Drink and late hours kept Gerry Cooney...

Drink and late hours kept Gerry Cooney from becoming heavyweight champion, said Victor Valle, who trained the fighter before he was fired. “I never told him directly I knew what he was doing, because I didn’t want to upset him when he was getting ready for a fight,” Valle said. “But I lectured him about how all fighters should stay away from booze and drugs. That’s the way I sent him the message.” Valle, who said that Cooney fired him in a “miserable three-minute phone call,” added that Cooney had stayed out until 3 in the morning before his heavyweight title fight with Larry Holmes.

Now, at 33 and after a 2 1/2-year layoff, Cooney plans another comeback by fighting former champion George Foreman Jan. 15. Cooney says he has straightened himself out.