Re: Top 10 Heavyweights of the 1980's?

Loki wrote:

> In another post, you dismissed Cooney's victories over Lyle and Norton
> saying that they were old and shot. However, unlike Cooney at the time
> he faced Spinks, they were active and winning fights. Furthermore,
> their glory days were not nearly as distant a memory as those of
> Cooney were when he faced Spinks.


I'm still waiting for you to repeat your claim that Holmes was more far 
gone against Spinks than Norton, Lyle, and Young were against Cooney.  I 
couldn't believe it when you said it the first time.  No matter how hard 
I rubbed my eyes, it was still there on the screen.

As for them being "active and winning fights..."

Norton had won just three of his most recent six, and had taken three 
and a half years to fight those six fights.  Cooney-Norton was six 
months after Norton's *split-decision* win over Tex Cobb, which was 
fifteen months after his draw with Scott LeDoux (who by then had a very 
healthy 25-7-3 record).  He'd already been KOed in one by Shavers and 
had hit the deck twice against LeDoux.  He was three years removed from 
his brief world title reign.

By the time Lyle fought Cooney in 1980, he was just 9-5 going back to 
'75 and had recently been KOed in two by a nobody.  The guy Lyle beat 
just prior to fighting Cooney was under 200 pounds and was 11-2.  The 
guy who had KOed Lyle in two rounds was 10-4 and had lost four of his 
past six.  Lyle was probably four or five years removed from whatever 
counted as his "glory years" (probably 1975-76, when he went 2-4).

And Young had won just three of his previous seven, going back to 1977. 
 The guy he beat just prior to fighting Cooney was 4-8 and had lost his 
last five.  Young was probably three or four years past whatever counted 
as his "glory years" (probably 1976-77).

Cooney's "glory years" were probably 1980-81.  The Spinks fight was six 
years later.  That's longer than the span for Norton, Lyle, and Young, 
but not dramatically so.

Look, nobody minds if you try to prop up Gerry Cooney by rattling off 
his wins.  Just...use just a little bit of perspective when you do, 
okay?  You accuse me (despite my efforts to the contrary) of relying too 
heavily on numbers; aren't you relying a little too heavily on 
name-recognition?


Pie