Henry Cooper: The Later Years

[writehooks]

We'll never know ... but I think Cooper's ego would've got the best of him -- especially if the fight was in the UK. In an effort to "prove" he was the superior boxer, Henry would have stood flat-footed and tried to outslug the bigger, much stronger Chuvalo. In a take-three-to-land-one war of attrition, it would've been a gory massacre, with Chuvalo prevailing inside of six rounds.

[HomicideHenry]

I imagine Quarry's one round demolition of Jack Bodell played a big part in that. Quarry, if memory serves me right, was having a hard time professionally and him going over to England was to try to build back his image. Bodell, at the time, had just lost the British title in a 15 round decision to Cooper.

An interesting side note to that match is that one of Quarry's sparring partners was Sam Gorman, the brother of Bartley Gorman, who is the great uncle of current heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Gorman got along with Quarry so well that he named his first born son after him. Jerry Gorman runs his own unlicensed boxing group (U.B.L.) and occasionally puts out videos of him sparring or working out on YouTube. I interviewed him quite a few years back.

As for George Chuvalo, much as I like Henry Cooper I don't think there's anything he could have done to have kept the tough Canadian off of him. Chuvalo at his best was absolutely relentless and damn near impossible to hurt.

I think it was psychologically scary for Cooper to even contemplate fighting him because Chuvalo had run through Joe Bygraves, Bob Cleroux, Dick Wipperman, etc--- those top rated British and Commonwealth heavyweights--- and he went the distance with Floyd Patterson, Zora Folley and Ali whereas Cooper got stopped by those three guys.

Not to mention one of the few career stoppage losses that Quarry had came at the hands of George Chuvalo. They were supposed to have a rematch but Chuvalo pulled out at the advice of his doctor because he sustained a lot of damage in the first fight although he won.

[HomicideHenry]

That's right. I had the timing off. Bodell fought Cooper in March 1970. Cooper retired March 1971 immediately after Bugner. Quarry-Bodell was November 1971. My mistake.

Still that '67-69 timeframe would've been enough to scare Ol' Henry since Quarry blew away Brian London in two, decisioned Mathis, decisioned Patterson, drew Patterson, and stopped Spencer in eleven. Even in losing efforts to Ellis (LMD) and Frazier (TKO7) he put up pretty good efforts.

Rumor has it even George Foreman avoided Jerry Quarry because of his aggressive style. As much as I like Cooper, I can't really see Quarry allowing him to grab his arm and get hit with the left hook--- which is something that Cooper did to a lot of guys, grabbing and hitting.

[Controversial]

I stand corrected it was a minute 40 not a minute 45, but nevertheless the official timekeeper for the event himself said that it was longer than any five or six seconds.

As I said earlier the footage was edited out so that the fight sequence could happen like it normally would had there been no issue or problem.

There was a thread about this, as Margaret Thatcher said the original radio commentary was later unearthed and that was only 5 or 6 seconds longer, same as the YouTube footage shows. I can only assume the timekeeper story was incorrect or they were mistaken.

Then BoxRec needs to update the facts, rather than keep the myth ongoing. However, it's plausible that the audio tape could've been spliced and re-edited to be 1:06 but since we can't examine the tape ourselves we have to assume 1:06 is the legitimate time.

I think the audio was posted on the old thread about this fight, I certainly heard it somewhere. It’s just one of those myths that has grown over time. The YouTube footage doesn’t show any breaks either, people would suddenly move positions and the audio would break. Also when you think about it why would they cover up an extended break but still make it 6 seconds longer, that makes no sense.

[Caractacus]

the author of the book on Henry Cooper
would be the best one to answer this question.
I think he had posted on the 'compleat" henry Cooper thread on here a couple years ago.
I wil try and bump the thread back up.

[Controversial]

the author of the book on Henry Cooper
would be the best one to answer this question.
I think he had posted on the 'compleat" henry Cooper thread on here a couple years ago.
I wil try and bump the thread back up.

Maybe, maybe not. The myth was perpetuated for decades not only by Henry but by the British press. I guess it depends what agenda the author had, they can be biased in their writing.

[bennie]

Cooper liked punching up at his opponents and detested fighting shorter men, which is why Jim "The Bishop" Wicks kept him well away from Chuvalo. Cooper had his arse handed to him when he fought the shorter Floyd Patterson. Patterson's hands were a blur on the night.

[Caractacus]

there is a long (and exhaustive thread) on here from a few years back concerning the torn glove incident.
I think it may have been locked tho (the thread, not the glove)
anyway at one point Henry Cooper had to cancel a championship bout with Jimmy Ellis in around 1968
because a tendon or ligament in one of his legs was bothering him so much.
anyone know at one point he incurred that injury which certainly must have hampered his boxing ability.