Does anyone know why this fight never happened? Britains Henry Cooper for most of the time from 1961 to 1971 was the Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion and yet Canadas George Chuvalo never got a shot at the title, despite being a World class Heavyweight throughout Coopers title reign.
Did Cooper or his manager Jim Wicks duck the teak tough Chuvalo? Or were efforts made to make the fight but it just never happened for various reasons?
Also if it did happen what do you guys think would have been the outcome? I strongly favoure Chuvalo to have stopped Cooper in about 6 to 8 rounds.
But what do you think fight fans? Any thoughts, opinions or memorys on this situation?
I agree that Chuvalo would have stopped or koed Cooper in about 5 to 8 rounds. He was just too strong, roung and durable for Cooper. I think Wicks would have steered Henry away from fighting Chuvalo just as he would never let Cooper fight Frazier.
Where did you get those photos Joe???...
cooper had a very good underted left hook. he hurt ali more than anyone else in his career despite being 185lb. cooper could certianly bang with that left hook. i dont know if u seen his fight with joe erkstine, i though cooper killed him with that left hook.
that said i dont think hes going to knock down chuvalo with it,
BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:cooper had a very good underted left hook. he hurt ali more than anyone else in his career despite being 185lb. cooper could certianly bang with that left hook. i dont know if u seen his fight with joe erkstine, i though cooper killed him with that left hook.
that said i dont think hes going to knock down chuvalo with it,
chuvalo 15 unanimous
I'm a big Cooper fan and he generally underrated. His best feature was that he was pretty fast and had that left hook but he was vulnerble to cuts and against Chuvalo he would be cut up badly I think. Coopers speed would make it a good fight but Chuvalo would just walk through his punches and take over in the later rounds for a stoppage or ko I think.
I did a quik review on common opponents, and for as many fights as the two had they didn't really share a whole lot of common opponents. The Erskine fight was already mentioned. Cooper dropping the first two by decsision and winning the last three by ko. Chavaulo lost to Erskine by DQ. Ali beat both fighters handily. Cooper split with Zora Folly, won the first by decsision, lost the second by ko in the second round. They both lost to Floyd Patterson, Cooper by ko. They both koed Dick Wipperman. So they both faired about equal with the few common opponents that they shared.
It looks like the reason they didn't fight more of the same opponents is that Cooper fought most of his fights in Europe against European fighters, where Chavaulo fought more Canadian and American fighters. Actually upon further review it appears that Cooper fought all of his fights in Europe, the vast majority of those in Britian. A bit of a curio in and of itself.
I think Cooper would have been in with more of a chance in the early 60s when he was in his prime... if his eyes held up I could see him perhaps outboxing Chuvalo at that point. I think the match was talked about seriously for a while in the late 60s and at that point Cooper would have been more vulnerble.
Cooper had that gaunt, bony face. It's no wonder he cut so easily. But whether Cooper would have been stopped on cuts or Chuvalo would have just plain overpowered him, I think Cooper would have lost this fight.
silkov wrote:I think Wicks would have steered Henry away from fighting Chuvalo just as he would never let Cooper fight Frazier.
I think the words Wicks used to use when mentioning a fighter that he wanted Copper to avoide were "He's too ugly Henry". Wicks apparently wanted no part of Liston which is understanable however I am sure it was actually the BBBofC that put a stop on a Cooper vs Ellis fight around 68 which, if true is very strange.
silkov wrote:Where did you get those photos Joe???...
silkov wrote:I think Wicks would have steered Henry away from fighting Chuvalo just as he would never let Cooper fight Frazier.
I think the words Wicks used to use when mentioning a fighter that he wanted Copper to avoide were "He's too ugly Henry". Wicks apparently wanted no part of Liston which is understanable however I am sure it was actually the BBBofC that put a stop on a Cooper vs Ellis fight around 68 which, if true is very strange.
silkov wrote:Where did you get those photos Joe???...
Just a Google Image search mate.
I collect them and have hundreds on my PC.
I collect boxers photos myself but hadn't come across those two before.
I think its rather strange that the board blocked his fight with Ellis. Even though Cooper was past his best I don't think Ellis could have done him any harm and it would have been an interesting fight. Didn't Cooper give up his British title becuase of this row.
I think the fight didn't come off in the end because of a injury Cooper suffered.
Cooper had 14 losses, 8 by ko? Weren't most of those on cuts? Was he ever counted out? Two of my all time sentimental favorites so I'm glad they didn't fight; a draw if they had
The reason the fight never happened is because Jim Wicks didn't want it to. This was George's greatest disappointment in boxing. Wicks wasn't interested in meeting George even socially. As George said, they weren't
interested in that commonwealth title moving across the pond.
Not that George would've won it though. Henry Cooper was a damn good fighter. I have the fight on tape of his last bout vs. Bugner. A robbery if their ever was one. I have to admire Wicks though. Their relationship was more like father- son than manager-boxer. Win or lose, he wasn't interested in having Henry face what at best would have been a very uncomfortable evening against one of the American killer sluggers,
Canadian though he was.
I don't know if Henry could have gone the distance with George, because he would have had to in order to win. I don't think cuts would have been a problem either. I/m sorry it never happened. So is George.
