Who Was The First Boxer To Drop Muhammad Ali In A Professional Fight?

Henry Cooper!

Sir Henry CooperOBEKSG (3 May 1934 โ€“ 1 May 2011)[1] was a British heavyweightboxer, best remembered for a 1963 fight with a young Muhammad Ali, which Cooper, who at times looked on the verge of winning, lost when the fight was called off due to a cut. Cooper was undefeated in British and Commonwealth heavyweight championship contests for twelve years, and held the European heavyweight title for three years. In 1966 he fought Ali, by then world heavyweight champion, a second time and was again stopped on cuts without being off his feet. Cooper twice was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and after retiring in 1971 following a controversial loss remained a popular public figure. He is the only boxer to have been awarded a knighthood.

Cooper was born on 3 May 1934 in Lambeth, London[2][3] to Henry and Lily Cooper. With identical twin brother, George (1934โ€“2010),[2] and elder brother Bern,[3] he grew up in a council house on Farmstead Road on the Bellingham Estate in South East London. During the Second World War they were evacuated to Lancing on the Sussex coast.[3]

Life was tough in the latter years of the Second World War, and London life especially brought many dangers during the blackout. Henry took up many jobs, including a paper round before school and made money out of recycling golf balls to the clubhouse on the Beckenham course. All three of the Cooper brothers excelled in sport, with George and Henry exercising talents particularly in football and also cricket.[4] Cooper started his boxing career in 1949, as an amateur with the Eltham Amateur Boxing Club, and won seventy-three of eighty-four contests. At the age of seventeen, he won the first of two ABA light-heavyweight titles before National Service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps as Private Service Number 22486464,[5][6]

In 1963 Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay and a contender for the world heavyweight title) created a great deal of ticket-selling publicity before his London bout with Cooper, who many British fans hoped would be able to humble the brash young American. In the boxing world though, Ali was considered a future world champion and Cooper the underdog. The contest took place at Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park. According to the official weigh-in, Ali outweighed Cooper by 21 pounds, Cooper said he wore weighted clothing and was near the light heavyweight limit.[7] Cooper had devised his own training regime and felt that though lighter he was in the best condition of his career.[7] Ali’s size, mobility, fast reflexes, and unorthodox defensive tactic of pulling back from punches made him a frustratingly elusive opponent, and Cooper was later accused by Ali’s camp of hitting on the break.[7] With hardly any attempt at effective aggression by Ali, Cooper was leading on points, but during the fourth round had connected with a solitary left hook to the body; in the fourth’s final seconds, Cooper felled Ali with an upward angled version of his trademark left hook to the jaw, “Enry’s ‘Ammer”.[7] Ali partly landed on the ropes, preventing his head hitting the canvas covered boards, but though up quickly he seemed hurt.[7]

Ali started towards Angelo Dundee who, in a violation of the rules, guided him into the corner. At first Dundee talked and slapped Ali’s legs, but after he misunderstood and tried to get off the stool, Dundee used smelling salts on Ali.[9] The use of smelling salts was prohibited in British boxing, and their use would have led to Ali losing by disqualification if the offence was spotted.[10] Dundee later said that he opened a small tear in one of Ali’s gloves and told the referee that his fighter needed replacements, but they could not be found and Ali came out with the torn glove for the start of the 5th round. Cooper insisted that resulted in a delay of a minute or more in addition to the regulation time between rounds, and denied him a chance to finish off Ali while he was still dazed.[11] Decades later a tape of the fight showed an extra six seconds.[12][13][14][7][11]

Cooper was not the only person present who recalled a longer delay (others including commentator Harry Carpenter did) and because the surviving BBC tape of the bout is only of what was actually broadcast, a longer delay may have been edited out for transmission.[7] Cooper started the 5th round aggressively, attempting to make good on his advantage, but a recovered Ali effectively countered and Cooper was hit high on the face with a hard right which opened a severe cut under his eye. Referee Tommy Little was forced to stop the fight, and thus Ali defeated Cooper by technical knockout.[15]

Subsequently a spare pair of gloves was always required at ringside.[16] On the 40th anniversary of the fight, Ali telephoned Cooper to reminisce. In 1966 Cooper fought Ali, now world heavyweight champion, for a second time at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury.[17] However, Ali was now alert to the danger posed by Cooper’s left and more cautious than he had been in the previous contest; he held Cooper in a vice-like grip during clinches, and when told to break leapt backward several feet.[7] Accumulated scar tissue around Cooper’s eyes made him more vulnerable than in the previous meeting and a serious cut was opened by Ali, which led to the fight being stopped, Cooper again losing to Ali via technical knockout.[7]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cooper

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