Sad news, watched a lot of Joe over the coarse of his career.A very competant fighter who never really reached his true potential. I know he hasnt been well recently but this has still come as a shock, Rest in Peace
Ironically, just a couple of weeks ago I watched this documentary on Bugner. This content is protected
I remember watching him outpoint a (still decent) Greg Page during one of his many comebacks, leading up to his fight with Big Frank at White Hart Lane, I always thought he was a talented big man, wrongly vilified for beating 'Our 'Enry, (I also thought Cooper was pretty unsporting about the decision) , even Harry Carpenter unhelpfully chimed in "how can you take a man's title away like that"!? I always liked him.
RIP Joe I also remember his Aussie comeback, looked good beating Page, Tillis and Bey. The hype for the Bruno fight was brilliant, young me thought Joe could beat Bruno. Showed immense guts against Frank who put in one of his finest performances. Think I´ll watch Bugner-Dunn again. Wish Bugner fought like this more often. At least he gets credit for his Joe Frazier performance. Good fighter. This content is protected
RIP. You know a boxer was decent when Ali spoke up for them. The Cooper win finished him as far as UK punters went, but that just made the Hearn hype train for Bruno so much easier a few years later.
R.I.P Joe. One of the finest ever British heavyweights, who was a top 10 fighter in HW boxings greatest ever decade.
On his day he could have beaten any other British heavy of all time, with one exception, and he'd have been a handful for Lewis. The trouble was that for every Dunn, Blin or Frazier there was an Ali II or Bodell. Joe was a natural pantomime villain; he'd have loved to come up against Chisora or Fury. The documentary he did with Bunce and 'Enry proved that - with the hindsight of knowing what we now know about Cooper's health at the time it makes uncomfortable viewing, but Joe played the part to perfection.
He was brilliant at being the "baddie", always with a twinkle in his eye though I'm genuinely sad he's passed.
Bugner went the distance with both Ali (twice) and Frazier. Beating 'Enry Cooper made him about as popular as the man who shot Bambi. Tough for a guy who was only 20 odd at the time and should have been able to celebrate a memorable victory without the ridicule. When you factor in Bugner 2.0 or 'Aussie Joe' as he became, Bugner's career spanned from 1967-1999, an amazing 32 years. RIP Champ and thanks for the memories.
I do wonder whether the reason Cooper was so bitter was because he was very much an old-school patriot who thought the British heavyweight title was the greatest prize in sport and begrudged the fact that a foreigner had won it from him.