Rooney began professionally boxing in 1979 and acquired a record of twenty-one wins, four losses, and one draw. In his most important fight as a professional, on July 31, 1982, Rooney lost to three division world championAlexis Argüello, who was making his first fight in the Junior Welterweight division, by a second-round knockout. He also lost to future WBA world Junior Middleweight champion Davey Moore, who avenged an amateur loss to Rooney, by a knockout in seven rounds, on June 21, 1981.
Career as trainer
After Teddy Atlas, who was Rooney's cornerman during his boxing days, was relieved of his duties as a trainer of Mike Tyson, D'Amato assigned Rooney to be Tyson's trainer. Rooney was with Mike Tyson since late 1982, when Tyson was 16 years old and just won the National Junior Olympics, oversaw the second half of his amateur career, saw the start of his professional career in 1985, followed Tyson throughout his world championship days, until Tyson's bout with Michael Spinks in 1988, when on the insistence of Don King, Tyson fired Rooney along with all other staff that comprised the Team Tyson from the beginning. In the words of sportswriter Jack Newfield, "the day Tyson fired Kevin Rooney there was a cap put on Mike Tyson's development as a fighter, he did not develop anymore behind that day." During the period when Rooney was Tyson's trainer, Tyson had a professional record of 35 fights, 35 wins. Don King had successfully urged Tyson to break all ties with the D'Amato stable, only his new co-trainer Jay Bright was a disciple of D'Amato, with all other being people from the street. Tyson's mobility skills in the boxing ring, especially his defensive upper-body and head movement, noticeably declined after Rooney's firing, eventually resulting in Tyson suffered his first professional loss in a fight 18 months after Rooney's departure. Boxing analyst Larry Merchant credited Tyson's loss in the Douglas fight with the absence of Kevin Rooney in his corner. The same opinion has been shared by Butch Lewis and Jerry Izenberg. Rooney was the second-closest trainer to young Mike Tyson, after D'Amato himself, who was also Tyson's adoptive father and is most familiar with Cus D'Amato's famed "Peek-a-Boo" boxing style. Rooney has continued to train fighters, working most notably with Vinny Paz who after being trained by Rooney, won the light middleweight title.
Later Life
Kevin Rooney continues to train young boxers in Catskill, New York, at the same gym that he trained under Cus D'Amato. He was involved on a Comedy Centralcomedy show, "Punch Line," alongside Bert Sugar, former world middleweight champion Vito Antuofermo and former world middleweight and super middleweight champion Iran Barkley. Rooney successfully sued Mike Tyson for over $4 million claiming that the latter broke a contract by firing Rooney in 1988. As of 2010, Kevin is acting in a consultative capacity on a stage play and screenplay written by Dianna Lefas about the life of Cus D'Amato, KNOCKOUT: The Cus D'Amato Story.
