Was Henry Cooper actually ahead on points vs Muhammad Ali ?

It seemed Cooper was a bit of an awkward customer for Ali - there is a spectrum for how much trouble a certain style might give a fighter and I think Cooper had a little bit of that going for him vs Ali.

It also didn’t help Ali that Cooper, for some reason, never appeared to be that hurt by Ali’s punches, so Henry was able to bull his way in with an impunity that many other Ali opponents didn’t enjoy.

Perhaps part of the reason was that Ali appeared to opt for more slashing type punches than more powerful leveraged shots - looking to cut Cooper up which of course he ultimately did.

I note that Ali was insanely light for the Cooper rematch (203 lbs?) - not sure what the reason for that was.

 

Maybe Ali felt like he needed to be faster because of the trouble Cooper gave him first time?

 

Ali in 1963 was screwing around trying to achieve his round prediction and nearly paid for it.

 

Possible but I think Ali was already as fast as could be at 210 lbs or so.

 

Cooper did do better than Our Brian and Our Richard.

 

Ali was def. screwing around, fighting to prediction in 63 lending to the KD but Cooper still provided as an awkward opponent in 66, just imo.

Perhaps a magnified analogy would be when a poorly trained and focused Ali got beaten by Norton but even when whipped into the best shape of his second career with steely focus, we saw that Kenny still gave Ali hell.

 

That he did. The little old ladies in the street telling Henry to “Knock the big mouth out” must’ve really pumped Cooper up.

 

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I just noticed the tagline under an old post under Richard Murrieta’s username. Did we lose Richard?

 

Yes, a while back. '22 or '23. He had a lot of health problems. A true fan of the sport and a nice guy to communicate with.

 

Yes sir, I made a thread of it in lounge and some posters donated to his funeral's? go fund me. sad loss, true gent.

 

Oh wow. Hadn’t seen that. RIP, Richard. Sorry to hear.

 

It is an awful shame, Rich wasn't overly old either, he was always to my best memory very civil. I remember how I felt when Djanders passed and whenever I think back it reminds me to tone down being a jerk because you don't know if you'll get the chance to say sorry.

 

Henry Cooper is one of my favorites. First-rate prize fighter, just a little small for a heavyweight and he bled like a stuck pig if anyone looked at him.

 

It was a couple months ago iirc. I definitely remember him speaking to him last year.

 

were judges' scored ever published for cooper vs. clay i? my understanding was they weren't.