LARRY HOLMES vs. GERRY COONEY (Triple/NEIMAN) 

Description : Here we have an original Leroy Neiman copyright poster produced for the much anticipated showdown between reigning WBC Champion Larry Holmes & the great white hope, Gerry Cooney. This poster has been signed by the late great world famous sports artist Leroy Neiman & WBC World heavyweight Champion Larry Holmes & the challenger, Gerry Cooney.

Anticipation over a Holmes-Cooney confrontation began to take shape in early 1981, but the fight took over a year to happen. By 1982, promoter Don King and manager Dennis Rappaport began one of the most massive and racially toned campaigns in boxing history to raise public interest for a fight between Holmes and Cooney. After they were both signed to fight, an intense promotional tour followed. Holmes and Cooney attended press conferences at several United States cities, Cooney was shown on the cover of Time magazine, Hollywood stars took an interest in the fight (Sylvester Stallone in particular hung out with Gerry Cooney, others, such as Woody Allen, attended the fight live) and Cooney was cast as "The Great White Hope". There had not been a White world Heavyweight champion in 22 years, and Cooney would try to change that. White supremacist groups had announced they would have "agents" ready to shoot at Holmes the moment he entered the ring, and Black groups retaliated by answering that they would also have armed people on hand in case Holmes was attacked. Because of this, there were police snipers on the roofs of every major hotel surrounding the fight's venue, once again, the Caesars Palace hotel and casino. Snipers were used because the fight was held at the hotel's parking lot; any attacker could have been easily shot by police snipers.

Holmes and Cooney then took center stage without any incidents. Holmes versus Cooney was refereed by Mills Lane. The announcer that night named Holmes first. Some thought that this was unprecedented; it is tradition in boxing that the challenger be named first and the champion last. The announcement was considered shameful and intensely disrespectful toward the champion Holmes by the boxing community. In fact, when Holmes had challenged Norton for the title, Norton had been introduced first. Nevertheless, when the boxers touched gloves before the first round began, Holmes told Cooney, "Let's have a good fight."

Holmes dropped Cooney in round two, but Cooney got up and landed a damage-causing shot to the body by the end of round four. By Holmes' own account, he felt lucky that punch landed close to the end of that round. Holmes and Cooney fought closely from rounds five to eight, trading punches in mid-ring. This was the point where Cooney's inactivity started affecting him, however, and Holmes again dropped the championship hopeful in round nine. By round ten, Cooney's punches began landing low, and this caused him to fall further behind on the judges' scorecards, referee Lane deducting three points from him for the infractions.

By round thirteen, Cooney seemed to believe that he would lose the fight and was just trying to last the fifteen round distance. He had suffered a cut on his left eye and was taking heavy punishment. Midway through the round, a Holmes cross landed flush on Cooney's left cheek, and Cooney's legs buckled. He landed against the ropes, near his corner, and Holmes moved in, intent on finishing his job. Cooney's trainer, Victor Valle, prevented him from doing so, however, by throwing a towel from Cooney's corner, signifying that they were quitting. It should be clarified, however, that Cooney did not quit, his corner did that for him. Another great white hope had bit the dust!

This original Leroy Neiman boxing art poster represented here has been signed by Larry Holmes, Gerry Cooney & Leroy Neiman, and comes with a letter of guarantee of authenticity from KOfightposters.com for a lifetime & beyond + it comes with a James Spence Authentication cert, the sticker on the left hand bottom of the poster is from JSA.

Postage: £10.00 Special Delivery... £20.00 International.