Cooney was NO hype.

[Beanflicker]

Lyle, Young and Norton were all past their prime when he got a hold of them.

[El Kabong]

Lyle, Young and Norton were all past their prime when he got a hold of them.

True as that is, the heavyweight division of that era was devoid of veteran contenders which is why Larry Holmes personally ruined a bunch of young talent: Witherspoon, Snipes, Williams, Bey, Smith, and Marvis Frazier...all had less than 20 total fights going in to their fights against Holmes.

There was almost nobody for Cooney to fight to prepare him for what Holmes could do. The division is similar these days to how it was then.

[Beanflicker]

True as that is, the heavyweight division of that era was devoid of veteran contenders which is why Larry Holmes personally ruined a bunch of young talent: Witherspoon, Snipes, Williams, Bey, Smith, and Marvis Frazier...all had less than 20 total fights going in to their fights against Holmes.

There was almost nobody for Cooney to fight to prepare him for what Holmes could do. The division is similar these days to how it was then.

For sure. I don't think Cooney was ducking or dodging anyone. And even if they were washed up, they were still very capable vets.

[Beanflicker]

I have to laugh when people insinuate the white fighters somehow have it easy.

Yeah, a white guy could get a lot of hype, maybe more quickly than a black man, but white fighters have a hard time breaking the "white hype" stigma, where a lot of fans are harder on white guys because they percieve that they've had an easier road. And then of course when they lose, like Morrison and Cooney did, they get buried and shit on a lot more.

Cooney lost to two legit top 5 ATG HWs, and Michael Spinks who was an ATG LHW and gold medalist.

[El Kabong]

White American heavyweights are specifically targeted as "hype jobs" it happened with Cooney, Morrison, and most recently Mesi. Morrison was different just due to his role in Rocky V but still those guys were solid fighters. I don't think those guys had padded records or anything, they weren't world beaters, but they were good solid heavyweights. Now a guy like Nicolay Valuev, I think HE got the padded record, but that's more due to his promoter.

[Mctaggert]

I still think Cooney could be in the top 3 hardest heavyweight punchers of all time. His style was a bit weird and he rarely landed clean shots but if he did my god it looked like a train had hit the guy.

Big George took left hooks off Tommy Morrison all night but one glancing blow from Cooney had him wobbled. Afterwards George admitted he was hurt. Can't help thinking it was a career ruined by depression and drugs, he could have beaten Spinks if he had just got his shit together.

[ykdadamaja]

I think European HW's are destroying that white-hype myth. Before then, South African white fighters were giving us something to watch in the days of late-Ali and mid-Holmes.

We forget the rich South African tradition of HW fighters.