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Gerry Cooney [1956-0] American

Rank: 101
Athlete, Boxer

Gerry Cooney is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1990. Despite relative inexperience, his exciting wins and size, aided by expert promotion, propelled Cooney into a lucrative bout with world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in 1982.

Anger, Dad, Education, Mom, Moving On, Relationship, Smile, Sports

Quote	Tags	Rank
All of the sports have a safety net, but boxing is the only sport that has none. So when the fighter is through, he is through. While he was fighting his management was very excited for him, but now that he is done, that management team is moving on.	Moving On, Sports	101
You have a small period of time when you can perfect your career and become good at it. A lot of guys get distracted, which only hurts them. You must stay focused and work very hard at boxing.		102
Muhammad Ali was the kind of guy you either loved or hated, but you wanted to see him. I happen to really love him. He brought boxing to another level and always made you laugh.		103
You take that walk from the dressing room to the ring and that's when the real man comes out. Then you climb up those four stairs and into the ring. Then finally, you can't wait for the bell to ring.		104
Am I complicated? Nah, I'm interesting. I just like having a good time.		105
I retired when I was 30, with all my marbles and a few bucks. But a lot of guys leave boxing penniless with no skills. Men in their 30s and early 40s, old for boxing, young in life, but also old in the job market if you're just getting started with no education. These guys need someone in their corner.	Education	106
I either had to concentrate on fighting, or I had to help my family. I chose my family. I love my mom; I love my family.	Mom	107
Growing up training, I use to get up so early I would wave to the garbage men going by. So, I had this relationship with Blue Collar America and I really liked it. I felt that lots of those people looked forward to me winning.	Relationship	108
The bad press came because they thought I should fight more. I couldn't get the fights because if I would sign to fight one of King's guys I would be signed to him. I chose not to do that. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake.		109
I am involved in minor league baseball. I go around the country speaking to troubled youths, trying to help them understand that whatever path they choose, they'll need to really pay attention to it.		110
I grew up in a big Irish, Catholic family. My dad was a pretty rough guy. So one of my brothers left home when he was 15 and found his way to the gym. It gave me the opportunity to go and spend some time with him and work out in the gym.	Dad	111
Boxing was not the sport that I thought is was due to all the politics.		112
I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I never imagined that anything like that would happen to me.		113
I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time.		114
By the time you're 30 years old, you can be on a nowhere street, if you're not careful.		115
I was a left hooker, and I loved hooking. I also really liked to jab and mix it up right away.		116
Roberto Duran was the kind of guy who was a true fighter and you hardly see guys like that anymore.		117
If you look at my career, towards the end you will see I was fighting like once a year. I was not part of the Don King top heavyweights, so I was kind of kept out. His guys were getting three to four fights a year and I could only get one.		118
I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion.		119
When that bell rang, I wanted to go out there and do my thing.		120
I feel very blessed.		121
When somebody used to compliment me, I'd spend 10 minutes trying to talk them out of it.		122
I've spent most of my life in prison. I was a prisoner of my fear and my low self-esteem.		123
I always felt I was wounded. That I was no good, a piece of crap, and that I wouldn't amount to anything, because that's what my father always told me. I just felt like I didn't belong anywhere.		124
My father was one tough man.		125
I'm a real person. I have real feelings. I have real thoughts. It's a quality people like about me. They can reach out and touch me. I wouldn't give it up for anything.		126
It takes a strong person to admit he's got problems. Things are bugging you, you've got to get it out. Life is supposed to be peaches and cream, but it doesn't turn out that way. I sometimes found things confusing and sometimes didn't understand how things can be so difficult.		201
I just like people. We have a good time together.		202
I had personal problems. I was spending 50% of my life on my family, 50% on boxing. Neither was getting anywhere. It was killing me. So I had to break away from fighting.		203
The road hasn't always been paved for me. People identify with that. Everybody passes through hard times, and I think that's part of my appeal - that I have, too.		204
When I get finished with fighting, I hope they ask the same questions. It's not my purpose to answer them. Boxing is the art of self-defense. I knock 'em out the first chance I get.		205
People haven't seen enough of me. My fights haven't gone the distance, and people have a lot of questions. I want to find out for myself as much as the people do. I want to find out what I can do.		206
After every fight, I knock myself down. I start from scratch again. I say, 'I'm not as good as I thought.' It makes you work harder. It makes you push harder. It's more than money. It's more than the title. It's my pride, and it can be scary thinking about it. I could lose. It's scary.		207
I don't fear Holmes, but I think he's a good fighter. He has a lot of pride. But I wouldn't be fighting him if I feared him. It's going to be a tough fight. People say with all the hoopla out there, I won't be able to handle it. I believe the pressure's on him. I'm just going to do my thing.		208
Too many guys don't know what to do with their lives after boxing. I was lucky because I had two managers who didn't trust each other, and so they were always making sure where all the money was, and because of that, so did I.		209
Too many fighters stay in the game for too long. They stay because it's awfully hard to walk away from the roar of the crowd. Really hard. You live for that and so you stay too long. And you might have a wife and kids to feed. So you keep fighting because you don't know how to do anything else.		210
We try to tell these guys that the end of a boxing career isn't the end of their lives: it's the beginning of a new one.		211
You gotta appreciate every day!		212
If I keep thinking about yesterday, tomorrow might never come.		213
I feel like a pro now. Before I fought Holmes, I felt like a rookie.		214
The fight with Holmes was a plus. I gained so much experience.		215
Just because you don't see someone doesn't mean the love has changed.		216
What hurt most were the people who came up to me and said they lost $1,000 on me. It just makes you mad.		217
It's like you always think that when you get to a goal, you'll be happy. But then there is always something else that interests you.		218
The Klitschko boys, they're great fighters, but they're just boring here in America.		219
I don't overswing any more. I can throw a punch and be right in position to punch again. No more 'Hail Mary' punches, where it took me five minutes to get back in position.		220
Winning the Gloves made me believe I was somebody.		221
Joe DeGuardia, I love that guy. He's not a superstar promoter yet, but he will be. He was a fighter himself; he's staying the course with these guys. He's developing some good fighters out there. I really applaud him whenever I get a chance to.		222
When we first started in Huntington Recreation with John Capobianco, we put four kids in the Golden Gloves finals. We didn't even have a ring. We trained at Stimson Junior High School. They give us the gym three nights a week. We used to box in the gym - no ring, just on the gym floor.		223
Long Island has a great boxing tradition.		224
I don't care what you say about me anymore! I don't care what you write about me anymore. I don't care! This is my life. I can't have anybody messing with my life. I just want to be Gerry Cooney, doing what I want to do. I want to be what I am. A fighter.		225
Sometimes it takes certain people longer to get over things than others.		226
I want to get me one of those titles.		301
People who think I lack desire are wrong.		302
Looking back, I couldn't get enough fights because Don King owned most of the top 10 fighters, and he never gave me a fight.		303
Everybody handles pressure differently.		304
The past is yesterday. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.		305
I want to win. For myself first. And for all those people who stuck with me and understood.		306
Drug abuse is a very difficult disease.		307
When I fought Holmes, I feel I was a better fighter than he was. I was just so caught up in what was written about the fight - I got caught up in that whole thing.		308
I believe in my abilities as a fighter.		309
I really don't care who I fight.		310
My career got sidetracked after fighting Holmes.		311
In '82, I was a little too young, I was a little inexperienced, and I was more concerned with going the distance in the fight than going out and taking Holmes out.		312
I see Mike Tyson as too strong for Spinks.		313
For every athlete, the roar of the crowd goes away, and we have to learn how to turn the page.		314
I had money, but I still didn't know what to do with my life.		315
I believe in myself. I want to be a fighter. I want to be heavyweight champion of the world.		316
I was lucky. I held on to some of my money. I didn't really know what I wanted to do after boxing. But I found what I wanted to do.		317
It's great playing a sport where you don't get hit in the head.		318
Boxing was a way to express my anger. All of a sudden, I was expressing anger, and I was good at it. I was like a Jekyll and Hyde. Boxing helped me because I was fighting the anger out. I was knocking guys out.	Anger	319
If my son wants a boxing career, I won't stop him, but I definitely won't push him. It's bad for a kid to be pressured.		320
I have this want-to-be-liked thing, but deep down, I had this rage. I was just - I was blinded. I wasn't healthy enough to be able to learn more. I had one mode - to fight.		321
I liked to watch the expression in the fighter's face change when you connected with him. You know when you connect in the right spot. It's like a tunnel vision.		322
I have a great life. I'm the happiest guy in the world.		323
When I was 15, I decided to take up the sport seriously, so I went down to the Y.M.C.A. My first day there, this little Italian guy beat my brains out. I decided to quit. Then I realized I really wanted to be a fighter. I worked at it, went back, and that little Italian guy didn't beat me up no more.		324
My father never once told me he loved me. I told him I loved him only one time - that was when he was sick. It was hard, the way he showed his love. I didn't understand what he was trying to teach me. Now I know, but it came too late for him to see it. After he was gone, I realized he was trying to strengthen my mind to make me better.		325
Fighting is not something you can just turn off.		326
Maybe I'll go to acting school. Acting is like boxing, you know.		401
Every Saturday and Sunday, when the other guys were out having a good time at the mall, I was at home working in the garden.		402
When I hurt Norton, I got scared. I looked to the referee. But in the same sense, you're a fighter: you gotta have the killer instinct.		403
I'm one crazy, crazy guy.		404
I don't want anybody guarding me. I want to be free; I want to be left alone... I would like to go out there and have no one know me, but at the same time, it would bother me, y'know.		405
I was embarrassing against Spinks.		406
You go through pain. You feel uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable until you change. I acquired a different outlook.		407
It took me to be 33 to start to know how to fight.		408
I spent a lot of time dwelling on yesterday, and it did me no good.		409
Some have made boxing a terrible thing to be around.		410
They said if I'd fight a ranked contender, I'd get a title shot. I did that, and the next day they changed the rules.		411
I've had a long, long road with lots of ups and downs. But that's all behind me now.		412
I think I make people laugh, and that's good in life.		413
Some of the things written about me hurt, but there is nothing I can do about it.		414
I've just had some bad luck. I've had every injury known to man. I understand how people think, 'How can this be happening all the time to Gerry Cooney?' But it did.		415
I've always wanted to fight. I love to fight.		416
I don't care about the critics. I took a lot of nonsense. I got stuck with silly labels like 'White Hope.' What about other guys like Tex Cobb - they never had those labels?		417
Sometimes you get so frustrated that things aren't working out, you say, 'Let me step away for a while.' But the fire still burns.		418
I know I can fight; that's the only thing that matters to me.		419
I have a Roman nose. It roams all over my face.		420
Boxing gave me a voice to express the anger I felt for where I came from.	Anger	421
I saw my brother have an altercation one time. He hit a guy with a left hook to the body and a right hand to the chin. He not only knocked the guy out, but out of wind. That stuck with me. It scared me.		422
I had two managers who couldn't stand each other. I had a promoter, Don King, who couldn't get any fights, and I was fighting once a year. I knocked out Norton and then didn't fight for 13 months. Then I fight the heavyweight champion of the world.		423
It's like I had two things pulling at me: you want to be a fighter, and you have problems. So I couldn't be a fighter, and I wasn't solving any problems.		424
It's tough waking up in the morning and reading derogatory stories about you.		425
I always had the hope that Holmes and I would fight again.		426
I'm a happy guy. I just want to see people laugh and smile.	Smile	501
I never fought because of my father. I started to box before he pushed me. It had nothing to do with him.		502
My father would never have lost to Holmes.		503
You can have more than one career, but you only have one family.		504
I grew up in a household where I learned five things from my old man. You know what they were? You're no good. You're a failure. You're not going to amount to anything. Don't trust nobody, and don't tell nobody your business. When I lost to Larry Holmes in 1982, I felt all five of those things smacked me right across the face.		505
When I see a fighter gets into the ring, I not only see the fighter, but I see his wife and children. I care about what happens to them. I care about what happens to that fighter after he gets out of the ring.		506
About 99 percent of fighters end up broke. F.I.S.T. helps them turn the page and find new goals.		507
Most fighters, when they're finished, boxing turns its back on them.		508
When you bottom out, you have to stand up and get going again.		509
Anytime somebody climbs up those steps into the ring, they have a heart.		510
I learned a lot from the Holmes fight. I learned about styles and the pressure. I'm more prepared now.		511
I'm easygoing. There's a place and time for everything. When that bell rings, I'm not nice and easy. I'm not meek and passive.		512
You have got to not get hit. You could be the best puncher in the world, but if you're going to keep constantly taking punches you're going to lose your heart. Once you learn how to miss the punches and then you start to punch them, you become an all-around fighter.		513

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