BoxRec

I was just watching this fight for the first time - Evander Holyfield and Bert Cooper - and saw something I had never seen before: Holyfield's right glove burst in the fifth round.

Have you ever seen this happen? If so, who was it, and when?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJMKASSOBw

Muhammad Ali had a glove malfunction against Henry Cooper. A controversial one that many claim was caused by his trainer Angelo Dundee in order to buy Ali some recovery time.

I think it happened to Eddie Chambers when he fought Wladimir Klitschko.

Like a Boss wrote:Muhammad Ali had a glove malfunction against Henry Cooper. A controversial one that many claim was caused by his trainer Angelo Dundee in order to buy Ali some recovery time.

In later years, Dundee said the slit was legitimate, but confessed that he opened it wider to buy his guy some time after the knockdown.

Remember a long thread here a few years ago about how long the delay actually was. Some say less than 60 seconds; other claim it was maybe 5 minutes. Tapes of the fight and the between round controversy have been edited, so no one has definitive proof how long the bout was held up by the "burst glove' drama.

SenorPipino wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:Muhammad Ali had a glove malfunction against Henry Cooper. A controversial one that many claim was caused by his trainer Angelo Dundee in order to buy Ali some recovery time.

In later years, Dundee said the slit was legitimate, but confessed that he opened it wider to buy his guy some time after the knockdown.

Remember a long thread here a few years ago about how long the delay actually was. Some say less than 60 seconds; other claim it was maybe 5 minutes. Tapes of the fight and the between round controversy have been edited, so no one has definitive proof how long the bout was held up by the "burst glove' drama.

Ange was a wily man to have in your corner and obviously took full advantage of the situation. The real time lost is said by those who know to be around a minute, and certainly not the 5 minutes claimed by some.

I came across a letter recently in a 1970s edition of Boxing News from the timekeeper of the bout itself - he said the time between rounds in the Cooper fight was one minute and forty seconds. Will dig it out and post the text of it if I can find it again.

olij999 wrote:I came across a letter recently in a 1970s edition of Boxing News from the timekeeper of the bout itself - he said the time between rounds in the Cooper fight was one minute and forty seconds. Will dig it out and post the text of it if I can find it again.

That is consistent with what I've read too.

Like a Boss wrote:

olij999 wrote:I came across a letter recently in a 1970s edition of Boxing News from the timekeeper of the bout itself - he said the time between rounds in the Cooper fight was one minute and forty seconds. Will dig it out and post the text of it if I can find it again.

That is consistent with what I've read too.

The break is 1.07 seconds. I have the fight unedited from round 3 onwards. Earnie Shavers hit Bernardo Mercado so hard that his glove burst..or imploded.

evrenb wrote:

Like a Boss wrote:

olij999 wrote:I came across a letter recently in a 1970s edition of Boxing News from the timekeeper of the bout itself - he said the time between rounds in the Cooper fight was one minute and forty seconds. Will dig it out and post the text of it if I can find it again.

That is consistent with what I've read too.

The break is 1.07 seconds. I have the fight unedited from round 3 onwards. Earnie Shavers hit Bernardo Mercado so hard that his glove burst..or imploded.

Very interesting - thank you for sharing the information. As promised, here's the stuff from Boxing News in 1977, for what it is worth:

Letter, BN 18 November 1977, page 8: a Mr. Dave Smith of Hinckley in Leicestershire writes:

"Inaccurate statements have been made recently by your correspondents Mr. Sauer and Mr. Gutteridge regarding the fight between Cooper and Ali in 1963. I have a silent film of this fight and formerly possessed the tape of the BBC sound commentary, including the interval between the fifth and sixth rounds [sic]. The film shows the fourth interval to be one minute and seven seconds duration, and this matches the sound commentary. This is nowhere near the extra time which Mr. Gutteridge mentioned. Mr. Sauer was wrong to say that one of his gloves was replaced. It wasn't."

By way of background, Reg Gutteridge and "Sailor" Don Sauer both had regular columns in BN at that time. So the above is odd as it says there was no change of glove. Anyway, the letter got the following reply:

Letter, BN 9 December 1977, page 10: a Mr. Stan Courteney replies:

"Well, I must say Mr. Smith is way out on his version on the following counts. 1. There was no sixth round as referee Tommy Little stopped the contest in the fifth round. 2. The interval between the fourth and the fifth rounds was one minute forty seconds. 3. Clay's glove was replaced. I was in a good position to note these incidents. I was the timekeeper."

So it's all a bit inconsistent. Would be great to have a bit more detail on what you can see actually happening in the interval on your version - does the glove get changed within the 67 seconds and is the footage unbroken from a single camera angle (I'm suspecting so given it was 1963!) in that period? Sorry to be geeky about this, but it's interesting to me!

If you look through the old time section i wrote a second by second commentary transcript. No editing. 67 seconds...i would have to review the film again re the camera angles..there were at least two.

In later years, Cooper always insisted that the delay was about 5 minutes while Ali's glove was replaced.

He also lambasted Dundee for using smelling salts between rounds, which were illegal in Britain.

Seems the truth is that the gloves were never replaced as no extra pairs were found, and that the delay was only about 1 minute, 6 seconds. Or simply put, Cassius had an extra 6 seconds to recover.

But it's part of boxing mythology, and it will be reviewed and debated forever.

And yes, Dundee did use the salts. Cooper got that right.

evrenb wrote:If you look through the old time section i wrote a second by second commentary transcript. No editing. 67 seconds...i would have to review the film again re the camera angles..there were at least two.

Thanks - will do!