Does anyone remember this in 1994 up on Vancouver Island? Highlight was Bert Cooper landing a lucky punch on the great Joe Savage. Also featured Tony Tubbs (the winner), Tyrell Biggs, Derek Williams, Bonecrusher Smith and I believe Romanian Dan Dankuta, an ESPN pumped guy at the time. I loved these freak shows. At the time it was taken a bit seriously but even boxrec no longer lists the results. Wish I could have seen it live.
Great memory- only thing was that Savage bailed on the tournament after a whirlwind media tour including a stint on the David Letterman show claiming an injury to his elbow or something. Real story was supposedly he saw Tubbs and Bonecrusher sparring and had a wide eyed look of fear/shock and bailed after that. Cooper's "incredible upset "of Savage, though, is a strange bout. It was after this tournament and just out of the blue. Like Savage just decided he'd take his shot and left England to take this fight for what, a couple thousand bucks tops. Savage looked like he had barely been in a scuffle in his life. Footwork was worse than any overweight bouncer I've seen throwing punches and he looked like a complete buffoon. Note that after they bring him to that Savage starts pretending to be angry and makes motion like he's going to avenge the loss in an immediate rematch before he comes to his senses. Just epic in every way and much better than the tournament itself in my opinion.
This was damn hilarious. Thanks for the laugh. I do remember this, and was especially looking forward to the Cooper-Savage result. Savage, it was mentioned in the build-up, was 42-0 (42 KOs) in what were I'm assuming unsanctioned bare-knuckle fights. Cooper was pretty well past it at that time iirc, and I was curious what that might look like. The whole tourney was completed on the same night in a series of 3 rounders I believe. I only ever saw footage of Cooper-Savage, but wouldn't mind taking a look at the rest of the fights if they exist online somewhere. It was a bit of a circus, but I liked the idea as well. Didn't Tubbs win around $100k for this?
USF, Cooper-Savage was not part of the tournament. That's the strange part. Savage bailed on the thing at the last minute. I think the Cooper-Savage fight, that was held in British Columbia, was actually a year later and came out of the blue. The purse got shortened dramatically and nobody was happy.
The tournament was December 3, 1993 at Casino Magic in Bay St Louis. Nobody is sure when the Cooper-Savage fight was in April 1994 evidently, but it was part of a mixed pro-am card with a co-main event featuring local pushed Shane Sutcliffe. The real mystery is how they talked Savage into leaving his scrap metal company in England for a thousand dollar fight nobody would ever know happened if somebody didn't accidentally film it with a fan cam.
Ok. I was thinking it was part of that tourney, but it looks like you're right. Here's SI's recap of that night... https://vault.si.com/vault/1993/12/...nt-won-by-an-overfed-and-underpaid-tony-tubbs
Tubbs won but was shortchanged on the prize money if I recall. This has to be the some of the most hilarious footage in boxing history, especially after the build up of Joe Savage as some latter day Lenny McLean killer type... This content is protected
Oh, Good Lord, you are correct. Savage bailed on that tournament which was in Bay Saint Louis and this bout occurred in Nanaimo, BC the next year. Funny how one's memory fails after you've been punched and kicked in the head too often.
Which makes the Cooper fight even stranger, Seamus. Savage owned a scrap metal business/foundry in England and worked as a bouncer on the side on the weekends. How in the world did the promoter in British Columbia talk him into the Cooper fight for what had to be close to preliminary pay and him fly all the way across the world to get drubbed. It wasn't even a big card Canada-wise. Only two pro fights on the card and the rest were amateur fights. Don't know how they afforded Cooper either.
Yeah, that is really strange. Don't know if you've ever been to Nanaimo but it is way off the beaten path. I stopped there once on a hunting trip to north Vancouver Island. The whole event just seems a mystery.
