Some referred to Gerry Cooney because the “Nice White Hope” through the prime of his profession. That’s as a result of he anticipated to grow to be world champion and unseat the defending champion, Larry Holmes. Cooney’s path to the championship was a brutal one for his opponents as he scored 24 knockouts in his 28 fights however the knock on his document is that he was beating fighters that had been far previous their prime. What earned him the title shot was the names he defeated in getting there. After scoring a TKO over 32-year-old Jimmy Younger in 4 rounds, hard-hitting Ron Lyle was subsequent on the docket solely Lyle was 39 in 1980 when he stepped into the squared circle with Cooney. It ended badly with Lyle getting KOd within the first spherical. Subsequent up was Ken Norton in 1981 and he was 38. In what resulted in an especially violent knockout in simply the primary spherical, Larry Holmes mentioned “deliver it on” and the 2 met for the WBC title on June 11, 1982. Holmes was a bit youthful on the time (33) and Cooney was simply 26. However towards the finesse boxer in Holmes who possessed among the finest jabs in historical past, Cooney was no match and misplaced by TKO within the thirteenth spherical after taking round-after-round of a beating. He was a strolling punching bag. Cooney would attempt to come again from that with three straight wins earlier than getting TKOd by Michael Spinks in one other title try after which closed out his profession getting smoked by George Foreman in simply two rounds. However Cooney had measurement (6’6”). I met the person in an elevator and at 5’6” I felt like somewhat individual.
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