Henry Cooper: Any Good?

No I do think that with his personality and talent he could have been as big as Calazghe is now. He could have been a very good cruiserweight champ and a promoter would have pushed him into being a celeb and a money maker. I was not knocking Calzaghe.

Ali was racist and I hate the man. Bothing to do with his boxing but I would have loved Cooper to have actually beaten him that night but they were in a totally different class obviously.

 

Clay/ Ali WAS racist, theres no doubt about it but those were VERY strange times to live through and it was an extraordinary position he found himself in. A lot of black people at that time were sick of waiting for change to happen and thought militancy and separation were the ways to get what they wanted.

 

Agreed. If I felt I was being persecuted by a race no doubt I'd hold a grudge against 'them' (because obviously not all whites were advocating the shenanigans that went before the Civil Rights movement)

 

I am still no fan of racism no matter how good the cause is.

 

Its easy to take the moral high ground with the comfort of looking back and not being involved in events that happened over 50 years ago.

 

Yes it is. People usually take the high ground with racists. I hate the BNP but have I ever listened to their argument? No. Should I? Yes probably. Will it make me think it is ok to be racist? No.

 

Everything needs to be placed within a certain context.

You have to ask yourself, if you were Muhammed Ali back then would you have been suspious of white people and racist?

Times have changed and so have Ali's views so there must be something unique that happend or was happening to allow those views to develop.

 

A few disgruntled white chavs, upset that the immigrants are getting their share of free housing and dole money is hardly comparable to the American Civil Rights movement in the 50s and 60s and the reasons behind that.

 

I agree but I still do not like racists.

 

More popular than he was good. As a fighter he was pretty ordinary and cut easily.

 

Annoyingly the camera switches at the exact point of pwnage;

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Best win? Folley?

 

A Euro level fighter with a world class left hook, thats about it.

 

Actually that's spot on.Henry was knocked out by Floyd Patterson,Ingemar Johannson and Zora Folley all top fighters of the day,but whenever he stepped up he was found wanting,although he did beat Folley on points in their first fight which is his best win. He was a turned around southpaw,and his left hook really was an explosive weapon.There is one very famous picture of Joe Erskine sprawled out unconcious over the bottom rope after tasting enery's 'ammer.

 

:good Folley was a decent operator and as you say this was a career best win for Cooper