rest in peace sir henry cooper

[boboafc]

just seen the sad news that sir henry cooper has sadly died aged 76 , alway liked him ,and never forget when he knocked Muhammad Ali down in a fight .. rest in peace sir henry sky news ....

[PlayItLivo]

Britain's best boxer ever? He's not even the best heavyweight we've had.

 

Decent enough heavyweight who's known for knocking down a top 5 all time great. It's an achievement but it doesn't make Cooper a great.

Edited May 1, 2011 by PlayItLivo

[Yard Dog]

I was only thinking about ' Our Henry ' the other day - popular legend had it that he was cheated out victory over Ali in one of their fights, but I've never seen the full fights and wondered if it was actually the case.

[Diego_Sideburns]

I was only thinking about ' Our Henry ' the other day - popular legend had it that he was cheated out victory over Ali in one of their fights, but I've never seen the full fights and wondered if it was actually the case.

 

As reported in today's Independent:

 

Cooper's most famous moment came at a packed Wembley Stadium on 18 June 1963 against Cassius Clay, as Ali was then known, when he sent the man who would go on to become the world's most famous fighter crashing to the canvas. But the fight was to end in a controversial defeat.

 

The punch that for many defined Cooper's career came just seconds before the bell sounded at the end of the fourth round. The American then gained vital extra time to recover, thanks to a split glove – damage inflicted deliberately by his trainer, Angelo Dundee. When the fighters resumed hostilities, Clay targeted a cut on Cooper's left eye – his biggest weakness was that he bled all too easily – and the same round the referee stopped the contest.

 

"I've had dinner with Angelo a couple of times," Cooper told The Independent in 2003, "and he told me there was no way Cassius could have gone on, but on the thumb of his right-hand glove he saw that the stitching had stretched, so he ripped it with his thumb nail, then called the referee over. After that fight, they always kept a second pair of gloves under the ring, but they didn't then. The referee had to send someone to the dressing room, 150 yards away, and by the time he got back, Clay's had a two-minute interval, which is all a fit man needs." Despite that loss, few figures from any sport can lay claim to the kind of respect earned in a losing cause as Cooper found that night.