Clay vs Cooper 1963 - The between rds contraversy.

Absolutely. I think it was closer than the third fight, which you scored a draw. The third fight was a classic too, and I just posted a thread about it on the General accompanied with a short and sweet highlight I made of it. Go check it out. You'll appreciate it, I think.

 

Right before he put a nail into the glove and put blood-thinning medicine in Cooper's water, no doubt.

 

Dundee switched Cooper's bottle ,substituted it with Warfarin, the anti -coagulant rat poison.Cooper said he got through 3 lbs of cheese when he got home.

 

I just timed it again. I got 70 seconds between rounds.

 

I have no problems with anyone giving either fighter the nod in their first two fights. It is somewhat exaggerated to the one-sidedness of both of them in my view.

Barrera didn't clearly win anything in their first battle, Morales won a lot of rounds purely on work rate. The cleaner shots were indeed landed by Marco though, and by Morales own admission, he was buzzed on several occasions. You may had disdain for Marco, but even you have to say that he put in an extraordinary performance considering the odds.

Many people seem to disagree with the ninth round. I thought Barrera deserved the nod because he hurt Morales on three separate occasions in that round. His unbelievable three punch combination at the end of the bell sealed it for me. I don't strongly disagree with anyone who gave it to Morales for his work rate though. After the initial two flurries from Marco, Morales controlled most of the round. My favorite round of the fight behind the 5th.

Morales didn't put on a master boxing clinic in the second fight like some deluded fans will have us believe. The fight wasn't very exciting, both fighters were cautious, and you could argue that Morales landed more clean shots. However, if the fight was as one sided as you think it is, why did Morales look like he had been hit in the face by Mike Tyson at the end of the fight? Why do the majority of fans only have a 1-2 point difference? It was a close fight. Give me your scorecard and I'll re-watch it and re-score it tomorrow.

 

Dundee likes a good story.

 

You need to have insulted Henry in front of my old trainer. He;d have said "Could you beat Henry Cooper" ? The answer is NO "Then he;d say "Don't dare call him a bum then Do you want me to tell Henry what you called him" ?

 

The whole myth was exposed years ago in a Boxing News feature. I have the actual reel to reel tape recording of the fight that I haven't played in years. 4 - 5 seconds is what I timed the break at and commentator Simon Smith clearly says, during the minute + break, that the glove was not changed.
The padding can clearly be seen flying out as Clay pummels Cooper in the appointed round.
Clay was a darling of the BBC appearing on Parkinson etc, playing the crowd, ingratiating himself to the UK public. Running down Cooper wasn't in the script, for obvious reasons. Dundee, as was his wont, embellished the situation, to show what a "wise guy" he was in a crisis.
Meanwhile the "gallant loser" Our 'enery lapped it all up as he was fast tracked into his new role of "National Treasure"!

 

That's all it was...Dundee talked alot of bravado and nonsense at times. Like when he watched Holmes beat the cr#p out of Ali , then claimed the credit for stopping the fight about 3 rounds too late.

 

Ha ha...spot on