Gentleman Gerry & The Duke. A real-life Rocky & one of his celluloid nemeses. It's left hooks at twenty paces. I have Cooney in the third, with a bodyshot doubling Morrison over, & a straight right-left hook combination flooring him hard. Morrison is up at eight, but has no legs. Cooney ends it with the trademark left hand fewer than thirty seconds later. A dicey fight, given the power & chins on display. Who takes it?
When I was on another site they had this thing running called "Fan Fight" where the readers would debate various boxing subjects, and one that I took part in was "Which "Great White Hype" was better, Cooney or Morrison", and I won taking Morrison. The link is still up. . Damn that's been awhile. My answers on there (obviously) were in Blue. http://www.pound4pound.com/Year/2006/FanFight/April06.htm
I think the opposite. Cooney had the better chin but not by so much that it would make a difference. Morrison was too fast and thus would land first
Cooney's chin wasn't as bad as it is made out to be. When he fought Holmes, he took a lot of punishment and his getting stopped in the later rounds was more about his being exhausted and inexperienced at going 15 rounds than anything else. Years later, after a long absence from the ring and having dealt with drug and alcohol issues, Cooney was a fraction of the fighter he was from the Holmes fight and that is when he started crumbling when hit. Cooney gets Morrison out of there quickly, no later than round 3.
Cooney via Norton style execution, Morrison wouldn't know what hit him, he'd have flashbacks of Ray Mercer after this one
Cooney early in a fun fight... Cooney's chin wasnt great, but it was really stamina that was his waterloo... His chin and his punch were superior to Morrison's
That's true about his late crumble against Holmes, but while still fresh, it was frankly embarrassing for him to be floored off a routine Holmes one-two. The champion wanted for power.
I disagree. Holmes was not a light puncher. He wasn't a big puncher by any means, but his right carried respectable pop. And sure, Cooney was knocked down early, but what is more important is Cooney didn't fall apart, he got up and got himself back into the fight. And if you want to talk about embarrassing, Morrison getting decked three times in the first while losing to Bentt is far worse.
Holmes could make a man respect his power, yes --- but a one-two (which didn't even appear to me to have Holmes' full weight behind it, as he was still measuring Cooney for the most part, coming to grips with his size early on) sent Cooney reeling like Bambi on skates. Just going off the top of my head here, but I don't know when I saw Holmes have such a profound effect on an opponent's chin with so little apparent effort, sans maybe that Latin fellow whose name I can't recall (he fought Ali, too). I thought it spoke pretty lowly of Cooney's punch resistance, but his heart was good, & he got back up. I just would not give him too much credit for that, though --- Holmes wasn't anything more than a somewhat-decent puncher, & what little finishing skills he had, he did not devote to chasing it up in that second round. Indeed, though, Morrison getting ragdolled by Bentt is far more degrading, as is a life-&-death battle with Hipp --- something Cooney would never need worry about.
Not only did Cooney get up, but got back into the fight and remained competitive until gassing in the later rounds. If Cooney's chin were as bad as you're making it out to be, he would not have lasted as long as he did. AND Holmes obviously didn't feel Cooney was ready to go at that point in the fight.
Cooney remained competitive, but few fighters --- of varying calibre --- were ever out-gunned quickly by Holmes, & Cooney was simply part of the regular crowd. It was no great achievement to see later rounds with the champion. He was not much of a puncher, & not especially aggressive. He respected Cooney's hitting prowess, & did what he did best --- fought conservatively.
I just saw Cooney destroy Ken Norton. That had to be one of the most brutal KO's ever. On top of that the stoppage was horrible horrible horrible !!
IMO, Morrison would probably have beaten the iterations of big-names Norton, Lyle & Young Cooney faced & crushed. All three were in a real bad way when Cooney obliterated them.
