Where is gerry cooney

But this, as Cooney has lamented many times, hurt his career. Inactivity was a major issue and, through not signing with King, thus unable to get any fights between his May annihilation of Ken Norton and his June shot at heavyweight champ Larry Holmes, Cooney was rusty when entering the ring for the biggest fight of his career. Nevertheless, at the time of the huge — as in Time Magazine front cover status huge — Holmes-Cooney fight, plenty of fans felt their new hero would do it.

Going pro in after having had a solid amateur career, Cooney was matched carefully. Soon attracting a following due to his incredible punching power, his good looks, his easygoing nature, and of course, his skin tone, Cooney was as popular with female fans and admirers as he was with the guys who followed boxing.

And, say what you want about Rappaport and Jones, they sure did a great job in making Cooney a star; a rich star. This money set Cooney up for life. Holmes of course won the fight, after a brave effort by Cooney, who was a veritable novice in so many ways. But Cooney then all but vanished. It was incredible how the fans did an almost complete U-turn and ditched Cooney.

Now sometimes booed as he was introduced in public, it seemed Cooney had indeed let the fans down. Today, Rappaport says he hates it when the anniversary comes around, that the Holmes loss hurt him as much as it did Cooney; and still does. And Cooney has given back, with various charity work. He is no longer booed by anyone. The law positioned their sharpshooters to clean up the promised mess from the vigilante horde.

It was quite a night in Las Vegas. That was meant to be what it was about. The physical pain was the easy part; the bruises fade, the cuts heal and the swellings all over a battered body recede with time. However, away from the punches Cooney was soon out of control on a scale that often defies belief. He has been sober for over 30 years. It was a great fight — forget the hype. We put on a truly memorable heavyweight title fight.

Cooney would have won a round fight without the lazy infringements. In the three fights before Cooney fought Holmes, the New Yorker had left an impressive trail of destruction in a heavyweight division slowly adjusting to life without Ali. Cooney had been a professional boxer since , had started to be noticed as he smashed and bashed away at the usual suspects.

He was 6ft 6in, of Irish descent, loved a publicity stunt and could fight. Big, indestructible Joe had been a childhood hero of mine; I certainly knew about Cooney. Holmes, the champion who had beaten Norton over 15 rounds two years earlier, had to finally agree to a fight. The racial spin came from Don King and was blatant, but also commercially shrewd.

Cooney never recovered, never got his rematch and threatened to drive to Easton, Pennsylvania, where Holmes lived, to challenge the champion to a street fight. In the days, weeks, months and years after that fight ended, Cooney would ramble an apology in bars, at fights and often alone with just his darkest of memories for desperate company with the drugs and drink that had taken over his life.

Cooney was lost, but he was still under 30 and the Holmes defeat was his only one. In other words, the Great White Hope could come again. Five years after the Holmes fight there was another big fight and payday for Cooney, this time against Michael Spinks, who had twice beaten Holmes.