Yeah because Cooper did so well against the best fighters he fought :nut Cooper lost to every top fighter he fought and usually by stoppage. Thats not a great record to take into the ring with a guy like Tyson. If you have been KOd 14 times chances are Tyson is going to blitz you.
You have good posts ,and then you have arrogant, arsehole posts at the moment the latter is in the majority.
Ok, I guess you know more about boxing than Mr. Evander Holyfield? Cooper scored a knock down against prime Holyfield...what did Tyson against a shot Evander except cry about headbutts and bite at his ears? :verysad
A still fairly raw Tyson just about deserved the win. Tillis put up the fight of his life,though. He looked better against Tyson than he did five years earlier in his title shot with Mike Weaver.
Amen brother, did you see what Foreman had to say about Cooper? George Foreman Ring Magazine Feb. 1995 "Oh Man! Bert Cooper was THE hardest puncher I ever fought in the game. That includes all the fighters that I sparred with, worked with or fought with. None of them punched harder than Smokin Bert Cooper. He was a quick puncher and a devastating puncher. He not only punched hard, he punched fast. Im gonna tell you how this guy punched. I saw the shot coming, the right hand coming. I knew the shot was coming. He hit me. I stood up on my feet and BANG! And that thing that hit me, I was ok in the head, I was clear in the head but when I tried to move, it was like I didnt feel my legs. My legs were all rubbery. Whats wrong with my legs? I tried to stand up firm, but I just couldnt do it because my legs kept going all over the place. I was in great shape, but I came back from that and when I hit him he couldnt deal with it."
Ring Annual Rankings May 1994 1. George Foreman 2. Oliver McCall 3. Riddick Bowe 4. Joe Savage 5. Lennox Lewis Joe Savage Ring Magazine May 1994 "Nobody hits like Smokin Bert. A punch is a punch. But that Cooper. Take the first jab he nails you. You know what it's like? It's like someone jammed an electric bulb in your face and busted it." When asked about his right hand, he said, "It ain't like a punch. It's like someone nailed you with a crowbar. I thought half my head was blowed off. I figured he caved it in. After he hit me I couldn't even feel if it was there."
Who was the hardest puncher you faced? Oliver McCall: “Bert Cooper. Left hook. That was the hardest punch that I ever felt and that I had to overcome. It felt like a truck had hit me. I never got hit by a truck but it felt like if a truck would have hit me.” It is strongly rumoured that while preparing McCall for the Frank Bruno fight in sparring, Bert Cooper flattened McCall with a left hook for the only time McCall was ever KO'd in his life. McCall sparred Tyson a thousand rounds by his own words and was never knocked down.
Lots of guys can punch hard, that doesnt mean they are worldbeaters. boxing isnt just about how hard a guy can punch.
This is amateur scoring, rewarding slick, sporadic offense regardless of effectivenss. I scored all but two of those rounds for Tyson, whose punches were doing visible damage, stopping Tillis progress moreso than Tillis' attacks were halting Tyson's. Effective aggression trumps ineffective "scoring" taps. Did you even bother scoring those bodyshots that were paralyzing Tillis? Just because Tyson did not live up to the wild expectations some held (and continue to grade him against), does not mean this fight was even close.
Tyson's style is made for Cooper. You can only beat him by boxing him, Tyson would walk straight inside...it would be a slaughter! Tyson had the opportunity to fight Cooper in the early 90s and declined, famously telling Don King, "F**k you, you fight him if you love him so much." Cus told Mike since he was young to avoid fighters like Cooper, they would be the death of him.
It is a fact that boxing in the UK has always been scored fundamentally different than boxing in US. They used to, and may still, award points to a fighter who made his opponent miss (whether the defensive fighter landed a punch in return or not). In other cases they would dock an aggressive fighter for missing blows, so you would have a situation where an aggressive fighter threw 15 punches, landed 3 good clean shots, and yet found himself behind in the tally if he was hit with only 2 shots in return. We dont score like that in the USA. Its simple as that. Im not denigrating it (although I do prefer our system of scoring) Im just stating a fact. As late as the 90s you can hear Brit commentators talking about how Nigel Benn has a style favorable to American judging because of his aggression where other Brit fighters dont do well up against American judges because of the styles of guys like Nelson, Graham, Witter, and the Ingle school of boxing in general.