Bert Cooper vs Gary Mason 1990

Mason would win, I think. Good fight.

 

Hell of a good fight. Mason was slow and ponderous but had a stiff punch and a granite chin.
Cooper at his best (which was extremely rare) could give lots of quality heavyweights a great fight. He had heavy hands, reasonable skills and (again, when the mood took him) fantastic resolve and great heart.

I think this can go either way. Mason generally fought hand-picked opponents and when he stepped up, he lost. Cooper in general fought a better quality of opponent and with a bit of luck could have won the title.

Mason has decent skills, but even against pedestrian competition never really looked a world-beater. He may be too strong for Cooper, or he may find Bert in combat mode. I think Bert wins a decsion, if that's the case.
Otherwise, Mason.

 

Mason never impressed me. He built up a glossy record and then was taken out by a young Lewis.

Still, he would have a huge size advantage in this one.

Mason by decision

 

Mason had fast hands and good power as well as a rock like chin .Cooper at his best was quick and hard hitting and very dangerous rolling in like smoking joe it would be a great fight a real war I think mason would stop Cooper late his chin and size would be the difference.Mason for me RIP champ.

 

Excellent ****ysis. Agree on all points. :good That's exactly how I see it, too.

 

Mason would have eaten Cooper up, this would have been a borderline mismatch in the timeframe.

And afterwards everyone in the UK press would have moaned about Mason flattening another Cruiserweight.

 

Agree w/ Mason pick. First off, the fight takes place in the UK. No way in the world Mason fights this guy in America. Bert is forced to be the road warrior here. And that is a big big checkmark advantage for Mason.

I see Cooper not showing up with his A game under that scenario. And his B game is not beating this guy--and he certainly showed up with his B and C game as a heavy frequently-- then he does not hang tough.

 

That's just it and one guy is losing in gallant efforts and the accumulation/deterioration factor is at work. Going down the ladder. Other guy undefeated. That's why we see so many of these type matches anyway--undefeated up and comer vs old name fighter with diminished reflexes and not on a winning streak against top notch guys. What better time to match the guy with no losses?

The big big factor is go back to about 1985 to say 1995. How many american heavies travelled well? So few Greg Page--Coetzee efforts. Usually it was a dismal performance and lets face it, the American fighter was underprepared & showed up with a career worst effort.

It was always like these guys stopped training as soon as they arrived pre-fight and did minimal sparring or training or anything for like 10 days. And then climb through the ropes flat. Listless & you could see it pre-fight introductions. Not that a whole lot of them had top notch trainers to cope with that kind of thing. That sure would have helped a ton. Lots of times what we saw was the American manager and trainer cashing his guy out and getting a nicer payday than anything else they were offered--like Mason and Biggs.

Mason camp would hold all the cards here fighting in his backyard. So now you have things like the long delays while the challenger Cooper is in the ring. 10 or 15 extra minutes. And what did Bert do prefight anyway? He sure didn't keep those legs warmed up or circle around the ring or even make a good attempt to stay loose. Crowd cheering about 98% for their guy and maybe 2% for Bert. A ref that will jump in quick if Bert is hurt or cut.

By the same token, That Mason camp is not fighting Bert on say a Vegas or Atlantic City undercard to a title fight card. Then you would have seen, at best, a non puncher as an opponent and never a hitter like a Cooper.

There were some potential guys for a Mason to fight. But there was also a lengthier list of guys for him to avoid at that time.

To this day, I cannot believe a Bruno fight was not put together. Then again, the loser sure does take a big plunge down & could definately become a rebuilding project depending on the manner of the loss.

 

Mason only lost to Lennox Lewis. But EVERYONE who fought Lennox Lewis lost to him. Every single one.

Cooper did fight a better quality of opponent, but he lost to close to 25 of them, including plenty of not-so-good opponents, too.

Mason by KO.

 

Mason was calling Bruno out at one point. They had been friends and stable mates but there was some sort of grudge or rivalry between them at some point, around 1990 or '91.
Mason wanted the fight I think, having lived in Bruno's shadow so long. Bruno didn't need it. And with Lewis the new man on the scene, that was always going to be the biggest match for Bruno.

 

I think Lewis looked better against Mason than he did by the time he got in with McCall.
He was a bit erratic, maybe he even regressed.