Comments Thread For: 40 Years Later, Holmes-Cooney Still Rates as a Classic

[champion4ever]

That fight was huge, I can recall the build up to that fight where they were pushing the race narrative; By making it a black vs white thing because Gerry Cooney was white.

The tension and anticipation was so great that I can remember how people were fearing race riots. Thanks largely to Don King and Gerry Cooney's manager at the time Dennis Rappaport

On another note i can also recall how Sylvester Stallone started buddying up to Gerry Cooney as well.This was around the time of the Summer of 1982; When Rocky III was released at the Box office some two weeks prior.

[Bonham77]

Lyle Fitzsimmons. You got conned as a young 13 yr old boy. Yea all the hype and fraud you didn't understand. This article is one of your biggest embarrassments. You have absolutely no clue what was going on in the Heavyweight division at that time. Research before you post such a ridiculous article.

[low blows]

I remember that fight like it was yesterday especially the lead up to it which was the most racially charged buildup since the Ali years. I remember feeling Holmes got a raw deal because he wasn’t treated as the champion, he was treated like the villain

I remember every guy who had a racist bent in my neighborhood were cheering loudly for Cooney who in the buildup was portrayed as a full blooded Irishman via Newfoundland. When in fact he was half Puerto Rican and later found out he has distant Afro Latino ancestry.

About the fight he was competitive with Holmes until his body hit the wall late in the 12th round but when he was firing low leading up to the 12th round he got long breaks to recharge his energy so he could have been tired around the 10th or 11th round. Cooney talked about going the distance being in his head but he was up against an all time great in his prime who had an iron jaw and wasn't going to fall like Lyle or Norton.

The fight was great theater at the time and still is a decent fight to watch if you find a good copy on Youtube.

[Oldskoolg]

I remember every guy who had a racist bent in my neighborhood were cheering loudly for Cooney who in the buildup was portrayed as a full blooded Irishman via Newfoundland. When in fact he was half Puerto Rican and later found out he has distant Afro Latino ancestry.

About the fight he was competitive with Holmes until his body hit the wall late in the 12th round but when he was firing low leading up to the 12th round he got long breaks to recharge his energy so he could have been tired around the 10th or 11th round. Cooney talked about going the distance being in his head but he was up against an all time great in his prime who had an iron jaw and wasn't going to fall like Lyle or Norton.

The fight was great theater at the time and still is a decent fight to watch if you find a good copy on Youtube.

Yeah that was back when the “Irish” label was famously analogous to “white” as we saw in The Great White Hype. I think the arrival of the Eastern Europeans really killed that 70s-90s phenomenon

[low blows]

Yeah I’m that was back when the “Irish” label was famously analogous to “white” as we saw in The Great White Hype. I think the arrival of the Eastern Europeans really killed that 70s-90s phenomenon

Yes if he talked about his Latino ancestry his purse would have been much smaller for this fight. I still think he would have gotten a shot at some point as he was a big puncher who was a big draw in Long Island and the Norton fight might have sold out MSG but if not sure about that as I don't recall watching that live on tv.