Just seen a comment about how Cooper was knighted, and its a bloody good point. Seriously, how good was Henry Cooper compared to the current crop, and in his day, how was he rated? If anyone is knowledgeable enough to put him in a top 10 when he fought Ali for the first time would be grateful. Its a subject that has been bugging me, but have not got round to researching.
Was good but would be too small for the current crop! His Hammer was bloody hard and anyone would do well to take it! Was highly unlucky not to hold a win over Ali!
A lot of people have been knighted for what doesn't spring to mind immediately. Pointless fact of the day is Issac Newton was knighted for his service to the bank of England rather than his service to Science or Maths.
You can rest sound in your bed knowing that that little fact is going to get brought up down the pub over Christmas, thanks. As for Henry Cooper, at HW he was decent Euro level, but with a propensity to slice open. He was small even at the time and would be totally dwarfed today if fighting at heavyweight. Ironically he would probably be more successful today as the CW division is absolutely made for him.
Didn't have much other than a world class left hook and lost a lot of fights to average guys. As above he would cut above the eyes too easily which really hindered his career
Ali was not on that indestructible level at that point. Clay was thought to be brash and it was felt he could not take what he gave. Obviously he ended up proving his chin/will/powers of recovery as possibly the best in Heavyweight history. But no, Tyson was an IMMENSE favourite in the Douglas fight; plus, Cooper vs Clay was over here. Tokyo was 'neutral ground'.
He was definitly the best in Britain and Europe for a long time but, in the days of only one World Champion, fell some distance short of being "World Class". Today he would have won and made a few defences of a significant Cruiserweight belt but would have been too small for the Heavyweight division. I wish, however, that he would just admit that he, almost single handedly, has kept the Ali "glove myth" alive.
Dundee certainly tried to tamper with the gloves to allow Clay more time but the referee only allowed the 1 minute break to change them. They were never changed and Clay never got the, as Cooper once claimed, 5-7 minutes in-between rounds.