Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney
Encyclopedia
Larry Holmes
vs. Gerry Cooney
was a boxing
fight that took place on June 11, 1982. It was one of the most highly anticipated fights of the early 1980s.
world Heavyweight champion since 1978, when he beat Ken Norton
by a fifteen round split decision at the Caesars Palace
in Las Vegas
. He had beaten the challenges of such fighters (among others) as Ossie Ocasio
, Mike Weaver, Trevor Berbick
. Leon Spinks
and, most notably, Muhammad Ali
. The fact that Holmes stopped the legendary Ali in eleven rounds did not help his popularity with boxing fans as Ali was very past his prime, at 38 years old. Ali did not even relatively present the speed, reflexes, or even strength of earlier days.
Gerry Cooney, on the other hand, had been a professional fighter since 1977, and he was able to beat boxers such as Jimmy Young
and others. The turning point of his career came when he beat Ken Norton, in May 1981, by knockout in round one at the Madison Square Garden
in New York
.
Anticipation over a Holmes-Cooney confrontation began to take shape in early 1981, but the fight took over a year to happen, partly because 1981 in particular was a very busy year for boxing
with many other big fights, partly because Holmes was obliged to defend against Berbick, Spinks and Renaldo Snipes
in that order. Cooney only had one fight in 1981, against Norton. Holmes-Cooney was originally scheduled for March 1982, but was postponed until June when Cooney injured his back in training.
By 1982, promoter Don King and manager Dennis Rappaport began one of the most massive and racially toned campaigns in boxing history to raise public interest for a fight between Holmes and Cooney. After they were both signed to fight, an intense promotional tour followed. Holmes and Cooney attended press conferences at several United States
cities, Cooney was shown on the cover of Time magazine, Hollywood stars took an interest in the fight (Sylvester Stallone
in particular hung out with Gerry Cooney, others, such as Woody Allen
, attended the fight live) and Cooney was cast as "The Great White Hope". There had not been a White world Heavyweight champion in 22 years, and Cooney would try to change that. White supremacist groups had announced they would have "agents" ready to shoot at Holmes the moment he entered the ring, and Black groups retaliated by answering that they would also have armed people on hand in case Holmes was attacked. Because of this, there were police snipers on the roofs of every major hotel surrounding the fight's venue, once again, the Caesars Palace hotel and casino. Snipers were used because the fight was held at the hotel's parking lot; any attacker could have been easily shot by police snipers.
The fight was televised
live on closed-circuit and pay-per-view television all over the world. A week after the bout, it was re-broadcast on HBO, and later still, on ABC-TV.
knocked out Juan Antonio Lopez
in ten rounds to retain his WBC world Jr. Featherweight title in the semi-final fight, and Holmes and Cooney then took centerstage without any incidents. Holmes versus Cooney was refereed by Mills Lane
. The announcer that night named Holmes first. Some thought that this was unprecedented; it is tradition in boxing that the challenger be named first and the champion last. The announcement was considered shameful and intensely disrespectful toward the champion Holmes by the boxing community. In fact, when Holmes had challenged Norton for the title, Norton had been introduced first. Nevertheless, when the boxers touched gloves before the first round began, Holmes told Cooney, "Let's have a good fight."
Holmes dropped Cooney in round two, but Cooney got up and landed a damage-causing shot to the body by the end of round four. By Holmes' own account, he felt lucky that punch landed close to the end of that round. Holmes and Cooney fought closely from rounds five to eight, trading punches in mid-ring. This was the point where Cooney's inactivity started affecting him, however, and Holmes again dropped the championship hopeful in round nine. By round ten, Cooney's punches began landing low, and this caused him to fall further behind on the judges' scorecards, referee Lane deducting three points from him for the infractions.
By round thirteen, Cooney seemed to believe that he would lose the fight and was just trying to last the fifteen round distance. He had suffered a cut on his left eye and was taking heavy punishment. Midway through the round, a Holmes cross
landed flush on Cooney's left cheek, and Cooney's legs buckled. He landed against the ropes, near his corner, and Holmes moved in, intent on finishing his job. Cooney's trainer, Victor Valle, prevented him from doing so, however, by throwing a towel from Cooney's corner, signifying that they were quitting. It should be clarified, however, that Cooney did not quit, his corner did that for him.
. Holmes, on the other hand, was Heavyweight champion until he lost his belt to Michael Spinks
in 1985. He retired in 1986, but has made several comebacks since.
HBO
presented a documentary on the fight as part of its Legendary Nights series on memorable boxing bouts.
Holmes and Cooney are now very good friends, and Holmes has helped Cooney with Cooney's organization, F.I.S.T., which helps former boxers get other jobs and medical insurance after they retire.
Larry Holmes
Larry Holmes is a former professional boxer. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which gave birth to his boxing nickname, The Easton Assassin....
vs. Gerry Cooney
Gerry Cooney
Gerry Cooney is a retired Irish-American professional boxer from Huntington, New York best known for his loss to Larry Holmes and defeat of aging ex-champion/contender Ken Norton.-Life before boxing:...
was a boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
fight that took place on June 11, 1982. It was one of the most highly anticipated fights of the early 1980s.
Setup
Larry Holmes had been the WBCWorld Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...
world Heavyweight champion since 1978, when he beat Ken Norton
Ken Norton
Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. is a former heavyweight boxer. He is best known for his 12-round victory over a peak Muhammad Ali where he famously broke Ali's jaw, on March 31, 1973, becoming only the second man to defeat Ali as a professional .He and Ali...
by a fifteen round split decision at the Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
. He had beaten the challenges of such fighters (among others) as Ossie Ocasio
Ossie Ocasio
Osvaldo Ocasio, , better known as Ossie Ocasio and nicknamed Jaws, is a Puerto Rican who was a boxer and world Cruiserweight champion. He got his peculiar nickname after accidentally biting another boxer during a sparring session...
, Mike Weaver, Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick was a Jamaican-Canadian heavyweight boxer who fought as a professional from 1976 until 2000. Berbick briefly held the WBC heavyweight championship in 1986 , before losing it to 20-year old Mike Tyson, via 2nd-round TKO...
. Leon Spinks
Leon Spinks
Leon Spinks is a former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world...
and, most notably, Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
. The fact that Holmes stopped the legendary Ali in eleven rounds did not help his popularity with boxing fans as Ali was very past his prime, at 38 years old. Ali did not even relatively present the speed, reflexes, or even strength of earlier days.
Gerry Cooney, on the other hand, had been a professional fighter since 1977, and he was able to beat boxers such as Jimmy Young
Jimmy Young (boxer)
Jimmy Young was a fast highly skilled Philadelphia heavyweight boxer who had his greatest success during the 1970s, when he most notably beat George Foreman, and many fans felt also Ali . He also fought many top names...
and others. The turning point of his career came when he beat Ken Norton, in May 1981, by knockout in round one at the Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Anticipation over a Holmes-Cooney confrontation began to take shape in early 1981, but the fight took over a year to happen, partly because 1981 in particular was a very busy year for boxing
Boxing in the 1980s
Boxing in the 1980s was filled with important fights, events and personalities that shaped the sport. Boxing in the 1980s was shaped by many different situations, such as the continuous corporate battles between the different world sanctioning organizations, the void left by Muhammad Ali as the...
with many other big fights, partly because Holmes was obliged to defend against Berbick, Spinks and Renaldo Snipes
Renaldo Snipes
Renaldo Snipes, born Reenaold Snipes on August 15, 1956 in Houston, Texas, is an accomplished American boxer, best known for his title championship bout with Larry Holmes.-Amateur career:...
in that order. Cooney only had one fight in 1981, against Norton. Holmes-Cooney was originally scheduled for March 1982, but was postponed until June when Cooney injured his back in training.
By 1982, promoter Don King and manager Dennis Rappaport began one of the most massive and racially toned campaigns in boxing history to raise public interest for a fight between Holmes and Cooney. After they were both signed to fight, an intense promotional tour followed. Holmes and Cooney attended press conferences at several United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cities, Cooney was shown on the cover of Time magazine, Hollywood stars took an interest in the fight (Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
in particular hung out with Gerry Cooney, others, such as Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, attended the fight live) and Cooney was cast as "The Great White Hope". There had not been a White world Heavyweight champion in 22 years, and Cooney would try to change that. White supremacist groups had announced they would have "agents" ready to shoot at Holmes the moment he entered the ring, and Black groups retaliated by answering that they would also have armed people on hand in case Holmes was attacked. Because of this, there were police snipers on the roofs of every major hotel surrounding the fight's venue, once again, the Caesars Palace hotel and casino. Snipers were used because the fight was held at the hotel's parking lot; any attacker could have been easily shot by police snipers.
The fight was televised
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
live on closed-circuit and pay-per-view television all over the world. A week after the bout, it was re-broadcast on HBO, and later still, on ABC-TV.
The fight
Wilfredo GómezWilfredo Gómez
Wilfredo Gómez , sometimes referred to as Bazooka Gómez, is a former boxer and three time world champion.-Biography:...
knocked out Juan Antonio Lopez
Juan Antonio Lopez
Juan Antonio López was a Mexican professional boxer.López was best known for fighting Wilfredo Gómez twice for the WBC Super Bantamweight title. Most importantly, he is credited with introducing Julio César Chávez to the sport...
in ten rounds to retain his WBC world Jr. Featherweight title in the semi-final fight, and Holmes and Cooney then took centerstage without any incidents. Holmes versus Cooney was refereed by Mills Lane
Mills Lane
Mills Bee Lane III is a retired boxing referee, a former boxer, was a two term Washoe County District Court Judge, and television personality...
. The announcer that night named Holmes first. Some thought that this was unprecedented; it is tradition in boxing that the challenger be named first and the champion last. The announcement was considered shameful and intensely disrespectful toward the champion Holmes by the boxing community. In fact, when Holmes had challenged Norton for the title, Norton had been introduced first. Nevertheless, when the boxers touched gloves before the first round began, Holmes told Cooney, "Let's have a good fight."
Holmes dropped Cooney in round two, but Cooney got up and landed a damage-causing shot to the body by the end of round four. By Holmes' own account, he felt lucky that punch landed close to the end of that round. Holmes and Cooney fought closely from rounds five to eight, trading punches in mid-ring. This was the point where Cooney's inactivity started affecting him, however, and Holmes again dropped the championship hopeful in round nine. By round ten, Cooney's punches began landing low, and this caused him to fall further behind on the judges' scorecards, referee Lane deducting three points from him for the infractions.
By round thirteen, Cooney seemed to believe that he would lose the fight and was just trying to last the fifteen round distance. He had suffered a cut on his left eye and was taking heavy punishment. Midway through the round, a Holmes cross
Cross (boxing)
In boxing, a cross is a power-punch like the uppercut and hook. Compubox, a computerized punch scoring system, counts the cross as a power-punch....
landed flush on Cooney's left cheek, and Cooney's legs buckled. He landed against the ropes, near his corner, and Holmes moved in, intent on finishing his job. Cooney's trainer, Victor Valle, prevented him from doing so, however, by throwing a towel from Cooney's corner, signifying that they were quitting. It should be clarified, however, that Cooney did not quit, his corner did that for him.
Aftermath
Cooney had a series of problems after this fight, and he fought sporadically until 1990, when he retired for good after being knocked out in two rounds by George ForemanGeorge Foreman
George Edward Foreman is an American two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur...
. Holmes, on the other hand, was Heavyweight champion until he lost his belt to Michael Spinks
Michael Spinks
Michael Spinks is a retired American boxer who was a world champion in the light-heavyweight and heavyweight divisions...
in 1985. He retired in 1986, but has made several comebacks since.
HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
presented a documentary on the fight as part of its Legendary Nights series on memorable boxing bouts.
Holmes and Cooney are now very good friends, and Holmes has helped Cooney with Cooney's organization, F.I.S.T., which helps former boxers get other jobs and medical insurance after they retire.