Irish-American boxing legend Gerry Cooney was on Off the Ball and singled out Tyson Fury as the best boxer in the heavyweight division.
“Fury asked for Wilder - nobody else wanted to fight Wilder. Fury puts on 150 pounds, he goes on this run going crazy. First thing he does when he comes back, he says ‘I want to fight Wilder.’ What? That’s a big man right there and I’m proud of him for doing that and he stood up and he did a great job.
“He got dropped by Wilder. The referee Jack Reese is a friend of mine, he got to five and Fury opened his eyes up and jumped off the canvas. And then he fought back and he hurt Wilder twice in that round. I thought he won that fight,” Cooney commented.
Cooney agreed that the heavyweight division is the best it’s been in a while, with a number of contenders stepping up to the plate in recent times.
Anthony Joshua’s recent shock loss to Andy Ruiz was a testimony to how strong the division currently is and Cooney was happy to see the Mexican-American dethrone the previously unbeaten British boxer.
“I picked Joshua to win late but I said that listen, this guy Ruiz, he’s a tough kid. He lost a split decision to Parker and he’s going to test Joshua and we’re going to find out a lot about Joshua in this fight and we did. He got knocked out.
“But Joshua has also been the guy who’s also said that listen, we all can’t win them all. We’re going to lose sometimes. So we’re going to see if he can come back and I believe he needs to change his training camp. He needs to find a good teacher to teach him some more skills,” Cooney said.
Fighters not working the body
While pleased with the quality of today’s heavyweights, Cooney did note a reluctance today to go for body shots, which served him so well when he was fighting.
“Like I see the guys fighting today, like Tyson Fury, and I love the guy, he’s a great guy, good fighter. But if I’m fighting Tyson Fury it’s not like maybe I want to get to his body, I think in this round I might try to get to him.
“My job is I’ve got to get to his body so I can get him to drop his hands so I can hit him on the chin. They don’t do that today. They stay outside and box them,” Cooney said.
‘The Gentleman’ also said that he was interested in coaching some of today’s fighters and felt that he had plenty of knowledge to impart on them.
“Some time I hope some way down this road that I’ll be able to start training some guys because I was gifted with a lot of talent by a trainer called Victor Valle and I also worked with Gil Clancy.
“So I have a lot of things to give to somebody if they have the ability to learn. I would love to be involved in that way too,” Cooney said.
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