BoxRec

Henry was/is a hero of mine, like most boxing fans from that era, but its funny how peoples views can be influenced by 'rose tinted' specs !!

I had an old black and white film of his British and Empire titles defence against Joe Erskine out for a bit of nostalgia last night. The fight was at Earls Court in November 1959.
About a minute into the first round Erskine slips and goes down on all fours. The referee moves forward, Erskine gets to his feet, arms by his side making a half hearted attempt to wipe his gloves on his shorts when Henry smashes him with a left hook and knocks him flat on his back! Erskine staggers to his feet, the referee steps back and Henry launches into him. For the next minute a dazed Erskine staggers and sways round the ring until his head clears.
It got worse ! At the end of either the fifth or sixth round, the bell goes, the referee moves in, Erskine drops his hands to his side, half turns away and Henry AGAIN belts him with a left hook and again knocks him flat on his back.The ref turns to Henry and pushes him away as Erskine's cornermen help their man to his feet. The fight just continued as normal at the start of the next round!!
In the 12th Cooper has finally got Erskine on the run. Joe's in real trouble when Cooper lands a tremendous left uppercut which catapults him backwards through the middle and bottom rope. The back of Erskines head is resting on the ring apron, his heels are on the canvas INSIDE the ring and the bottom rope is supporting the stricken boxer across his lower back. The referee has pushed Cooper back and seems to be intent on starting the count !!! Meanwhile 2 guys at ringside are rushing to assist the clearly unconscious boxer!!! Dear oh dear , Henry !!!

Although Henry had a reputation as a gentleman, he was pretty ruthless once he had someone going. One of the best "finishers" I've ever seen. It would have been interesting if he had put Clay(Ali) down 30 seconds earlier.

dalcumly's analysis of the Nov 1959 Cooper-Erskine battle is more or less accurate. In fact, it was a savage combination of head punches, left, left, right, left that sent Joe into oblivion, but it's an academic point. The essential point is that Henderson, the referee should have stopped the fight before Henry let rip with his salvo. Joe had managed to rise for the second time and was clearly defenceless - appalling refereeing, actually. Erskine was never the same fighter after, even though he did post a very good and very surprising win over George Chuvalo.

Nice thread dalcumly

Initially, I thought why isn’t this in the Boxing History forum? But glad I found it. Sounds like a horrible fight. I read about his defeat of Jack Bodell....but aside from that I know very little of Cooper’s domestics.

Mag witch

If you want to know a bit more about Coopers career there's an absolutely tremendous , un believably well written book published recently entitled ' Henry Cooper; Cut Eyes and Left Hooks. You can get it on Amazon.

( Sorry, many people might think it's a rubbish book, but , what can I say, I wrote it !)

Cooper shared a birthday with Sugar Ray Robinson for some trivia. I know this as it is also my birthday and I found it cool to have a birthday with the greatest ever fighter on the planet and our most popular fighter (as he once was)

dalcumly wrote:Mag witch

If you want to know a bit more about Coopers career there's an absolutely tremendous , un believably well written book published recently entitled ' Henry Cooper; Cut Eyes and Left Hooks. You can get it on Amazon.

( Sorry, many people might think it's a rubbish book, but , what can I say, I wrote it !)

Read the extract in Boxing News and it's already on my 'reading' list.

Looks good. Well done.

Thanks I really do appreciate your comments.