I finally saw some of this fight last night! I thought I'd never see it. It was on Muhammad Ali's Greatest Hits Volume 1 on ESPN Classics. Unfortunately I only saw the fourth and fifth rounds. In the fourth round Cooper did very well, landing several left hooks. The announcer, despite being British, was totally biased and basically ignored Cooper. All he talked about was the cut over Cooper's eye. It's so horrible, it's the worst gash I've ever seen, blah blah blah. He did mention that Cooper did well in the first round, I wish I could've seen that. Finally, with TWO seconds left in the fourth, Cooper sends Ali crashing into the ropes. It was so sweet! An instant favorite for me. A skinny white man flooring Ali, what could be better?!?
Ali got up quickly but stumbled back into his corner. He briefly sat down on the stool, then got back up and stood for a second on Jello legs, then they sat him back down. He was really disoriented! Sometime during the break the announcer mentions that Ali may have a cut glove. According to this article and this article the break between rounds four and five was only 65-70 seconds. They state that the footage of the fight proves this. ESPN had to edit the footage for this program, so I didn't see this for myself. The first article states that Cooper thought it was three or four minutes but the writer dismisses it.
Either way Ali came out in the fifth round very fresh. He threw a lot of punches, and they state that all those punches opened the cut and the ref had to stop the fight. Cooper didn't look hurt, but of course that doesn't matter when it comes to cuts.
Here are the best pictures I could find; I'll assume that both images are from the first fight:
Obviously Cooper didn't look very good, but we still can't see the actual cut. His hood covers it up in the second photo, and the first photo shows a lot of blood, but not the cut. This is the problem with old footage, it's a far cry from all the close-ups of Klitschko's cut.
At any rate, Ali got lucky. One of the articles made a very good point about how the ropes cushioned his fall; if it weren't for the ropes, his head would've slammed hard against the mat. And it happened at the very end of the round, so Cooper couldn't follow up with more wicked left hooks.
Predictably, Cooper was only 186 pounds, about 20 pounds less than Ali. Although he was taller than I pictured him.
BTW, there was a second Cooper/ Ali fight (1966.) Ali won, again due to a cut.
Edited by: JD074
Ali got up quickly but stumbled back into his corner. He briefly sat down on the stool, then got back up and stood for a second on Jello legs, then they sat him back down. He was really disoriented! Sometime during the break the announcer mentions that Ali may have a cut glove. According to this article and this article the break between rounds four and five was only 65-70 seconds. They state that the footage of the fight proves this. ESPN had to edit the footage for this program, so I didn't see this for myself. The first article states that Cooper thought it was three or four minutes but the writer dismisses it.
Either way Ali came out in the fifth round very fresh. He threw a lot of punches, and they state that all those punches opened the cut and the ref had to stop the fight. Cooper didn't look hurt, but of course that doesn't matter when it comes to cuts.
Here are the best pictures I could find; I'll assume that both images are from the first fight:
Obviously Cooper didn't look very good, but we still can't see the actual cut. His hood covers it up in the second photo, and the first photo shows a lot of blood, but not the cut. This is the problem with old footage, it's a far cry from all the close-ups of Klitschko's cut.
At any rate, Ali got lucky. One of the articles made a very good point about how the ropes cushioned his fall; if it weren't for the ropes, his head would've slammed hard against the mat. And it happened at the very end of the round, so Cooper couldn't follow up with more wicked left hooks.
Predictably, Cooper was only 186 pounds, about 20 pounds less than Ali. Although he was taller than I pictured him.
BTW, there was a second Cooper/ Ali fight (1966.) Ali won, again due to a cut.
Edited by: JD074
