Does anyone know how they hooked up? When was the last time Joe trained Bert? Did they fall out? This content is protected Bert RIP, is my GGOAT, that's right! Greatest Gate Keeper Of All Time! His fight with Tillman was about as close to rockem sockem, throw the skills out the window-bout as one can get! Chewed up Dewit. Blew up Mercer's face, Dropped Moorer & Holy. Did Joe Frazier ever get a better student than Bert? Did he give him the name "smokin?" Lots of questions for anyone who knows!
Bert and Joe fell out because of Bert's use of cocaine. There is a whole chapter about it in Joe's autobiography Smokin Joe about it.
Apparently the night before the Foreman fight Bert was out partying with hookers and doing cocaine. A shame the guy had serious power (Oliver McCall sparred with him and Tyson and fought Lewis, Bruno etc said Cooper was the hardest puncher he felt) with more discipline he could have achieved more.
Bert Also got a $25,000 fine for testing positive for cocaine. I believe it was more than his purse for the Foreman fight.
I always thought that Bert might have been one of Frazier’s illegitimate sons. They just looked so alike facially and with the same kind of build. He looked more like Frazier than even Marvis did. Joe like Ali weren’t exactly shy when it came to fooling around and he did have 11 children that were publicly recognised as his own so it ain’t totally unbelievable that Bert would be one of the illegitimate ones that he also had.
I heard this rumor when Bert was still active. A fairly prominent New York boxing journalist apparently pursued this for years but never could prove it.
Well joe wasn't exactly an easy guy as a trainer. He wanted the same intensity and work ethic he himself performed. But that sort of training did not fit Bert Cooper. Or another heavyweight that was part of Joe's stable, Duane Bobick. And they didn't last. Then again, who in the world would think those 2 heavies are going to prepare in training like a Joe Frazier? So often the top fighters just never do very well whatsoever when they try training other fighters.