Henry Cooper

[Master]

I have read an old autobiography of Cooper which was interesting from the library years back. He said his mum use to feed him and his brother full of food in the amateurs and they use to lose fights because they were so bloated.

[Dave1066]

Yeah Master, I can understand that. I have been experimenting with my diet and food intake. I ate a fully fledged meal an hour before going to the boxing gym. Never again. At times I thought I might be sick! So I can understand what Henry says about Amateurs bouts.

[Mars_ax]

It's hard not to like old 'enry, the pug had the heart of a lion, his Achilles heel was he was a bleeder. If i'm not mistaken he was the 1st man to KD Ali, and one of only 3 doing that during Ali's entire career.

Great man, great human being, I was saddened to hear about him passing away a few years back.

[Dave1066]

Henry had one charismatic character. Yeah see my sig Mars, He did it with his signature punch combo. Left jab followed by enry's ammer. Mulhammed Ali since said, he was expecting a 1-2 combo. So didn't see the left hook coming in at all, was out of his field of vision. Which completely cought him off guard.

One thing that struch me, in tackle boxing. When Henry was discribing to do the left hook. He did mention about his contest in 1963 with Ali. There is no grudge there atall. He is a complete gentleman. And came across very gracious. He simply said he knocked Ali down in 5, but Ali won the contest in 6. Because of his eye bleeding, so the fight got stopped by technical knock out. Did not mention atall about Dundee's antics in the corner.

[Master]

Cooper was left handed so that hook was his power hand.

Today with plastic surgery Cooper would have been a top cruiserweight beating up Enzo and Huck.

[Dia bando]

Do no something Henry Cooper, was a Gentleman not many in this sport but he showed how,
a professional fighter should conduct themselves in and out of the ring.
Great pity there are not more like Henry Cooper, all them loud mouth shit bags take note.!

[Master]

It is slowly coming back to me, he was a great advocate about using the jab and varying the speed and strength of it so that you do not become predictable.