Did the holmes cooney fight live up to the hype?

[TBear]

you guys are so old!


lol.

ok, let me stop trolling the damn history section.


i'll vote for no, but preface things by saying that i was not alive, and have only seen that fight on youtube, and it's been a long time. i learned a lot about the build up of the fight on HBO's legendary nights. what an expert, NE, you b#tch.


i don't think this one lived up to the hype in the sense that holmes was such a better fighter. that much was not understood among the casual fan going in. cooney did OK early on, but it was abundantly clear that the build up was more of a product of the whole "black - white" thing than it was the product of a great challenger trying to take the title from a great champion.

it was a good challenger, undefeated at at his peak with a big punch, going up against a great fighter in holmes.


this was one of the biggest fights ever. ever. was it contested among two of the best? not really. holmes is one of the best, but cooney was not. cooney was good, but not great. in that sense it wasn't fit for it's billing.

You should visit the history section more often, hang out with us old guys.

[SBleeder]

Yeah. Not quite 20, but he did go south plenty of times.

I haven't watched that fight in a long time, but from what I remember, it very well could have been more than twenty shots below the belt.

[Ray Corso]

I thought Cooney did pretty well against Holmes. He fought 5 good fights leading up to the bout with Holmes and was the undeafeated "white hope"!!
He earned the spot and it was up hill march no doubt so he got stopped late (11th I think?)
Jerry had a nice left body hook that was a natural punch for him. I remember him in the NYC tourneys as an amatuer, I think as a little kid he fought middleweight! I'm pretty sure he won some tourneys or atleast was a finalists in some! Nice guy and a respectful one also! Ray.

[jabsRstiff]

Leading up to this fight most people weren't looking at as a great fight.....it was more of a monumental event. The Cooney fans thought Gerry was gonna take Holmes out the same way he did Norton (especially after Larry almost got KOd by Snipes in a tune up), while the Holmes supporters thought Gerry was a green, inactive, and protected hype job who was about to get exposed by a true technician.

I think the fight was more competitive than most were expecting and one of the biggest surprises was Holmes scoring the early knockdown. It was assumed Larry would have to get through some incredibly dangerous early rounds in order to win the fight. By dropping Gerry so quickly he established respect and took away Gerry's best chance to win. Also, Larry was vulnerable to right hands and defended very well against the left hook and Gerry's right was feeble compared to his left. In hindsight this made those who thought Cooney would tear him up with a barrage of lefts appear like they hadn't done their homework.

[Chris T Byrd]

it didn't

the white hope was supposed to become the white champ

he failed

[Ray Corso]

He lost he didn't "fail" Failure is when you don't try! Boxing has no failures unless effort is voided!! Only the fans are crushed by defeat they don't understand what "trying" is!!! Sometimes a defeat is worth more than 25 wins in a row!!! Ray Leonard learned and awful lot from his first Duran bout. I think it was his best fight, he lost but he didn't Fail!! Ray.

[The Big Dunn]

I thought so. What are your thoughts?

The lead up was really disgusting. The fight couldn't have lived up to the hype because it was really only hyped along racial lines. The casual fans ate it up but almost every boxing insider knew this would likely be a one sided affair because Holmes was too much.

Fight pretty much played out that way.

[rightsideup]

The lead up was really disgusting. The fight couldn't have lived up to the hype because it was really only hyped along racial lines. The casual fans ate it up but almost every boxing insider knew this would likely be a one sided affair because Holmes was too much.

Fight pretty much played out that way.

I think gerry showed alot of courage but did not have the skills to stay with a top hw as holmes is thought by some to be around 5th overall. You are correct in saying the leadup was disgusting and it sad that larry was portrayed as the black villian
by the promotions and I also believe he did not get paid as well as gerry.
I read a story about in SI about 5 years ago about how they are now good friends.

[jabsRstiff]

rightside.....

Holmes and Cooney were paid the same amount. That bothered Holmes, but I think he ultimately realized no other foe was gonna get him that much money.

[Sugarj]

The lead up was really disgusting. The fight couldn't have lived up to the hype because it was really only hyped along racial lines. The casual fans ate it up but almost every boxing insider knew this would likely be a one sided affair because Holmes was too much.

Fight pretty much played out that way.

Funnily enough many were giving Cooney a good chance at the time. He was undefeated and had smashed up the ghosts of Jimmy Young, Ron Lyle and Kenny Norton. He was huge and punched with frightening power. Holmes still had the stench of his poor showing against the bigger Bobick in the amateurs hanging over him and had been in serious trouble against Renaldo Snipes in his last defense.

For all that the Cooney fight was one of Holmes's finest performances; he was on his way towards being royally shafted on two of the judges scorecards. If it weren't for the 3 points deductions Cooney would have been ahead on two cards at the time of stoppage!!!!!

Only Jerry Roth was calling the fight correctly. To the casual observer Holmes was at least five or six rounds up.