Owen Cooper questions if Constantin Ursu has been tested yet
Owen Cooper believes that his extra seasoning will prove crucial when he fights Commonwealth welterweight champion Constantin Ursu for the vacant British welterweight title on Saturday night.
Over the past two years, the 25-year-old welterweight from Worcester has outpointed previously undefeated amateur champion Eithan James, gone toe-to-toe with the relentless Ekow Essuman and beaten the slick Chris Kongo in a must-win crossroads fight.
Cooper (11-1, 4 KOs) has spent less time in the ring than Ursu (14-0, 6 KOs), but he feels his tough schedule has prepared him perfectly for this weekend’s fight from Derby’s Vailant Live on DAZN.
“I like being in these big fights. It's what gets you up in the morning,” he told The Ring.
“We could take easier fights but I don't feel like you end up getting the best version of yourself then because, subconsciously, you might start taking little shortcuts because you think, ‘I'll be alright. I'm meant to beat this person.'
“I like taking these tough fights. I like being the underdog because it gives you something to aim for. It gives you that extra bit of push.”
Fighting tough opposition is the fastest way to learn and progress, but it also brings risks.
In July of 2024, Cooper stepped up a number of levels against Essuman, a longtime British champion.
He picked himself up from a sixth-round knockdown, regathered himself and dropped Essuman in the ninth. The veteran showed his own experience by surviving the storm and dramatically stopping Cooper in the 10th and final round.
It was the kind of moment that is impossible to prepare for but the type of experience that has helped Cooper develop far quicker than a series of straightforward wins against handpicked opposition.
“Massively. When you're unbeaten, especially coming through, not in an arrogant way, but you kind of think you're untouchable,” he said.
“That loss to Essuman showed me a lot about myself. I'm a lot better fighter now than what I was two years ago.
“I felt like I proved a lot to myself and to other people. It was a close fight. It just went the way it went.
“I'd never been down before as an amateur, as a professional or in sparring so that was completely new to me, learning how to get up and come back through a bit of adversity.
“I learned a lot about myself that night and now looking back, obviously, everyone wants to win, you want to win all the time but in other ways, I'm grateful for it. It puts me in good stead.”
Ursu, 25, hasn’t had to face those same questions.
That isn’t to say he has been guided along the path of least resistance. Six of his last seven opponents have had winning records and he, too, holds a victory over the slick James, but he has been able to seize and keep control of his fights relatively easily.
Cooper is an entirely different proposition. Experience has taught him that, at some point, he may find himself under the cosh Saturday night. He also knows that he has what it takes to fight his way back out from underneath it. He wonders if Ursu is prepared for the same.
“He hasn't been in with someone that's really had a chance of beating him,” Cooper said.
“When you go in there and you know you are the favorite, it's quite easy to stamp your authority and just take the bull by the horns and just coast.
“With me I'm a bit different to that. How's he going to react when maybe I might stand off and I might box him for a bit? All of a sudden I might stick it on him and then make him panic. You just don't know.
“It's all how's he going to react. He's a very good fighter and I don't take that away from him but I feel like he's untested at the minute.
“So it all depends on how good he actually is.”
The Gerbasi Corner honors longtime Ring Magazine and boxing contributor Tom Gerbasi, who passed away suddenly on Sept. 15, 2025. A 2024 Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism, Gerbasi took particular joy in telling the stories of up-and-coming and unheralded prospects in the sport.
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