Clay vs Cooper 1963 - The between rds contraversy.

Yea, I've said this a hundred times here. It's a complete exaggerated myth. Revisionism at its worst. Ali gets an extra 5 to 10 seconds at most. This is one of the things that Bert Sugar is dead on with. Some stories are acted as if people went to a dressing room to get new gloves which added another minute. It's all untrue. I'm surprised you didn't know that being such a huge Ali fan...

 

Boxing is the worst for myths. Take Barrera vs Morales II for instance. After watching that again, it's hard to accept the notion that Morales outclassed anyone that night.

Ain't that right, Bill.

 

Well the fact that smelling salts were illegal in a British ring is no myth and they were used between rounds, so Dundee 'cheated' in that respect. I thought it common knowledge that Ali only received about 10 seconds anyway.

 

angelo dundee seid in a interview he gave ali a drug to weak him up! so ali got beat by a bum like cooper! what the 33-11-2 henry cooper

 

Yeah, dramatized by people like, er, Ali.

 

Your point about the smelling salts is well taken .Though to be honest ,I don't think it materially altered the result .

 

I don't think it did either, the events of that night have been exagerrated to a ridiculous level but that still doesn't alter the fact that Dundee 'sought' some more recovery time for Clay and, let's face it, he's standing in front of him and knows better than even Burton and Taylor what shape Cass was in- he looked badly shaken, hence what happened in the next 68-70 seconds.

 

I'd say it was about 8 seconds but the fact that people like Ali have said he had "an extra minute" and Dundee saying he had even longer is the reason you never knew the truth. So blame them as well as Cooper.

 

You're dealing with minutiae now, the main point concenred Ali/Dundee exagerrating the time not just Cooper. Dundee even claimed he watched Lawrence of Arabia by the time Round 5 began.

 

Are you sure that it was at the time?

Because Clay smelling the salt is very visible on film, and the (British) commentators never mention it like it's anything strange. I haven't heard Cooper say anything about it either and the ref didn't react. You'd think it would have caused a bigger controversy, since it's undisputable that he received smelling salts.