Cooper vs Bugner.

or liston

 

Cooper tarnished his image,big time,in holding a virtual vendetta against Harry Gibbs after the Bugner fight.

 

Oh my god! Having all these years only veiwed highlights of the fight I have accepted that it was a close fight that could have gone either way. the edited versions of the fight showed cooper doing the best work but without the entire rounds and with even cooper himself saying there was only a round in it this led me to believe it was one of those fights where a similar number of rounds were won by both with one guy being more decisive with his share. if its a close fight what is there to ***** about?

I just found this on youtube. I am embaraced to admit I have just scored the fight 9-6 for cooper! This is very wide, maybe I could close it up a bit but its a win for "H" in my book. Although coper looked old and ripe for a beating bunger just stood off cooper far too much and waited. Cooper wasn’t getting his shots off as clean as a younger fighter would but his effort and variety was much greater over all. Bunger used one hand and one punch all night. Just a jab or a double jab compared to cooper who was busting his gut to dictate, rough up and out box bunger with firmer jabs, hooks and right crosses. Henry simply wanted it much more. Bunger had success with everything he tried but he tried with one punch- the jab and not nearly often enough, it’s just not good enough. he did not capitalise enough. Cooper simply landed more too.



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzVpyiWndxo[/ame]

 

I disagree. It looked to me as if Bugner slipped and pulled away from many of Cooper's punches. Cooper certainly pressed the action, and attempted a wider variety of flashy punches than Bugner, but in the end, the only punches connecting were left jabs. Bugner appears to have jabbed better and more consistently than Cooper.

Remember, the quality of the film on youtube is poor. It's blurry. It's hard to tell which punches are really connecting, and which are missing the target by a quarter inch.

 

Have this fight on Disc somewhere - I scored it to Henry Cooper I recall - but not by much maybe a round or two - but a win is a win - especially when you're a geriatric and the guy you win against is big young lad coming into his own.

I actually really liked Bugner - I liked his personaility, he told it how it was, he was a realist and not a respecter of reputations and he was a workhorse - he went in and mixed it with some very tough guys - apart from Henry Cooper - twice with Ali, once with Frazier, once with Shavers - I'll never forget the build up to Bugner versus Bruno when by that time Bugner was the old man - and he didn't do too bad really (the stoppage in that one was ridiculous Bruno literally just shoved him down to the floor and the ref waved it off - it was hilarious - but Bugner succeeded in being the only man who ever brought out some serious grudge in Bruno - Cooper in his best days though would've beaten Bugner & Bruno in the same ring IMO

 

cooper was missing that second of timing with everything but his own jab and for all his work not really making that much of an impresion on bugner. If henry landed with just a third of what he put on bugner it would still be even. Bugner had the potential to realy storm cooper had he introduced more ambition, there were times where he beat cooper to the punch then stand off. the rounds were quiet rather than close. cooper also outjabbed bugner at times.

I liked bugner. his fights with wepner, roberto davila and eduardo corletti proved he was already an excelent boxer when he fought cooper. joe handled wepner much beter than ali later did and easier and earlier than liston and equal to foreman. davila went the full distance with george foreman in his previous fight yet bugner stopped him.

 

:goodit got even worse when he started telling people to vote tory.

 

For the most part, I agree with you. However I don't believe that Bugner would have succeeded had he unleashed a full offensive, as you suggest. Had Bugner been more aggressive, he would have been caught by Cooper's left hook, and possibly been kayoed. I think Bugner's jab-and-run routine was the best he could accomplish.

Bugner won this fight by using his legs, his jab, and his defensive instincts. Anything less than this combination of qualities would have made him hittable -- and beatable -- by the hard-punching Cooper.

A final point: Bugner was still a neophyte at the time of the Cooper bout. He was just 21 years old, had barely an amateur career, and hadn't fought any world class fighters yet. Bugner's inexperience was exposed woefully later in 1971, when he was completely outfought by Jack Bodell. The Bugner of 1973-1977 would have knocked out Bodell in three rounds.