Holyfield vs Cooper, Holy had a hard time against Cooper..Why?

The fight also took place in Evander's backyard and I think he was trying to please the crowd by fighting in a style geared towards an early ko. That really is not what he does best.And Bert Cooper rose to the occasion. Sometimes a combination of things provides we fans an exciting fight and this was the case here.

A Damiani fight was a pretty brutal matchup as far as an action fight is concerned and accepting Cooper as a substitute was an interesting choice. I can't recall what other names were mentioned other than Smokin Bert.

 

Cooper could fight. To stand out a fighter cannot be matched tough. Cooper was matched pretty tough. He had already fought Mercer, Joe hipp, bowe, olin Norris, George foreman, Truth Williams often giving away weight. Cooper had also already fought 10 times for either the NABF, USBA cruser and heavyweight titles - a much over looked and more competitive circuit than the padded record route. Holyfeild was no bigger than Cooper so Bert was starting with a more level field than he’d had against some of the 6‘5 230 pounders he’d been with. Bert’s 50-50 record at elite level against bigger guys was overlooked. This was his chance of a lifetime. Bert would have looked like an animal had he been matched like a house fighter the whole time. With less wear and tear maybe he would have developed into championship material but for that, like a lot of fighters, Bert cooper would have needed to be a whole lot more stable than he was as a person.

 

Its a war for a bit (what xooper fight isn't) then bowe wins out its on youtube

 

Joes son and bert were on drugs so joe stopped training them bert beat greg page or toný tubbs in the ams I think it was page, don't quote me on that

 

Short notice opponent but Holyfield actually controlled and dominated most of the fight, dropping Cooper early. But Evander has always took rounds off or parts of rounds, Cooper caught him trying to take a nap on the inside, and Cooper can hit hard. Evander was rocked and steadied himself with the ropes but counted officially as a knockdown. As I recall, Evander took the fight back to Cooper and closed the round strong.

I wouldn't say he had too hard a time.

 

Bert Cooper was a surprisingly hard hitter who came into the fight as a late substitute and that's about it. That's all that is needed sometimes to give a classier opponent a hard fight. Holyfield got caught with a massive right hand but he put an equally massive beating on Cooper soon after.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhURLTHp4w[/ame]

 

Plain and simple Holyfield fought a stupid fight trying to knock Cooper out quickly in front of his hometown crowd. We saw the same thing happen to Tommy Morrison only he got stopped by Bentt. It happens a lot, but Holyfield was lucky, he almost lost his undisputed title to a journeyman.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQdQMZQLDhQ[/ame]

 

Thanks for posting this. :good
I remember seeing this back in 1987.
Tyson had just become champion a couple of months earlier, and it looked like there was already a clone coming up the ranks.
Cooper was VERY impressive here. He was actually brought in as the fall guy for Canada's new hope DeWit. Really did a job on him.