ringsides slight on frank bruno.colin hart is such a tool

[Bricks]

I just mean he was a real folk hero a man who epitomised his people , what with his down to earth demeanour, the bernard manning advert,the sense of humour etc,he could quite easily draw 50,000 just from the north west to his fights.....before we figure in his substantial support from the rest of the isles.

[King Tubby]

Henry Cooper was being called a 'National Treasure' for years, wasn't he? Why did Colin Hart say it was him who first called Henry that, and he'd thought up the phrase this week?

[banjo]

Henry Cooper was being called a 'National Treasure' for years, wasn't he? Why did Colin Hart say it was him who first called Henry that, and he'd thought up the phrase this week?

Because in simple terms Tubs....he's a pillock.

[Bricks]

Leave it to the charasmatic wordsmith danny williams to sum it up well in this weeks boxing news

" henry cooper was like an old frank bruno everyone loved him the whole nation".

[bennie]

Two days after the Royal Wedding, we lost our King of the heavyweights in Sir Henry Cooper, arguably the most popular British fighter of all time and the only man to win three Lonsdale Belts.
Charming and approachable, Henry's popularity had more to do with his fighting style. Henry was an 'honest' fighter who lacked nothing in grit and a good old-fashioned heavyweight punch. He always had a go, and his left hook got him through many a nasty bout, horribly prone to cuts as he was.
Cooper boxed in an era when boxing made the back pages but he decked Cassius Clay and took on three world heavyweight champions in Ali, Patterson and Johannson. At home his reign as British champion began in 1959 and ended in 1971, on a controversial 15-round decision to a young Joe Bugner. He ruled the roost when four of our heavies cracked the world rankings: Cooper, Brian London, Joe Erskine and Dick Richardson.
"Dick was a dirty bastard!" Henry told Harry Mullan in 1988. "He loved to put the nut in. He used to do it deliberately, usually in the first round. He gave me this scar with his head [pointing to a jagged scar between the eyes]. Very few referees are going to be strong enough to disqualify a man in the first round of a big fight and Dick knew that and used to take advantage of it.
"He had me on the floor in the fifth, and I was badly cut. But I knew where I was, and signalled to Jim (Wicks) that I was okay. When I got up, he came rushing in to finish me with a big right hand but I could see it coming and I let him have it with a left hook, perfect.
"That was the end of the bad period for me."
Cooper had lost four in a row prior to Richardson, not all of them on cuts, and seriously considered retirement. He was forced to rebuild in Germany before British promoters used him again. By 1959 he had flattened Richardson in Porthcawl and the gifted Erskine at Earls Court in 12 spectacular rounds while outscoring London in a bruising 15-rounder to wrest the British and Commonwealth titles. He cemented his reign with repeat victories over all those men, along with stoppages of young guns Johnny Prescott, Jack Bodell and Billy Walker, and you can add a host of Yanks to his knockout list. The knockdown of Clay at Wembley in 1963 holds up as the high point in Henry's 17-year career. Clay was clearly 'gone' when the bell saved him to end the fourth round, even standing up in his corner at one point durng the interval, to be forced down by canny Angelo Dundee, who managed to buy some time, if only five or 10 seconds, but any time is precious to the recovery of a dazed young man. Clay came back impressively to win on cuts in the next round, just as he had predicted, and a fight later he was heavyweight champion of the world.
Cooper was one of those fighters who usually did well in rematches but the great Ali did better, and in front of a 40,000 crowd at Highbury in 1966, he retained his world title with another cuts win over Cooper, this time in six rounds. "He knew from the first fight how to handle me," said Henry, who was never off his feet in either fight, "and whenever I tried to get near him he would grab me and close me down like a vice. Every time the referee broke us he would get away quickly. He moved like a middleweight."
Cooper continued to prove himself the best heavyweight in Europe as he saw off Karl Mildenberger and Jose Urtain but he missed out on a shot at WBA champion Jimmy Ellis, after Ali was stripped of the Belt, and the Bugner loss rankled for many years. "I can't see any way that I could have lost the fight," said Cooper, who was always straight. "If I'd fought Bugner when I was, say, 31 or 32 I'd gave knocked him out, no bother, but I was an old man of 37 when I got him. Bruno would have been no trouble either. He's not a very mobile fighter, or quick-thinking in the ring. I could always handle the big men"
Henry hated losing and the loss of his wife in 2008 and of his twin brother George last year hit him harder than the sport ever could.
"He died of a broken heart," wrote Colin Hart.

[McCannW14]

Cooper and McGuigan were far more popular than Bruno, who lets have it right, came accross as a bit of a clown.

[oliverfennell]

Hart always loves to tell everyone how he was "right all along".

When Pacman ko'd Hatton, he said something along the lines of "I said all along that Pacquiao could knock Hatton out as & when he pleased, and that's what happened".

When Calzaghe beat Manfredo, he said in commentary "this proves what I said all along, he does not belong in the ring with Joe Calzaghe".

(I'm sure there are more examples that escape me.)

Personally I can't stand people who say "I told you so".

yeah... hardly punditry of the year to be the "first" to point out that Cooper was a national treasure. Maybe if I get a TV spot at the break of dawn tomorrow I can be the first to point out that the sky is blue.

[greenyox3]

Hart always loves to tell everyone how he was "right all along".

When Pacman ko'd Hatton, he said something along the lines of "I said all along that Pacquiao could knock Hatton out as & when he pleased, and that's what happened".

When Calzaghe beat Manfredo, he said in commentary "this proves what I said all along, he does not belong in the ring with Joe Calzaghe".

(I'm sure there are more examples that escape me.)

Personally I can't stand people who say "I told you so".

Be fair to the guy, many people do this. If someone makes a prediction in a post then they'll often bump the post if it turns out to be correct only to go all tumbleweeds if they predict something that doesn't happen.

Yeah fair enough, you're right it does happen all the time on here and other forums. But he's a paid journalist & pundit, it's his job to provide insight/analysis on the fights and the fighters, not gloat about being right.

[baulks]

Can't stand Hart, not sure what annoys me more; his bowl cut hairdo or that chewing gum that he insists on having in his mouth whilst bumping his gums at the same time.

He was supposed to have retired.