Larry Holmes
Larry Holmes (born November 3, 1949) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 2002 and was world heavyweight champion from 1978 until 1985. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which led to his boxing nickname of the "Ea ...
vs.
Gerry Cooney
Gerald Arthur Cooney (born August 24, 1956) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1990, and challenged twice for world heavyweight titles in 1982 and 1987 (for the WBC and lineal title in 1982 and 1987, and for the ...
was a heavyweight
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
match that took place on June 11, 1982, in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
, United States. It was one of the most highly anticipated fights of the early 1980s.
Setup
Larry Holmes had been the WBC heavyweight champion since 1978, when he beat Ken Norton by a fifteen-round split decision at the Caesars Palace in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
. Over the course of his illustrious career, on the way to almost tying the great
Rocky Marciano
Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the onl ...
's record of 49-0, losing in the 49th fight, a decision to
Michael Spinks
Michael Spinks (born July 13, 1956) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1988. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed light heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, and the lineal ...
, fought such fighters as
Tim Witherspoon
Tim Witherspoon (born December 27, 1957) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 2003. He was a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the WBC title in 1984, and the WBA title in 1986. Witherspoon also wo ...
,
Earnie Shavers
Earnie Dee Shaver (August 31, 1944 – September 1, 2022), best known as Earnie Shavers, was an American professional boxer who competed between 1969 and 1995. A two-time world heavyweight championship challenger, he is known as one of the harde ...
Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick (1 August 1954 – 28 October 2006) was a Jamaican professional boxer who competed from 1976 to 2000. He won the WBC heavyweight title in 1986 by defeating Pinklon Thomas, then lost it in his first defense in the same year to M ...
,
Leon Spinks
Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to:
Places
Europe
* León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León
* Province of León, Spain
* Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...
and, most notably, Muhammad Ali.
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
Renaldo Snipes (born Reenaold Snipes on August 15, 1956) is an American former boxer, best known for his title championship bout with Larry Holmes.
Amateur career
Snipes was a two-time Chicago Golden Gloves Champion (1977 and 1978). He lost on a ...
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
Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups. He has been a controversial figure, partly due to a manslaughter conviction and civil cases against him, as well a ...
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
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
cities, Cooney was shown on the cover of ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine, Hollywood stars took an interest in the fight ( Sylvester Stallone in particular hung out with Gerry Cooney, others, such as
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
, 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 venue, once again, the Caesars Palace hotel and casino. Snipers were used because the fight was held in the hotel's parking lot; any attacker could have been easily shot by police snipers.
The fight was
televised
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
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 Gómez
Wilfredo Gómez RiveraJuan Antonio Lopez in ten rounds to retain his WBC super bantamweight title in the semi-final fight, and Holmes and Cooney then took center stage without any incidents. Holmes versus Cooney was refereed by
Mills Lane
Mills Bee Lane III (November 12, 1937 – December 6, 2022) was an American boxing referee and professional boxer, a two-term Washoe County, Nevada district court judge, and television personality.
Lane was best known for having officiated se ...
. 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. 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 thirteen, which proved to be the final round. 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
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
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.
The fight holds the attendance record for a boxing match in Nevada with 29,214 attendees paying a total of $6,239,050.
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 Foreman. Holmes, on the other hand, was Heavyweight champion until he lost his belt to
Michael Spinks
Michael Spinks (born July 13, 1956) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1988. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed light heavyweight title from 1983 to 1985, and the lineal ...
in 1985. He retired from boxing in 1986, but he returned for a fight against Mike Tyson in 1988. A brief retirement after the loss followed until he returned to fight at the age of 41 in 1991, where he fought 21 more matches until his final retirement in 2002.
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, Fighters' Initiative for Support and Training (FIST), which helps former boxers to obtain other jobs and medical insurance after they retire.
Early in 2020, Holmes and Cooney discussed the idea of meeting in an
exhibition fight
An exhibition fight is a sports match which is not part of a competition but instead serves the function of demonstrating the skills of the participants In boxing, an exhibition fight normally consists of three to eight rounds. The participants ge ...
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...