Gerry Cooney is a former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 1990. Despite his relative inexperience, Cooney's exciting wins and size, aided by expert promotion, gained him a lucrative bout with world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in 1982. Cooney performed credibly before his corner retired him in round 13, and was regarded as having made a brave and determined effort. The view of him as tactically naive in defense was reinforced when former light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks stopped Cooney in five rounds in 1987. In his final bout, Cooney demonstrated his exceptionally hard punching power by staggering the powerful George Foreman, but was unable to capitalize on it. Showing a deficiency in basic self-protection, Cooney suffered a devastating second-round knockout that ended his career.
