Now here's a match up involving Braddock against a modern heavy that I can get behind that seems plausible. Haven't figured out yet who I think would win, but that'll come.
Well I don’t think Henry Cooper could go 8 rounds with Joe Louis. Henry could take your head off with that left hook but I think a combination of Braddock’s durability and the fact he hit hard himself sees him to a stoppage win.
How could you even theoretically argue that Cooper had a better record, or that he beat better competition?
They both had a brief moment where they knocked down ATG s ,though Ali was a lot more affected than Louis . But that aside in some ways its a evenish fight. Henrys the bigger puncher whilst Braddock the more skilful I believe. But u can't rule out Cooper hurting Braddock with that left hook .
Cooper's record was 40-14-1, Braddock's was 47-24-4. Cooper fought 8 who were either heavyweight champion or fought for the title, some of those he fought more than once. Braddock fought 4 who were either world heavyweight champion or fought for the title. That was a quick count, I could be wrong about how many fought for the heavyweight title, but I doubt that I am wrong enough to make Braddock's record or competition better than Cooper's. But I didn't pick Cooper to win based on numbers, I picked Cooper because he fought in a better era, against better competition and, he looks better on video.
I fighters record turns on who they beat at the very highest level, not who they lost to, or who beat them. Cooper has a rather impressive win over Zora Folley, but his best wins are Euro level for the most part. Braddock has a win over the reigning lineal champion, and a few other guys ranked in the top ten. There is simply no argument for Cooper here. The first two points are irrelevant, unless he actually beat better competition. That leaves the third point as a flimsy peg to hang the argument on.
Big fan of Henry but Braddock was a world champion. Much tougher. You could put Braddock in the ring with anybody. He had a lot more fights. Cooper was always in the right circle and even then there were still a lot of disasters trying to keep him in it. A lot of people don’t realise there has always been a parallel universe in pro boxing. Limited opportunity. Not all of the best fighters will always have access to the kinds of opponents or exposure to move up throughout their careers. So you can have a group of guys as good as the group of guys moving up who will forever be under the radar until they checkout and join a lower level altogether. The economy allows for Only a select group who can be continually relaunched as a prospect. The rest don’t. In fact, I believe Jimmy always was a good fighter. That period where he was a name journeyman was no real disgrace. He was on the road making a living. He still had what it took but he was on a different circuit by then where he was very much on the outside with a lot of other good fighters also treading water fighting each other with no real chance of getting a title fight. Losing decisions didn’t matter or mean much. Different circuit. The “going nowhere” circuit. As soon as somebody thought they could safely feed Braddock to somebody within the “going places” circuit he was able to gatecrash the big time again. There are always guys waiting in the wings. They rarely get that chance. Braddock was one of the few thrown a lifeline while he still had it. Most don’t. And Braddock was only thrown that lifeline when they thought he didn’t have it. Cooper was relaunched a few times early on. It took him more than one try to win either the British or the Euro titles. Once he made the grade he had useful wins and was a legit top 3 contender for a time but he was always in the right circle. Whenever he lost Henry’s people could always find the right guy to beat in order to keep him where he was. He was thrown lifelines all the time and needed them. Nobody was doing that for Braddock after his crack at Laughran yet he was able to tick over for years in the wilderness. Guys like Cooper would have faded away. That’s why I have to put Braddock above fighters with less defeats. Look at how tough he was with Louis.
