By Don Colgan

26-years have passed, yet it really seems like yesterday.  The Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney WBC Heavyweight Championship Bout in June, 1982, was a collision between the dominant Holmes at the peak of his skills and Gentleman Gerry, a devastating yet untested slugger. Cooney, virtue of knockouts over Jimmy Lyle, Ron Lyle, and a 54 second slaughter over an over the hill Ken Norton, was ranked #1 in the world by Ring Magazine and Boxing Illustrated and was a mere 8 to 5 underdog when he and Holmes met at ring center in Las Vegas.

Cooney was forecast to win by many in the boxing community.  The revered radio sportscaster Art Rust Jr openly predicted a Cooney KO in the first round.  Holmes was at the pinnacle of his skills and had been the foremost heavyweight in the world for solid five years.

However, Larry never gained widespread public respect.  He was firmly in Ali’s towering shadow, and his 10th round TKO over the legendary champion did little to enhance his stature.  It was not as if his skills were ignored.  He was feted for his powerful and accurate left jab and missile precise right crosses.  He could take a punch, as was evidenced by his climbing off the canvas after violent knockdowns at the hands of challengers Earnie Shavers and Renaldo Snipes.

He just wasn’t liked!

When Holmes and Cooney signed, the age old “Great White Hope” moniker was placed squarely on the Irishman’s shoulders, fueled by both Holmes and Don King.  Larry’s pre fight comments, in which he stated he would easily dispatch “Looney Cooney”, getting him drunk from a fusillade of punches before knocking him out, were intended to intimidate the challenger.  It seemed to work, for there was more than a hint of fear in Gerry’s eyes when he climbed through the ropes that long ago June evening.

There was a distinct psychology in what Holmes was doing.  He was raised in an Easton, Pa ghetto, with a 7th grade education.  He took the stairs to the heavyweight championship, and it was a gradual ascent.  Cooney took the elevator, coming from a solid blue collar middle class background in Huntington, Long Island and went from winning the 1976  New York City Golden Gloves Heavyweight Open Championship to a World Heavyweight Championship Bout in less than six years. 

Holmes worked on Cooney’s mind in the weeks and months prior to the bout.  The champion was ghetto tough, and the message was underlying yet clear.  Cooney was a white boy from the suburbs and he signed on for a whipping when he challenged Larry.

Bernard Hopkins’s contention that he will “never lose to a white boy” is the identical psychology Holmes used to perfection against Cooney a generation ago.  Hopkins is a legendary world champion, with 20 successful championship defenses and a reign that lasted a decade.  He is one of the top 8 middleweight champions of all time and is still a formidable force at 43-years-old.

He is trying to frighten and intimidate Calzaghe long before the opening bell.  History supports the contention that he will be successful.  With very few exceptions (Ingmar Johansson) a stellar ring record compiled in European rings carries very little weight against top flight black American competition.  Calzaghe is unbeaten and much respected as a long reigned world champion who was defeated many top ranked and capable opponents.

However, he has never remotely faced a foe as mentally tough and skilled as Bernard Hopkins.

We saw a recent illustration of this when Floyd Mayweather took Ricky Hatton’s unbeaten record and tossed it in the fistic trash can.  Hatton battled Floyd, yet took a first class battering before being dropped twice in the 10th session, the final time for the full count.  It became painfully evident that Hatton was a legitimate world class Welterweight yet woefully out of his class against the great Mayweather.

Calzaghe is eight years younger than Hopkins and I suspect the gap between the two is less than Mayweather and Hatton.  Yet once the Briton climbs through the ropes and looks directly into Hopkins’s steely eyes and encounters the resolve to dominate that Philadelphia fighters bring to the table, a Hopkins KO in 9 or 10 rounds seems inevitable.

Calzaghe’s work rate is remarkable and his tenure as Champion is too lengthy to be dismissed.  Perhaps Hopkins’s is attempting to do with his mind what he may not be capable of doing with his fists.  However, from Don Cockell to Henry Cooper to Frank Bruno British contenders have been found wanting. Of course, the glaring exception is the great Lennox Lewis, a titleholder for the ages. Perhaps Joe can take encouragement from the great former Heavyweight champion. But, on Saturday night it will be Hopkins by KO. He’ll bring too much toughness to the table for Calzaghe to handle.