]

The New York Times writers were unimpressed by Gerry Cooney. Columnist Dave Anderson wrote:


"Gerry Cooney had shown that he could take a punch and that he could endure beyond the early rounds. But he has yet to show he can truly fight."

"His mother probably has a better right hand. His jab has no power. When he punches, he's often off balance. He seldom swings with leverage. He never appeared to hurt Larry Holmes, except when he accidentally thudded a left hook into the champion's protector."

 

[Westside]

I clearly recall that hot summer night in Los Angeles. I raced home from work to see that fight. I remember how Cooney looked in his utter destruction of Ken Norton. I felt he had a real chance to beat Holmes. When Cooney stepped into the ring that night he looked soft. His body language was that of a scared man. Right then I was concerned. To make matters worse, is that I was watching this fight with three old black friends of mine.

Cooney put up a decent fight against HOFer Holmes but I just think he didn't train hard enough. Holmes himself was impressed with Cooney saying he saw great things for Cooney in the future. Cooney had a fragile psychic. I remember after he was KO'd, he got on the mike and started to cry and apologize. It was pathetic.Afterward, I was semi tormented by my black friends. They were telling me that Cooney was a sorry ass fighter. I remember my response was, "Well at least the best running back was John Riggins." They all agreed with that, thank God. What a disappointing night.

 

[whiteathlete33]

I really hate to start controversy on this site. However, we need to focus on what is going on now in boxing. Let Cooney go!! We have a million white fighters today who are ready for war!!! Let's focus on them and forget about the past. The past wasn't good.

 

[Maple Leaf]

For the few white heavyweights that did participate in the '80s they accounted well for themselves. The black fighters had it easier then as they only had to compete with themselves. Come the '90s and milenium, white participation soared and the blacks have been pushed out essentially. It appears blacks do not do so well when they have to compete against whites as big and skilled as them. But, of course, we knew that as whites have been dominating MMA since its inception and beating most of the black and oriental competition around the world.

 

[Quiet Speed]

When Cooney stepped into the ring that night he looked soft.

That pretty much encapsulates how I felt. Cooney was no Hercules from the start but when I first saw his lack of tone - for lack of a better term - for this crucial fight, I was dismayed. It seemed that whatever the opposite of steroids are, that's what he was on. Sport historian did shed some light on the circumstances leading up to the fight that I had not followed. Maybe that explains his condition at the time. I thought it was unacceptable given all that was riding on the match.

LOL. I had a black acquaintance who joked that he got up to use the restroom before the start of the Cooney-Norton fight and when he got back it was over. We laughed good over that.
Edited by: Quiet Speed

 

[The Hock]

I watched the fight at the Salt Palace. Some really nervous looking guy to my left kept rubbing his palms on his legs during the whole fight and kinda distracted me after a while. Poor fella, he really wanted Gerry to win. I did too, but I was ready for him to lose. There were times when Gerry moved Holmes with his left hook, but Larry was too cagey to let Cooney land the big one we were all hoping for. The better man won that night.

Just for the record, I say either Klitchko beats Cooney 100 out of 100, and Gerry never gets past the third.

 

[whiteathlete33]

When you look at todays white fighters you see something different. The days of losing are behind us. These white fighters of today are absolute animals. I don't care what the media says but there has never been a fighter like Vitali Klitschko. He has never been knocked down and absolutely dominates everyone he fights. Then you have a fighter like Adamek who takes another fighters best punch and doesn't even move.

 

[Charles Martel]

When you look at todays white fighters you see something different. The days of losing are behind us. These white fighters of today are absolute animals. I don't care what the media says but there has never been a fighter like Vitali Klitschko. He has never been knocked down and absolutely dominates everyone he fights. Then you have a fighter like Adamek who takes another fighters best punch and doesn't even move.

Yet most of the best white fighters are from Eastern Europe. I believe it has something to do with our mindsets. The difference is, Adamek and the Klitschkos have no doubts whether they can win.

The media in the US, Canada, Australia and to a lesser extent the UK glorifies the black athlete. Muhammed Ali was and still is overrated and overhyped by people like Howard Cosell back in those days, and by the Raskins and Kellermans today. They create an image of the black athlete as a supermen. But Eastern Europeans are not subjected to that so much as they are growing up, and so don't have doubts about being able to defeat black fighters.

 

[Erich Gliebe]

Holmes definitely had the mental edge in this fight and that, along with his left jab and big fight experience, was too much for Cooney to overcome.

Twenty-one years ago I had the pleasure of spending some time with Gerry Cooney in Puerto Rico. If you ever saw him out of the ring you'd never know he was a fighter. Polo shirt, wire-rimmed glasses, and soft-spoken, he had the non-aggressive, preppy look going. He was a very nice guy who I'm sure had to work hard to get psyched-up enough to climb through the ropes.

A lot of boxing is mental, and if you don't have that mental edge in the ring, it's gonna be a rough night. Cooney was an undefeated knockout puncher who was used to knocking guys out early, and he just wasn't used to an opponent being able to take his shots and answer back. And because of that, as the fight wore on Gerry became mentally frustrated and physically exhausted when he realized Holmes wasn't going away.

 

[white is right]

The heat also might have taken something out of Cooney down the stretch. Supposedly it was well over 100 degrees in the ring because of the lights and the dry Nevada heat. Cooney fought too passive to beat Holmes at his own game. He needed to attack more and let it all hang out to have won back in June of 82.

 

[Blue Devils]

I found an interesting quote from Cooney. He was asked if a white man would ever hold the Heavyweight title again.

"Do you think it's possible for a white man to ever hold the world heavyweight championship again?"Â￾

Cooney "I'm sure there are great fighters out there. . . I think there are a lot more opportunities for the white athlete so he doesn't get pulled into boxing so much, but I'm sure there will be. I'm sure there will be a guy who comes along. Times have changed and boxing is a very interesting and powerful sport and in some place, some town in the United States, there's someone with the talent who will want to be a fighter and will propel himself to be the greatest."Â￾

 

[white is right]

The 40th anniversary of this historic bout was last weekend(how time flies) and for some reason or another I looked up Youtube for a copy of the fight and found a super fan's copy of fight build up hype for this cultural event. At the weigh in I noticed Holmes weighed in at 212 and change with track pants and a top so he was really 211 and change. In following years I recall Holmes talking crap about Wlad and confusing the two brothers like they were a two headed Hydrax. It almost seems quaint when you see a 212 pound pound boxer fighting a 225 pound boxer(who has such a tall frame for that weight) for the lineal title.

I know Wilder was that weight at even a skinnier frame and Usyk is about 220 but aside from these two modern heavyweight boxers are significantly larger than both boxers in terms of BMI. It almost seems pure fantasy that a legend like Holmes could hope to compete with modern heavyweights using the same nutrition and training regiment that he used for this historic bout.

Anyway here is the cobbled together video...

 

[Extra Point]

Cooney was a very good boxer who was mismanaged and had an injury history.

He's been unfairly maligned, undoubtedly because he was a white man. In his career he only lost 3 fights, all of them to Hall of Fame boxers.

 

[white is right]

Cooney was a very good boxer who was mismanaged and had an injury history.

He's been unfairly maligned, undoubtedly because he was a white man. In his career he only lost 3 fights, all of them to Hall of Fame boxers.

I would say he was primarily managed to make top box office dollars and wasn't managed to have the longest career or have the best chance of winning a title or having sustained success at the top. The Norton first round destruction probably was the worst thing for his career in terms of the later as it made him too hot to take a longer road to a title shot or to take on the weaker WBA champion who was the more beatable Mike Weaver( a former Holmes victim who came close to beating him).

After the Holmes loss Cooney didn't seem to have the stomach for a long haul run to a second championship fight and seemed to jump into big cross roads fights just off his star power and was flattened both times by Spinks and Foreman.

 

[The Hock]

I would say he was primarily managed to make top box office dollars and wasn't managed to have the longest career or have the best chance of winning a title or having sustained success at the top. The Norton first round destruction probably was the worst thing for his career in terms of the later as it made him too hot to take a longer road to a title shot or to take on the weaker WBA champion who was the more beatable Mike Weaver( a former Holmes victim who came close to beating him).

After the Holmes loss Cooney didn't seem to have the stomach for a long haul run to a second championship fight and seemed to jump into big cross roads fights just off his star power and was flattened both times by Spinks and Foreman.

That is spot on. And, like Tommy Morrison, Gerry didn't have an iron chin. I think his managers doubted him and he sensed it. But like Morrison, Cooney was a hell of a puncher.