Gerry Cooney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerry Cooney (Born August 4, 1956) was a boxer from Huntington, New York best known for his devastating left hook to the body. He is among the hardest-hitting heavyweights in history. Some even consider him to be the most powerful puncher in boxing history.
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[edit] Life Before Boxing
Cooney was raised in a blue-collar Long Island family, and lived out his father's dream to become a professional fighter. Cooney's brother, Tom Cooney, was also a boxer, and reached the finals of the New York Golden Gloves Sub-Novice Heavyweight division where he was defeated by Eric George.
[edit] Amateur Career
As an amateur, he won international tournaments in England, Wales and Scotland as well as New York Golden Gloves titles. Cooney won two New York Golden Gloves Championships, winning both the 1973 160lb Sub-Novice Championship and the 1976 Heavyweight Open Championship. Cooney defeated Larry Derrick to win the 1973 160lb Sub-Novice title and he defeated Earlous Tripp to win the 1976 Heavyweight Open title. In 1975 Cooney reached the finals of the 175lb Open division but was defeated by Johnny Davis. Cooney trained at the Huntington Athletic Club in Huntington, Long Island, New York where his trainer was John Capobianco, Sr.
His record consisted of 55 wins and 3 losses. When he turned professional, he signed with managers Mike Jones and Dennis Rapporport. He was trained by Victor Valle Sr.
[edit] Professional Career
Equipped with his monster punching power and imposing size, Cooney set out on his profesional career. Cooney's first paid fight came on February 15, 1977, when he beat Billy Jackson by a knockout in one round in New York. Nine more wins followed and Cooney started gaining fame as a future contender. Then he stepped up in class and fought future world cruiserweight champion ST Gordon in Las Vegas, winning by a fourth round disqualification. Cooney's star kept on rising with 11 more wins in a row, spanning 1978 and 1979. Among the people he beat were former victim Charlie Polite, former United States heavyweight champion Eddie Lopez, and Tom Prater.
By 1980, Cooney was already being featured on national television. He beat title challengers Jimmy Young and Ron Lyle, both by knockout. By this time, he was ranked number 1 in the WBC and challenging Larry Holmes to a fight.
In 1981, he completely annihilated former world heavyweight champion Ken Norton by a knockout 54 seconds into the first round in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd and HBO cameras.
Then 1982 came and Cooney's life changed. Holmes agreed to fight him, with a purse of ten million dollars for the challenger, making it the richest fight in boxing history up to that time. The promotion of the fight took on racial overtones, which Cooney may not have wanted. If Cooney won, he would be the first white world heavyweight champion in 23 years. Don King played this up by calling him "The Great White Hope." In this circus atmosphere, the upcoming fight drew huge attention worldwide. Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney was one of the biggest closed-circuit/pay-per-view productions in history, broadcast to over 150 countries.
Cooney lost the fight by disqualification in the 13th round. When his trainer Victor Vallie stepped into the ring in the 13th round, under the Nevada state athletic commission rules disqualification was automatic. He took a year off, intending to return in late 1983, but he was cut in sparring and had to lay off for another year.
In September of 1984 he finally stepped into the ring again, beating Phillip Brown by a knockout in 4 rounds in New Orleans. He fought one more time and won, but personal problems took him away from the ring again.
In 1987, he made a one-fight comeback to meet former world heavyweight champion Michael Spinks, losing by a knockout in five rounds. Cooney's last fight was in 1990; he was blown away in two rounds by the former world champion George Foreman. Overall, Cooney compiled a professional record of 28 wins and 3 losses, with 25 knockouts.
And although he never truly gained the same type of fame that some of the heavyweight champions have, he still his remembered by boxing historians as one of the most powerful punchers in boxing history.
[edit] Life After Boxing
Cooney then started the FIST Foundation, an organization which has helped retired boxers of all races find jobs. He has always tried to distance himself from the racism of the Holmes vs. Cooney promotion. In fact, he and Holmes have become very good friends over the years. In retirement, Cooney has also been heavily involved with J.A.B., the first ever boxers union.
He is also involved with the program "Hands are not for hitting" which helps to stop domestic violence.
He now resides in Fanwood, New Jersey
In the episode of the Simpsons $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling) he is the official greeter of Mr Burns' Casino who gets punched out by Otto Mann.
[edit] Boxing Style
Cooney was known to have an orthodox style of boxing. Most of his fights ended in quick knockouts, which although benifited him tremendously in the begining of his career, left him unprepared for his fight with Larry Holmes. Despite having devastating punching power, it was not enough to compensate for his moderate stamina, which resulted in a 13 round TKO.
Cooney's punching power is often compared to that of the most powerful punchers in boxing history. Both Foreman and Holmes had stated that Cooney's blow was the hardest they had ever taken. It is also notable that Holmes had also previously fought Ernie Shavers, and at the time, stated that Shavers was the most powerful blow he had ever received.
Cooney was also known for not typically throwing punches at the head, mainly aiming for his opponents chest, ribs, or stomach.
[edit] Quotes
Boxers are a tight-knit group of people. They have been beat up so bad that they are very leery of others
Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics.
Growing up training, I use to get up so early I would wave to the garbage men going by. So, I had this relationship with Blue Collar America and I really liked it. I felt that lots of those people looked forward to me winning.
I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time.
I am spending lots of time with the youth of America, like I told you earlier, and only wish when I was a kid, that I had someonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page to talk to.
I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.
I have seen some women who can fight, but I don't think there is a place for me to see women in there getting punched around.
I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me.
I was disappointed for not succeeding in my attempt to win the title against Holmes. I had never lost a fight before that.
If you look at my career, towards the end you will see I was fighting like once a year. I was not part of the Don King top heavyweights, so I was kind of kept out. His guys were getting three to four fights a year and I could only get one.
In my fight with Larry Holmes it was a 15-round fight. That night in the ring it was 115 degrees under the lights. So, even if it was 12 rounds it was pretty hot out there, no matter what you did.
Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.
Roberto Duran was the kind of guy who was a true fighter and you hardly see guys like that anymore.
The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn't get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King's guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.
We are in the learning stages of my organization, so we are taking it slow, to be able to help the fighters with the best options we have out there.
[edit] Trivia
Gerry Cooney is 6`6 feet tall (although some sources say 6`7).
He is one of the most powerful punchers in heavyweight history.
He was undefeated his first 25 fights.
He runs an organization known as FIST which helps rehabilitate retired boxers, as well as give them necessary training to get jobs.
He has been featured on Time Magazine with Sylvester Stallone.
Out of his 28 wins and 24 KO's, 9 of them were in the first round.
