Quote from: dave.woodhall on March 11, 2023, 01:25:36 AMIt was part he beat Cooper, part he always looked the, er, the part but never delivered when we were desperate for a world heavyweight champion, part that we loved gallant losers which he never was and part I suspect that he loved playing the pantomime villain.Granted it's well before my time and I haven't done any particular research, but Cooper's popularity always slightly puzzled me. Not that I had/have anything against him, mind.
It was part he beat Cooper, part he always looked the, er, the part but never delivered when we were desperate for a world heavyweight champion, part that we loved gallant losers which he never was and part I suspect that he loved playing the pantomime villain.
Quote from: Rory on March 11, 2023, 01:45:39 AMQuote from: dave.woodhall on March 11, 2023, 01:25:36 AMIt was part he beat Cooper, part he always looked the, er, the part but never delivered when we were desperate for a world heavyweight champion, part that we loved gallant losers which he never was and part I suspect that he loved playing the pantomime villain.Granted it's well before my time and I haven't done any particular research, but Cooper's popularity always slightly puzzled me. Not that I had/have anything against him, mind.Basically, he was a good loser, a nice guy and he got cheated against Ali. Which he didn't, but that's another story.
First. He put Ali down, then at the end of the round there was a problem with Ali's glove. The myth grew that Angelo Dundee worked on a split that enabled the interval to be extended, allowing Ali time to recover and stop Cooper in the next round. The reality is that the glove was already split, it was never replaced and the interval was no more than seven seconds longer.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on March 11, 2023, 02:08:43 AMFirst. He put Ali down, then at the end of the round there was a problem with Ali's glove. The myth grew that Angelo Dundee worked on a split that enabled the interval to be extended, allowing Ali time to recover and stop Cooper in the next round. The reality is that the glove was already split, it was never replaced and the interval was no more than seven seconds longer. Wow, I hadn't heard that, thanks Dave. That's pretty desperate, particularly with some of the tricks going on in the 60s, like whatever Liston was putting on his gloves.
Quote from: Rory on March 11, 2023, 02:15:56 AMQuote from: dave.woodhall on March 11, 2023, 02:08:43 AMFirst. He put Ali down, then at the end of the round there was a problem with Ali's glove. The myth grew that Angelo Dundee worked on a split that enabled the interval to be extended, allowing Ali time to recover and stop Cooper in the next round. The reality is that the glove was already split, it was never replaced and the interval was no more than seven seconds longer. Wow, I hadn't heard that, thanks Dave. That's pretty desperate, particularly with some of the tricks going on in the 60s, like whatever Liston was putting on his gloves.Angelo Dundee was a great trainer but he did like to embelish the truth. The fact is that Cooper was a decent enough heavyweight at European level but weighed in at around 13st 6, which wasn't big enough to trouble the top heavies of the time.