In the late ?70s, if you lived anywhere around or near Long Island, New York and were a boxing fan, you were probably catching Cooney Fever.
For the residents of Long Island, Gerry Cooney, a local heavyweight from Huntington, was fast becoming a rising star in the boxing world.
In May of 1980, his ascent kicked into high gear with a stunning victory over Jimmy Young, who was cut badly over his left eye, causing referee Tony Perez to stop their fight in the fourth round.
Two first round knockouts over Ron Lyle and Kenny Norton quickly followed and fans began to talk about Cooney as the next ?Great White Hope? who would topple the seemingly invincible Heavyweight Champion, Larry Holmes. This- as it always does- fired up the imagination of the boxing world but unfortunately, as Cooney explained, it also drew some unwanted attention as well.
?I started receiving things in the mail from the Ku Klux Klan,? Cooney stated, ?but I never paid any attention to any of it.? For Don King, who had Larry Holmes under contract, Santa Claus had just come down the chimney.
Adding to the growing hype was the fiasco caused by Cooney?s management team, Mike Jones and Dennis Rappaport, not-so-lovingly referred to by many in the boxing business as the ?Wacko Twins.? The demands they made added fuel to the fire of animosity that brewed between the two camps and as it went on, one could see it was starting to get to Holmes.
It became so much that when Cooney approached Holmes while the latter was being interviewed after a fight, Holmes offered a stern warning.
?Don?t come over here,? Holmes shouted at Cooney.
However, Cooney kept moving forward and Holmes lunged at him. The two men got into a shouting match as they were restrained, with Holmes loudly telling Cooney, ?Whatever you got, you better bring.?
Finally, on June 11th, 1982, with hyperbole in high gear, one of the most anticipated fights in boxing history took place, when Cooney and Holmes met in the ring at Caesar?s Palace in Las Vegas.
But these two men were fighters, not promoters and certainly not politicians. Cooney shared a little-known fact about what happened as the two fighters approached the center of the ring for their pre-fight instructions.
?When we stepped to the center of the ring,? Cooney explained, ?after all of the hype and controversy, Holmes looked at me as we touched gloves and said, ?Let?s have a good fight.?
?And that,? Cooney stated, ?is boxing.?
Cooney?s signature punch was a left hook to the body, as evidenced by the many opponents it devastated. In his fight against Holmes, Cooney tried desperately to land that shot but Holmes was no slouch. He?d been in the ring so many times prior and, according to Cooney, Holmes? antics led to Cooney sustaining three point deductions for low blows.
?When I was comin? in for the left hook to the body,? Cooney recalled, ?he was pushin? my head down with his arm, so the ref couldn?t see.?
Interestingly enough, had those point deductions not taken place, Cooney would have actually been ahead through the 13th round on two of the judges? scorecards. But they did take place and Cooney knew going into the 13th that there was no way he was going to win, so he did something very foolish and dangerous, especially when dealing with a fighter with the skill level of ?The Easton Assassin.?
?I came out in the 13th round,? Cooney explained, ?and I thought, ?I can?t win but I want to show him he?s not better than me, so I let him start hittin? me, like an idiot.??
Holmes took full advantage of the opportunity and began to wear down Cooney until he hit the ?Gentleman? with a right hand, nearly dropping him, and sent him stumbling into the ropes. Sensing that Cooney was ready to fall, Holmes moved in for the finish but Victor Valle Sr., Cooney?s trainer, threw the towel into the ring, stopping the onslaught of the fighter he loved like a son.
?I was in that fight the whole way,? Cooney said, ?and people still talk about it today. In fact, Holmes told me that if I had waited another year, I would have beaten him.? However, waiting a year might not have been the answer for Gerry because his management had its eye on the big payday that the Holmes fight would bring and weren?t interested in risking it by having Cooney fight more often prior to that fight.
?That?s true,? Cooney confirmed. ?They wanted that big payday and as a result, they didn?t pay attention to my career. As a matter of fact, I spoke with Howard Davis, who was also managed by Rappaport and Jones, and he felt that it was almost like they were babying you.?
Interestingly enough, upon reflection, Cooney is at peace with the way it all played out. ?Life was so fast back then, it was hard. I mean everybody wanted me to win but those were the same people who were saying, ?Hey Gerry, here?s my house, here?s my plane,? and that was the very thing that was distracting me.?
?Who knows,? Cooney opined, ?if I had won the Heavyweight Championship that night, I?d probably be dead now.?
After the Holmes fight, rumors flew that Cooney had taken to heavy drinking, partying and drug use. It?s something that Cooney addresses freely when speaking about his next big fight with Michael Spinks in June 1987, which Cooney lost by knockout in the fifth round.
?The Spinks fight was the worst fight of my life,? Cooney said emphatically. ?I was drinking, taking recreational drugs and I didn?t have a clue if the fight was even going to take place. What happened was this: Spinks beats Holmes and I get a phone call; do I wanna fight Spinks for the title? I said, ?Absolutely, I?ll go away tomorrow!? And I did. I left for training camp the next day.?
?But,? Cooney continued, ?I hadn?t fought in two-and-a-half years, and the fight was on, then it was off, then on, then off, so I started drinking heavily again, and I walked into that ring a shell of who I was, and that was the beginning of the end.? [Editor?s note: Actually, two-and-a-half years passed between Cooney?s December 1984 fight against George Chaplin and the Spinks fight. Almost 13 months prior to the Spinks fight, Cooney defeated Eddie Gregg in May of 1986.]
Gerry Cooney?s story has a happy ending. In April of 1988, Cooney reclaimed his life and stopped drinking and drugging and has been clean and sober for over 23 years. These days, in addition to working with the Youth Service Council, Cooney also volunteers a lot of his time working with troubled kids, teaching them to box, ?because,? Cooney said, ?once you learn how to fight, you don?t have to fight anymore.?
Today, Gerry Cooney is a content man. Never a spendthrift, he was able to hold on to a lot of the money he earned and now lives in a nice home in New Jersey with his wife and three children.
After the Holmes fight, Cooney and Holmes became- and remain- very close friends. ?But I?ll kick his ass right now!? Cooney chuckled and said.
?You write it down; I?ll kick his ass!?
You can catch Cooney on Friday nights from 7 to 9 PM as he co-hosts a weekly radio show, ?Friday Night at the Fights with Randy Gordon and Gerry Cooney? on Sirius channel 92, and XM channel 207.
Allan Scotto can be reached at [email protected]
