AS a former heavyweight contender, Gerry Cooney knows a bit more about the big boys of the sport than most. He looked at Tyson Fury’s win over Wladimir Klitschko and didn’t dismiss it as one of the worst heavyweight title fights ever.
Instead, he was impressed with Fury’s ability to use feints to keep Klitschko from getting into an offensive rhythm.“He kept him off balance,” Cooney said. “Klitschko was scared, he couldn’t get set.”
But it’s the other two big names in the division that Cooney is even more excited about. “Deontay Wilder, who’s a very exciting kid, he wants to fight everybody,” he said. “But he hasn’t really been tested yet. I love that kid, I’m a big fan of his, but we have to see. Him and [Anthony] Joshua would be giant.”
So is it safe to say that “Gentleman Gerry” is optimistic about the future of his former division?
“Yeah, I’m hopeful,” he stated. “Real heavyweights are coming back again. I think that Don King raped and robbed the game so bad that a lot of those guys that would have gone to boxing went to [American] football, baseball and basketball. And now they’re trickling back.”
This article was originally published in Boxing News magazine
