What if Henry had come along later, and settled in to the cruiser division.? Let's say he'd he fought in the mid 80s . I see him picking up at least one of the alphabet titles.
Yes. In the 190 lb division, he would do very well, likely picking up a belt. Another interesting thing with Cooper is that he was a left handed fighter taught to box orthodox. If he was allowed to develop in his natural southpaw stance, he might have been even more dangerous since there were fewer southpaws then. He would pick up a belt in the 80's most likely. Once the division increased to 200 lbs and with rehydration, Cooper would run into the same issues he did in his own time, fighting 215 lb heavyweights which would make things quite hard. But overall, really good underrated fighter.
He pretty much WAS a cruiserweight and fought many guys who would have been in that weight class themselves. He had mixed results against them. In 1984-1986 he would have been squaring off against guys like Qawi, Deleon, Ocasio, Odiambo, Crous, Murphy, Holyfield, Parkey, Ratliff etc. My guess is that again he has mixed results. As for possibly gaining a belt somewhere down the line I imagine it’s possible. Those cruiser titles were changing hands every other month.
They were, bit like the alphabet heavyweight s. Some of the cruiser champs weren't the greatest,i think cooper could have gotten lucky at some point.
Yep fighting guys more his size and weight definitely better for him. His last year's as a heavy saw the division starting to grow, Henry was never going to get lucky by the time of Frazier, Foreman etc.
I see this myself. He has mixed results. Most of the men he fought would be cruisers and light heavyweights under today's rules.
I once watched a interview with Our 'Enery in the 1980's. He said he would place weights into.a compartment in his shoe sole and was 180-182 lbs throughout his fighting career that 3 or 4 lbs heavier at 186 he felt slow that juat 3 or 4 lbs had that effect on him.
He could whack and had a lot of dog in him. He would always be dangerous, especially at the cruiser limit. His poor skin and those pronounced limey brows did betray him, though.
