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Cooney vs Homes: The Fight for America


BoztheMadman
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It went far deeper than just boxing and everybody could see it. It was 1982 and Ronald Reagan was in office. A time of great hope for restoring the greatness of America-Republican, White America. The 70's didn't bring much good to that America, with the Vietnam War failure, Nixon's shameful dismissal and Carter's liberal rule. Yes, every average Conservative White male and female agreed-Carter had done no good for the country. First Iran laughed in their face and then the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, where also USA had interests and where they spent some money on making the country more to their liking. But now the new, bold 80's had come and with them the man who would make USA great again: Ronald Reagan of course. And Reagan and his administration made no secret of one thing: they wanted a new heavyweight champion, a WHITE champion. There hadn't been a White American heavyweight champion since 1956, when Rocky Marciano retired. Ingemar Johansson had since won the title but held it briefly and he was Swedish. Score after score of black boxers had since taken turns in holding that precious and prestigious title. In a country where over 80% of the population was White back then, this was unacceptable. There had long been a national yearning for another White heavyweight champion from the country. In the 70's, Duane Bobick, the hard-hitting sensation from Bowlus, Minnesota, looked like he could be the one to end that yearning. But that dream was shattered in only 58 seconds by Ken Norton, who knocked Bobick out in embarrassing fashion. Then there was Jerry Quarry, of course. He was certainly the most talented White heavyweight of his time, but his skin always let him down and he lost most of his biggest fights due to cuts.

 

So, when the gigantic 6foot6 Irish-American from Manhattan appeared on the scene all of the sudden, the White American popular opinion quickly took notice and followed his every move carefully and with enthusiasm. Cooney could punch, oh yes. He stopped both the aforementioned Ken Norton and Ron Lyle in 1 round, which made the White American boxing establishment and the country go ape. That Norton fight was on 11 May 1981. Almost exactly a month later, on 12 June, he appeared ringside as Howard Cosell was interviewing Larry Holmes, the so-unpopular and unwanted heavyweight champion, who had just dismantled Leon Spinks in 3. Holmes and Cooney were no friends and it became very obvious as Holmes, upon being informed by Cosell that his nemesis was there and then seeing him, first yelled "Don't come over here, I'll slap your face!" and then launched himself at Cooney, who of course didn't obey. Cooney was wearing a suit and a tie, with his wife behind him. The very image of the perfect champion America was craving. Big, darkly handsome and with a charming way about him. He was someone everyone could relate to, a man of the people. Of course, Holmes was stopped before he could throw a punch at Cooney and then promptly led away. Cooney then sat down with Cosell and called Holmes "a poor champion". A sentiment no doubt many others shared, especially White Republicans. Holmes had now been a champion for over 3 years-too long in the eyes of many in USA. Even relatively many African Americans thought he was a poor champion and most of all, a poor successor to Ali. Furthermore, the memory of Holmes dishing out a brutal beating to Ali himself was still fresh and didn't help to endear him to boxing fans either. Even though he had made 11 title defenses and was undefeated at 39-0, Holmes wasn't always as exciting as Ali had been, in the ring. Out of it, he was just a disaster compared to Ali. Known as being humorless, dour and easily irritated and agitated, he was every manager's nightmare. Don King, his then-manager, once said people would rather pay to see Ali knocked out than to see Holmes knock out people. Holmes was also known for making disparaging comments about several of his opponents before the fight.

 

And so, that fight just had to be made. There were just too many reasons for it to be made. Nobody wanted to see Holmes continue being the champ and beating mediocre opponents. Holmes still therefore had something left to prove. But most important of all, to the predominantly White country-the seemingly endless line of black world champions HAD to end. A White heavyweight champion was something the country had dreamed of and yearned for, ever since Joe Louis became world champion. It came true only twice after that. Cooney looked like someone who could do it, he was the face that everybody wanted to see on fight posters, holding that precious title. He belonged to the second most populous ethnic group in USA, a group that always had strong fighting traditions. Yet there hadn't been an Irish-American heavyweight world champion since James J. Braddock, who had been hammered away by Joe Louis in 1937. It had now passed 45 years since that and the proud boxing ethnic group also screamed for another world heavyweight champion. Cooney's level of opposition was criticised by some writers however, who said that his best wins were against boxers who had seen better days. But the majority of the opinion ignored that. Holmes referred to Cooney as "The Great White Dope" and said that if he wasn't white, he'd be a nobody. Those comments only made the average White American more eager to see Holmes get knocked out by their man, Gentleman Gerry.

 

After some time of insecurity about the fight, it was signed and scheduled for 15 March 1982. However, Cooney then tore a muscle fibers in his shoulder and it had to be postponed. It was then moved for 11 June. The Great Crook Don King of course rubbed his hands and massively profitted on this very racially-charged matchup and made it even clearer when he put the emphasis on Cooney being White, Irish and Catholic at a press conference. He made one of the most intense promotion campaigns so far in order to raise more interest for the fight. And he didn't even have to go through so much trouble-America was interested. Cooney's manager Dennis Rappaport also fueled it all further when he said he didn't respect Holmes as a human being and that he didn't carry the championship with dignity. The last was partly true, but Rappaport was also reported to have said "He's not the white man, he's not the right man." Holmes also began receiving death threats and his property was vandalised, while Ku Klux Klan staged rallies in support of Cooney. There was a racial division in connection to the fight that had not been seen in USA for a long time. The blacks all wanted Holmes to win now, even those who didn't like or respect him before. Whites all wanted Cooney to win, of course. So intense was all the commotion around the fight that the snipers were placed on rooftops surrounding Caesar's Palace, since it was an outdoors arena back then. Holmes and Cooney each got 10 million dollars. However, Cooney had a special telephone hot line in his dressing room so the president coould call him afterwards-if he won. To add to all the madness, Holmes was introduced first before the fight began. Something totally unheard of before for a champion. Cooney was then introduced to massive cheers from most of the 29 000 present there, a Las Vegas record.

 

As the two touched gloves, Holmes told Cooney "Lets have a good fight." The fight started in a disappointing fashion for the White fans as Cooney suffered a knockdown in round 2. But he came back to win the next two rounds and hurt Holmes with a hard body shot at the end of round 4. Holmes later said he felt lucky the punch came at the end of the round. Cooney mostly concentrated on the body, because he was a nice guy and didn't want to see his opponents seriously hurt by his immense punching power. In the next 4 rounds the fight was even but then in the 9th Cooney landed a low blow and got a point taken. Just seconds later, it repeated and he got another deduction. Cooney started to look increasingly tired as Holmes started unloading on him. He also lost another point for a low blow in the eleventh. Probably since he concentrated almost exclusively on the body, it was hard for him to avoid hitting low sometimes. In the 13th round, Cooney looked all out of gas and Holmes started landing at will. After taking a straight right, Cooney who was bleeding from the nose and left eye, staggered against the ropes and the ref counted it as a knockdown. As he started counting, Cooney's trainer Victor Valle came in and stopped the fight. America was speechless and in shock. There had only remained 8 seconds of the round and 2 more rounds to go-and that was it?!?

 

Cooney was devastated by the loss, as much as his supporters and appologized repeatedly, saying he tried with all his heart. He was gone from the ring after that for 2 years. For the rest of his career, he would retire twice before finally retiring and was disappointingly stopped in 5 by Michael Spinks, the same man who would dethrone Larry Holmes himself and finally in 2 by George Foreman. It is a shame because he maybe could have done more, but technically he was limited and his chin was suspect as well, like with many other punchers. For a huge guy though, he was rather good. Another problem for him against Holmes is that he had never gone past 8 rounds before and clearly he started to slow down after the 10th. But most experts agree on one thing: he was brought up too fast, the Holmes fight came too early. Since that fight, Cooney and Holmes gradually became friends and Holmes donated money to Cooney's organization FIST, which helps to take care of former boxers who struggle financially or with health. For one evening, Gerry Cooney was the hope of his country, the greatest boxing hope-but unfortunately, it was the wrong crowd that had most hopes for him, for wrong reasons. And that same crowd now just had to accept the facts: there would not be another White American world heavyweight champion for a LONG time and they had to keep watching black fighters fight for that coveted title. Cooney by the way clearly distanced himself from the racial overtones before the fight and said that skill, not race, determined someone worthy of being a champion. And even worse, all that hype around him becoming the world champion pushed him into a fight for which he still wasn't ready.

Edited by BoztheMadman
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Re: Cooney vs Homes: The Fight for America

 

--- Well, the US had white champs in Rocky, Ingo, and Coetzee if that was important to that narrow segment.

 

Me thinks you got sucked into the abhorrent King promo. I don't claim to speak for the US majority and neither should anyone. I and others saw it as a compelling showdown of the guy duking the WBA champs and the new slugger on the block. Was a decent fight, so end of, but of course the King narrative engraved in stone by the media. Such sells papers.

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Re: Cooney vs Homes: The Fight for America

 

--- Well, the US had white champs in Rocky, Ingo, and Coetzee if that was important to that narrow segment.

 

Me thinks you got sucked into the abhorrent King promo. I don't claim to speak for the US majority and neither should anyone. I and others saw it as a compelling showdown of the guy duking the WBA champs and the new slugger on the block. Was a decent fight, so end of, but of course the King narrative engraved in stone by the media. Such sells papers.

 

Coetzee became champ after this. 1983 I believe. Yep. And he WAS white but not American...not the same thing.

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