but showcased why people love Holyfield (or at least did). He had more skill in his left pinky then Cooper did in his whole body but made it an amazing fight by standing and trading. Once he realized Cooper had a little heart and a huge chin, he decided to test it; rather than boxing his way to a decision, he wanted to prove his toughness by going toe to toe and knocking him out. Holyfield wasn't the most skilled heavy of all time. Far from it but I have never seen him in a boring fight. Even in losing efforts, he's a ****ing warrior. Hell, in winning efforts he's a warrior. He makes things harder on himself just to make a brawl. He makes a ton of mistakes, most of which he could avoid, but still managed to dominate the 90s. Steroids and comebacks aside, watch the Cooper fight. THAT'S a heavyweight champion.
Evander didn't think Cooper was going to be that good, and didn't prepare for him. Cooper usually didn't show up in shape or was unmotivated (Foreman fight)
I was in highschool when that fight took place, and I remember it as vividly as though it were yesterday. Originally, Holyfield was scheduled to face Mike Tyson, before the **** incident conflicted with the match. Francesco Damiani was the man who Holyfield was then set to fight, when Damiani pulled out about 4 weeks prior, with a sustained injury in training. At last minute's notice, Bert Cooper was called to fill in. Bert had a rather up and down career by that point, but managed to put together a respectable streak, including a win over fringe contender Joe Hipp. Both men showed up in sculpted condition. Evander dropped Bert in the first, leaving me with the indication that the fight was going to be over soon. Cooper managed to take Holy into the the third round where he landed a barage of shots, sending Evander down for the first time in his career. Later, Evander had him in trouble before Mills lane stepped in to call it a day. I probably still have that fight on VHS in a box somewhere, but no longer have a casette player to view it, LOL. Anyway, it was a great fight, and left me with some doubts about weather or not Holy would have won if it were Tyson in the ring that evening, instead of Bert Cooper.
the question about whether or not holy could handle tyson was also asked by Gil Glancy (i think) who was working commentary. The fight is actually on youtube right now and the whole fight was back and forth. the punching %s for both were huge and though holy landed more, cooper never seemed to be hurt, except when vander hooked the body. I don't think that was representative of what a tyson fight would have looked like as 1)holy would have been much more disciplined 2)tyson wouldn't have kept coming after all those damn uppercuts
I think Holyfield was generally well disciplined and in great shape for that fight. I think the problem was that he had never before faced a swarmer who fought in the manner that Bert Cooper did. Additonally, Evander had essentially trained to fight three different men in less than a 6 week period. ( Tyson, Damiani, Cooper ). Its possible that the confusion along with Holyfield perhaps underestimating Cooper a bit, led to him getting tagged. **** happens I guess. Who knows if he would have beaten Tyson in 1991 or not. Probably the greatest fight that never happened. P.S. If you want to see an even better fight with Bert Cooper, then I strongly suggest you watch the Cooper - Moorer fight, ( if you haven't already. ) The fight was a total slugfest with both men sustaining multiple knockdowns. It occured the following spring after the Holyfield fight, and was another galant losing effort for Cooper. I don't know if the match is available on youtube or not, but you may want to give it a try.
good call on moorer-cooper. someone posted a thread about it a while ago and i checked it out on youtube. it's a great little slugfest, despite the fact that i can't really stand moorer. that fight was up for grabs until the very end.
There was speculation afterward that Holyfield was overtrained because he may have channeled his frustration at the Tyson fight falling through into training with too much intensity. We saw the same thing with Vivian Harris against Maussa.
though it was a good fight and holyfield is exciting to watch, he was in unnecessary many wars. a champion should be able to outbox his opponents and don't get caught with many shots.
Moorer-Cooper, a few months later, was amazing. Moorer also had a good fight with Stewart a few months prior to Holyfield-Cooper. Holyfield had a tendency to get sucked into brawls when unnecessary, which made the fights more entertaining. The 3rd round of Holyfield-Cooper was amazing. Holyfield just teed off afterwards with the right uppercut. Once he found the opening for that, it was target practice for him, and Cooper just took a bad beating.
