Fair points, but i don't remember Bugner being loved and everyone wanting Bruno to wreck him. Which he did.
Oh yeah that's true. Bugner wasn't really loved that much and Bruno was probably the most beloved brit HW of all time. Not even Lewis, who accomplished so much more, was close to Bruno in popularity was he?
No Lewis could never compete with Bruno in the popularity stakes. Bruno second behind Cooper by the way.
Do you reckon so? Cooper was the villain when he KO'ed Erskine that's for sure. He did become very popular later on though.
Tyson in brixton was huge. Tyson was THE black icon in brixton. For the black community being asked between lennox lewis and tyson would be like asking an old english woman to chose between cliff richard and elvis.
coopers popularity exploded with the first clay fight. Hed been around a long time by then but thats when the nation caught on. That was the moment cooper became huge. It was then that a nation collectively decided that cooper was the personification of the British working classes in a international situation. Good tough honest folk who lived through a war. Henry was evacuated, did national service and never talked like he was pretending to be anyone else. To younger people he was like your uncle. The whole nation knew a Henry cooper because everyone his age was a Henry cooper.