In my opinion, Bert Cooper's chances on being the champion is 88% considering that the cruiserweight division during the the mid & late 80's are filled with decent competition such as Holyfield, Qawi & Spinks. I feel like Cooper & Holyfield would clean the division till there's nothing left except the two of them. So probably, their gonna fight for the title (which Qawi is the champion). If Holy & Cooper fought at that time I think Cooper's got the advantage cuz he was a freak in the cruiserweight. After that, Cooper needs to fight Qawi which I personally think he'll out slug him & basically win by a MD. If he becomes champion, Spinks is gonna be there to challenge him & and I think he'll just be a target practice for cooper for 8 rounds.
I think the likelihood of him capturing a belt or two would have been high. But a lot of it would also depend on his ability to maintain that weight. Not sure if it would have happened
Unless he changed his lifestyle, nothing would have changed. His problem wasn't the size of his opponents, it was own lack of motivation and preparation for fights. Cooper had the necessary skill, power, toughness, etc., what he lacked was a disciplined lifestyle.
He would have lost to Qawi or Holyfield but they would have been action fights. He actually deserved a title shot after upsetting Henry Tillman on CBS in spring 1986. Tillman was the #1 Contender. But Qawi opted to fight Holyfield and Cooper jumped to HW by the end of the year Dwight's defense was good. I think he would have frustrated Cooper and taken Bert out in the late rounds. It would have been a 15 rounder and Bert wouldn't have the fuel in his tank for that distance Holyfield was still a bit green and not hard to hit. Bert would have gotten some good licks in but Holyfield would have survived. I think Bert probably takes less punishment than their actual 1991 fight but still loses Now if Bert goes after Bernard Benton or a fading Carlos Deleon in 1986 he probably wins the WBC title. It should be noted that once Cooper dropped back down to CW in 1987 after losing to Carl Williams he lost to Everett Martin and Nate Miller His window of opportunity for a CW title was short - in 1986 after he beat Tillman. But his management couldn't get the proper match made
Cooper unfortunately was an addict which is why Frazier finally got fed up with him. He tried to get clean a few times unsuccessfully while he was still fighting. Plenty of natural talent and power just couldnt overcome his demons. I saw him spar at Fraziers a couple times. He was a monster when I saw him
A clean Cooper would have done damage for sure. I think he was a bit easy to hit, but he was tough and could punch like hell. In that division, I'm confident he would have won a strap and maybe have gone on to be a respectable, maybe even really good, champion. But coked up Cooper was a mess. Very, very hit-and-miss. He wouldn't have been champ long, should he have won a strap.