This story is a favorite. Who is more likely to have the wherewithal to procure crack and identical twins a 73 or 76, depending on if you believe Archie or his mom, or Smokin Bert? Perhaps the Smokin moniker was not really rooted in similarity to Joe Frazier but to his hobby! Was the Foreman camp sufficiently concerned by Cooper fresh off his 6th round stoppage loss to Nate Miller and gained 23 pounds in a year that the Foreman felt they need to set Cooper up? The plot thickens!
Alright then, I have a different explanation. Cooper went on a 3 day orgy with the twins and a sack of coke he got on credit and after he totally blew the fight he made out that he was set up out of embarrasment to admitting the truth.
How do we know it was Female twins that led cooper astray? If Cooper did a lot of coke and had a three day orgy with male twins that would explain why he quit against Foreman. He just couldn’t bare to sit that long on a stool between the rounds..
Basically I'm saying I don't consider Libby a boxing historian he is what I would call a jobbing hack writer he flits from one subject to another.I would always take the word of the boxer in question when it would be to his advantage to say," well I incurred a broken arm in that fight that's why I underperformed etc".Lastarza, to his credit never suggested that he suffered anything but damaged blood vessels after the fight in which Marciano was severely castigated for low blows ,butting,and hitting after the bell Lastarza refused to say that it made any difference he knew he was beat and would have been beaten anyway. Let's move on.
No more far fetched than a bald, morbidly obese 43 year old former champion (coming off a loss to the guy Micheal bentt then knocked out in one round) deliberately taking blows in order to lull Michael Moorer into a knockout...
Enough with the "morbidly obese" term. Even if Foreman only had the muscle mass of an average middle age man, which clearly he didnt...... 253 at 6'3 is not morbidly obese not even for a couch potato. Foreman had a potbelly from visceral fat accumulation due to him not being in shape for 10 years. Similar to how roberto duran, who spent alot of time way above his fighting weight, had a much thicker waist at 35+ years old even if there wasnt much fat you could pinch and he was in shapw like vs Barkley. Same with erik Morales who got very overweight between fights and after his first retirement in 2007. He also had a much thicker waist in his comeback. Foreman couldnt stay as lean as Wlad "HGH" Klitschko in his 40s but he was far from morbidly obese. He had trained down to 235 at one point in his comeback and clearly made a conscious decision to fight at a higher weight.
I tend to believe that Bert was pretty screwed up for Foreman but he did give a reasonable effort for those 2 rounds. He was actually moving and trying to get his punches off but Big George just smothered him and moved him at will.
oh I see. He wasn't fat. Just "husky". brawny, hefty, burly, chunky, strapping, thickset, solid, powerful, heavy, robust, rugged, sturdy, Herculean... all the stuff moms use to describe a tub of lard. G.T.F.O.O.H. The guy loved His cheese burgers.
He certainly wasn't "morbidly obese". Morbid obesity is a life-threatening condition, it's not just being kinda fat.
So i just thought of something, apparently louis was "past it" when he was beat up by walcott and charles but he was still a "very good HW" when he fought rocky since he was ranked high... Shifting of goal posts when its convenent. He had to be good against rocky to validate rockys resume, but bad when he lost to make his "prime" untouchable.
Tried to make this point a few times. When it's convenient for Rocky's supporters, Joe Louis was looking great and on a great winning streak. When it's not convenient, he was already past his best when he very likely lost to Walcott.
