January 2002 - October 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

could give the best guys trouble, but they weren't championship caliber. Cooney
could have snuck a title from a Mike Weaver or John Tate, but would never have a
chance against the top guys of the 70's, except maybe Norton.|
|7/21/03 05:39:28 PM|Angelo|Washington, DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|On an
earlier post, someone was attacked for making reference to Cooney's win over
Jimmy Young, and pointing out that Young won some fights after that loss,
against decent fighters.Fact of the matter is, there are a few categories of
boxers, including "stepping stones," "trial horses," "live fighters,"
"contenders," and "Champions," and maybe even one or two groups I missed.
Basically, when Cooney won that fight, by TKO, in I believe, round 4 (might have
stopped Young on cuts), Jimmy Young was NOT a shot fighter. The guy who posted
only pointed out that Young still had something left by beating a couple up and
comers or at least decent quality competition after losing to Cooney. No one
has a record of only fighting top 10 boxers---everyone has some lesser known
opponents. The guys on that list of Young's wins post Cooney are recognizeable
to real boxing fans of that era. I remember these guys as tough outs. I'm not
a big Cooney fan and was actually happy to see Holmes stop the Cooney hype
machine. But the fact remains that Cooney was impressive against some decent
competition---people that real fans know and remember as tough guys. And Young
was not washed up, could still box, and in fact have Cooney a good fight were it
not for the cut. Believe me, when Cooney knocked out Norton and Lyle, these
guys were past their prime, but still dangerous. My guess is that both Norton
and Lyle could have beaten most heavyweights at that time, including those
ranked between 10 and 20. That's world class. When Larry Holmes beat Ray
Mercer, he proved that a former great old man could beat a good up and coming
fighter on a good day. If you're a Cooney basher, fine. But don't show your
ignorance by ignoring the fact that he had some nice wins against good fighters.
|
|7/21/03 06:27:07 PM|Evren|London||@||||10|Norton could'nt even beat LeDoux
before he got beat by Cooney and was almost knocked out by him. Norton was shot
- big time. Lyle had been knocked out by Lyn Ball if I remember correctly before
his fight with Cooney. However, I do feel Cooney was a decent fighter BUT should
have been better.I do feel he would have been very sucessful in todays
environment of poor heavies. Hey Guys - Lay off Mr Cunningham ! Oh, by the way.
Lennox Lewis is the best he lays all the Americans to rest ! |
|7/21/03 08:39:57 PM|Forest Ward|South Carolina||joekevin@cs.com||||10|Angelo,
permit me to display my ignorance about boxing, since by your definition I am
not a real fight fan. After Young lost to Norton in Nov 77, and prior to
fighting Cooney 2 1/2 years later in May of 80. Young had 6 fights and he lost
3 of them. By no defintion can a victory over Young at this point in Young's
career be considered note worthy. Even so Cooney stopped him on a cut, a very
bad cut. Strangely, Cooney the great left hooker could not even knock down a
man who was half blind and drowning in his own blood.Now we come to
Cooney's "great" loss to Larry Holmes. As ignorant as I am about boxing, Angelo,
I remember Kenny Norton losing a close decision to Holmes (some people thought
Norton won). I remember Mike Weaver staggering Larry Holmes and almost dropping
him a few times, before he lost. Renaldo Snipes came close, he dropped Holmes
and almost stopped him. Ernie Shavers, dropped Holmes and almost stopped him.
Michael Spinks won 2 questionable decisions over Holmes. When I compare
Cooney's fight with Holmes to the ones I just mentioned, Cooney's LOSS does not
impress me. I remember Larry Holmes saying something to the effect before his
fight with Cooney that, "Cooney was the great white Hope for a lot of dopes".
Ironically, there are still a lot of dopes around. What made Holmes a
great fighter was the hunger in his belly, he would rather die than lose.
Cooney never had this hunger. He preferred the soft easy way. Fight a
lightheavyweight (Spinks), so he gets knocked out. Fight a fat old man
(Foreman) so he gets knocked out. Cooney had a glass jaw, his handlers