How the hell did Henry Cooper nearly stop Ali?

Is that the same jumped up Welterweight Mickey Walker....

I'm sure Joe Erskine beat some Canadian called George Chuvalo and a fella named Willie Pastrano, I could be wrong though....

 

Who was ranked as a heavyweight, beat ranked heavyweights and drew with ex-champ Sharkey. Schmeling was the only heavyweight to KO him.

Erskine was KO'd three times in six fights before Cooper finally got to him, at the third attempt. It's debatable whether Erskine was ever world class.

Anyway, the point still stands. Schmeling had KO'd world class fighters prior to Louis. Cooper never had before Ali and never would afterwards.

 

Walker was stopped by a lightweight making his pro debut going by the name of Phil Delmontt, kind of put things in perspective.

 

In his eighth fight, at the age of 17. That he showed extreme durability against the best fighters in four weight classes, many of whom were much larger than him, puts things into better perspective.

 

Yes Clay got up, the bell sounded, and he went to his corner. Did you see what he did 10 seconds later? Got off his stool and started walking to?...Nowhere and had to be sat back down.
IMO, had that shot come with a minute or so remaining in round 4, Henry may have had him.
But such is history; Ali is an all time great but....he did dodge a bullet in June 63 which was probably a major wake-up call for him.

 

Also Ali should have been disqualified for using illegal smelling salts to revive him at the end of round 4. I dont understand why people dont make more of this.

 

Precisely.

And another thing. That young and fighting in the other guy's backyard. 40,000 people? How many were pulling for Cassius?

How many guys since put their guy in with a highly ranked fighter in the other guy's backyard at that stage of their development?

Al Braverman would throw Wepner in with anyone as long as he got paid. Maskaev would get thrown in with the wolves. Weaver was thrown in early, but not really a sure fire diamond prospect kind of guy. Maybe John Tate?

Who else in the last 50 years takes that fight with their pedigreed prospect guy? And then overcome that kind of thing?

 

And in his next fight at aged 22 goes in with Sonny Liston!

 

He had a lot of power in his arm did Enery.
Just shows, you don't have to be a big, massive, super heavy to crunch em.

 

Henry Cooper was a big hitter with the left hook
it is no secret

young Cassius getting up from it & winning the fight the following round is the more notable thing of the fight

 

Cooper may of scored a knockout had this happen a bit early and not near the end of the round. Yes Ali may of had a ATG chin, but anytrhing can happen in that ring. Even the likes of Fitz could of drop Ali had they landed there Sunday punch. I go with I make Ali the favorite of this or that fighter, but I would never give the other guy a ZERO chance of winning. Who knows??? Maybe Fat Willam not sharing the same era as Dempsey may of been one of the greatest heavyweight champs of all time. He dethrones Ail and rules the 70's with knockout action pack wins over Frazier, Foreman and Norton and retires as perhaps the greatest heavyweight of all time, but he was just born in a ruffer era of the 20's.

 

The thing is, Cooper would likely never have caught Ali mid ring - the beauty of when he did catch Ali was that Ali had no more room to back up - as Enry said later himself.

Ali was very relaxed also, certainly not braced as he would later be fighting the likes of Joe Frazier.

A great punch is a great punch and while Cooper didn’t have massive weight behind him, he wasn’t a small guy and utilised every ounce of his weight when he threw the hook - and he was also surprisingly close in height to Ali.

Even when Ali, as Champ, rematched Coop in 66, he still didn’t appear completely comfortable with Cooper’s style - and Ali was that much more wary of Henry’s left hook.

Crazy how it seemed that Ali couldn’t really hurt Cooper. Even Henry said Ali never really hurt him (my eye test agrees) and it always amazed Cooper how Ali was able to KO much bigger men than Coop himself.

And for all the verbal cr*p Ali meted out on other opponents he ALWAYS showed Henry the utmost respect and Cooper loved that.

Fans shouting out to Cooper as he jogged - “Enry, make sure you knock that bum out!” LOL, he came closer than anyone else to pulling off that neat little trick.

 

Making no excuses for Muhammad Ali, it was a very legitimate knockdown on June 18 1963 one fight before Ali's title winning fight on Feb 25 1964 against champion Sonny Liston. Ali took Henry Cooper's left hook for granted, he even labeled Cooper as a Bum and Cripple before their match. Ali toyed with Cooper until the end of round 4 when Henry blasted Ali with his crippling left hook, down went Ali in a corner of the ring. We know the rest of the story of the ripped glove that was enlarged by Angelo Dundee between rounds, buying more time for Ali's head to clear, Ali came out for round 5, firing rapid blows, cutting Henry's eyes to the point of a stoppage by referee Tommy Little. On May 21 1966 Cooper was given a title shot by champion Ali, this go around Ali had more respect for Cooper's left hook, Ali boxed and moved cautiously and stopped Henry by TKO 6 the bout was ended by referee George Smith as Cooper was covered with blood on his chest requiring 14 stitches to close, Ali also had Henry's blood on his chest. I saw this fight live on ABC's Wide World Of Sports with my Dad and Uncle too before my trip to the local hospital to begin my two week stay for treatment of Valley Fever, my mom was happy that the bout was over so that I could arrive on time to get my dinner at the hospital I wanted the fight to last longer.

 

Cooper outsmarted him.
Ali pulled straight back from an opponent's jab- he did the same thing against Norton years later- so Cooper jabbed. Ali pulled back until he was on the ropes. When Cooper threw the hook Ali couldn't pull back any more- apparently the ropes were set properly and didn't have enough give to turn Ali into a defensive wizard by allowing him to bend over backwards- and he got nailed. You can see it and there was an article in one of the magazines years ago where Henry described exactly how he outmaneuvered The Greatest.
The other guy is thinking too.
Norton did something similar. When he jabbed an Ali pulled back, Norton jabbed again to put Ali on the ropes. When Ali leaned back he went to the body to make him pull forward and into range of other punches.

 

That's how Cooper used to describe it. The trouble is it's simply not true. As the film clearly shows Ali wasn't against the ropes and it was actually Cooper who was backing up before stepping in with a left hook counter.