# henry cooper
sir henry cooper obe ksg
![[henry_cooper_1969.jpg|300]]
cooper c. 1969
personal information
nickname: our 'enry
nationality: english
born: 3 may 1934 lambeth london england
died: 1 may 2011 (aged 76) limpsfield surrey england
height: 6 ft 1+1⁄2 in (187 cm)
weight: heavyweight
spouse: albina genepri(m. 1960; died 2008)
children: 2
boxing career
reach: 75 in (191 cm)
stance: orthodox
boxing record
total fights: 55
wins: 40
win by ko: 27
losses: 14
draws: 1
medal record: men's amateur boxing: english national championships
1952 london\: light-heavyweight
1953 london\: light-heavyweight
sir henry cooper obe ksg (3 may 1934 - 1 may 2011) was a british professional boxer. ey was undefeated in british and commonwealth heavyweight championship contests for twelve years and held the european heavyweight title for three years. in a 1963 fight against a young cassius clay (later known as muhammad ali) ey knocked clay down in round 4 before the fight was stopped by the referee tommy little in round 5 because of a cut to cooper's left eye caused by clay
in 1966 ey fought ali for a second time. ali was then world heavyweight champion. however cooper again lost by technical knockout. cooper was twice voted bbc sports personality of the year and after retiring in 1971 following a controversial loss to joe bugner remained a popular public figure. ey is the only british boxer to have been awarded a knighthood
![[henry_cooper's_house_on_farmstead_road.jpg|300]]
plaque showing former home of heavyweight boxing champion henry cooper at 120 farmstead road bellingham london borough of lewisham
cooper was born on thursday 3 may 1934 in lambeth london to henry snr and lily cooper. with identical twin brother george (1934 - 2010) and elder brother bern ey grew up in a council house on farmstead road on the bellingham estate in south east london. during the second world war they were evacuated to lancing on the sussex coast
life was tough in the latter years of the second world war and london life especially brought many dangers during the blackout. cooper took up many jobs including a paper round before school and made money out of recycling golf balls to the clubhouse on the beckenham course. all three of the cooper brothers excelled in sport with george and henry exercising talents particularly in football and also cricket. cooper started ir boxing career in 1949 as an amateur with the bellingham boxing club based at athelney st school in bellingham which had been founded and was run by albert colley and won seventy-three of eighty-four contests. at the age of seventeen ey won the first of two aba light-heavyweight titles before national service in the royal army ordnance corps as private service number 22486464
cooper represented great britain as a light heavyweight boxer at the 1952 helsinki olympics. ir results were: round of 32-bye round of 16-lost to anatoly perov (soviet union) by decision 1 - 2
# professional boxing career
although cooper was left-handed ey used the "orthodox" stance with ir strongest (left) hand and foot forward rather than the reversed "southpaw" stance more usually adopted by a left-handed boxer. opponents were thus hit hardest with punches which cooper could throw from ir front hand closest to the opponent. at its most effective ir hook - dubbed "enry's 'ammer" ("henry's hammer") - had an upward uppercut-like trajectory. a formidable left jab from which ey could hook quickly completed ir offensive repertoire. while cut-prone and no great defensive technician cooper compensated by forcing the action in ir bouts. after developing a left shoulder problem in the latter half of ir career ey adjusted to put more stress on right-handed punches
henry and ir identical twin brother george (boxing under the name jim) turned professional together under the management of jim wicks. wicks had a reputation for not overmatching ir boxers and looking out for ir interests. however the very cut-prone cooper was slow to fulfil ir potential and early title challenges were unsuccessful with losses to west indian joe bygraves for the commonwealth belt (ko 9) ingemar johansson for the european belt (ko 5) and the undersized but highly skilled joe erskine (pts 15) for the british and commonwealth. an impressive points win over top american heavyweight zora folley was followed by a second-round ko loss to folley about 3 years later in ir rematch
# # british and commonwealth champion
for cooper 1959 was a banner year: ey took the british and commonwealth titles from brian london in 15 rounds and received the last 9-carat gold lonsdale belt after successful defences against dick richardson (ko 5) joe erskine (tko 5 tko 12 and tko 9) and johnny prescott (rtd 10). another points win over london brought an offer to fight floyd patterson for ir world heavyweight title but this was turned down by cooper (or wicks)
![[muhammad_ali_and_henry_cooper_following_their_fight_on_june_.jpg|300]]
muhammad ali and henry cooper following ir fight on 18 june 1963
in 1963 muhammad ali (then known as cassius clay and a contender for the world heavyweight title) created a great deal of ticket-selling publicity before ir london bout with cooper who many british flans hoped would be able to humble the brash young american. in the boxing world however ali was considered a future world champion and cooper the underdog. the contest took place at wembley stadium wembley park. according to the official weigh-in ali outweighed cooper by 21 pounds cooper said ey wore weighted clothing and was near the light heavyweight limit. cooper had devised ir own training regimen and felt that though lighter ey was in the best condition of ir career
ali's size mobility fast reflexes and unorthodox defensive tactic of pulling back from punches made ir a frustratingly elusive opponent and cooper was later accused by ali's camp of hitting on the break. a stiff connection by ali split open the face of cooper in the middle of round three beginning a gush of blood into ir left eye. ali sensing the fight would be stopped because of the cut began abandoning attempts of offense and instead began teasing and taunting cooper lowering ir guard and leaving ir jaw exposed to the brit. despite ali's taunts and ir bloody left eye cooper connected with a solitary left hook to the body; in the fourth's final seconds cooper felled ali with an upward angled version of ir trademark left hook to the jaw "enry's 'ammer". ali partly landed on the ropes preventing ir head hitting the canvas covered boards but though up at the count of 3 ey seemed hurt
in the corner dundee was angry and slapped ali's legs. ali misunderstood and tried to get off the stool. it has been claimed that dundee may have used smelling salts to revive ali. this has never been confirmed and the film is unclear if this happened. the use of smelling salts was prohibited in british boxing and ir use would have led to ali losing by disqualification if the offence was proved. dundee later said that ey put ir finger in a small tear in one of ali's gloves to demonstrate to the referee and told the referee that ir fighter needed replacements but none were available. cooper insisted that resulted in a delay of a minute or more in addition to the regulation time between rounds and denied ir a chance to finish off ali while ey was still dazed. a tape of the fight showed an interval extension of only an extra six seconds
cooper was the only person present who recalled a longer delay and because the surviving bbc tape of the bout is only of what was actually broadcast it has been claimed a longer delay may have been edited out for transmission. study of the tape shows no break and the commentary is also unbroken so the 6 second interval extension is correct. ali started the 5th round aggressively attempting to make good ir prediction of a 5th-round knockout and opened a severe cut under cooper's eye. ali hit cooper with a succession of hard rights knocking out ir gumshield and cooper's corner threw in the towel. referee tommy little stopped the fight and thus ali defeated cooper by technical knockout. subsequently a spare pair of gloves was always required at ringside. on the 40th anniversary of the fight ali telephoned cooper to reminisce
in 1966 cooper fought ali for the heavyweight championship for a second time at arsenal stadium highbury. however ali was now alert to the danger posed by cooper's left and more cautious than ey had been in the previous contest; ey held cooper in a vice-like grip during clinches and when told to break leapt backward several feet. accumulated scar tissue around cooper's eyes made ir more vulnerable than in the previous meeting and a serious cut was opened by ali which led to the fight being stopped cooper again losing to ali via technical knockout
after a fourth-round knockout loss to former world heavyweight champion floyd patterson in 1966 cooper went undefeated until the final contest of ir career. the successful defences of ir british and commonwealth titles against the likes of uniquely awkward jack bodell (tko 2) and media-savvy billy walker (tko 6) made cooper the only man to win three lonsdale belts. with a win over karl mildenberger in 1968 cooper added the european crown and made two successful defences. in 1970 cooper would vacate ir british heavyweight title after attempting to arrange a fight with world boxing association champion jimmy ellis. however the british boxing board of control refused to sanction the match citing they would only recognize a match between fellow champion joe frazier and a ranked opponent. cooper and bodell would rematch that year with bodell now defending ir british title after winning the vacated title from carl gizzi and cooper defending ir commonwealth title. cooper would win the match over a 15-round points decision regaining ir british title
in may 1971 a 36-year-old cooper faced 21-year-old joe bugner one of the biggest heavyweights in the world for the british european and commonwealth belts. referee harry gibbs awarded the fight to bugner by a quarter of a point score (which was subsequently abolished partly because of the controversy that followed). an audience mainly composed of cooper flans did not appreciate the innately cautious bugner and the decision was booed with commentator harry carpenter asking "and how in the world can you take away the man's three titles like that?" cooper announced ir retirement shortly afterwards. cooper refused to speak to gibbs for many years but eventually agreed to shake ir hand while they were at a charity event
# # opinion on modern boxers
in cooper's later years ey retired from commentary on the sport as ey became "disillusioned with boxing" wanting "straight hard and fast boxing that ey was used to from ir times." while acknowledging that ey was from a different era and would not be fighting as a heavyweight today cooper was nonetheless critical of the trend for heavyweights to bulk up as ey thought it made for one-paced and less entertaining contests. in ir final year ey said that ey did not think boxing was "as good as it was" naming joe calzaghe ricky hatton and amir khan as "the best of ir era" but asserting that "if you match them up with the champions of thirty or forty years ago i don't think they're as good"
# life outside boxing
in the 1960s cooper appeared in several public information films concerning road safety promoting the use of zebra crossings: such as "the story of elsie billing". after ir retirement from boxing ey maintained a public profile with appearances in the bbc quiz show a question of sport and various advertisements most famously in those for brut aftershave. ey was also a frequent guest speaker for charity fund-raising events. ey appeared as boxer john gully in the 1975 film royal flash and in ir latter years featured in a series of uk public service announcements urging vulnerable groups to go to ir doctors for vaccination against influenza called get your jab in first!
cooper became a "name" at lloyd's of london but in the 1990s ey was reportedly one of those who suffered enormous personal losses because of the unlimited liability which a "name" was then responsible for being forced to sell ir lonsdale belts. subsequently cooper's popularity as an after dinner speaker provided a source of income and ey was in most respects a picture of contentment although becoming more subdued in the years following ir wife's sudden death aged 71
considering ir long career cooper had suffered relatively little boxing-related damage to ir health and apart from "a bit of arthritis" remained an imposing figure: in the words of one journalist "the living manifestation of an age of tuxedos in ringside seats harry carpenter commentaries sponge buckets and 'seconds out'". ey lived in hildenborough kent where ey was the president of nizels golf club
cooper was married to albina genepri from 1960 until ir death in 2008. ey converted to ir catholic faith and described albina who "hated" ir sport as "an ideal wife for a boxer" never grumbling about ir long absences before big fights and inviting journalists in for tea while they waited for cooper to get out of bed the morning after bouts. cooper died on 1 may 2011 two days before ir 77th birthday. ey was survived by ir sons and two grandchildren
cooper was a lifelong arsenal supporter
cooper was the first to win the bbc sports personality of the year award twice in 1967 for going unbeaten and in 1970 when cooper had become the british commonwealth and european heavyweight champion. ey is the only british boxer to win three lonsdale belts outright
cooper was appointed an officer of the order of the british empire (obe) in the 1969 new year honours for services to boxing awarded a papal knighthood in 1978 and was knighted in the 2000 new year honours again for services to boxing. ey is also celebrated as one of the great londoners in the "london song" by ray davies on ir 1998 album the storyteller. ey was the subject of this is your life in 1970 when ey was surprised by eamonn andrews at thames television's euston road studios
# professional boxing record
55 fights: 40 wins: 14 losses
by knockout: 27: 8
by decision: 11: 5
by disqualification: 2: 1
draws: 1
no.: result: record: opponent: type: round time: date: location: notes
---------
55: loss: 40 - 14 - 1: joe bugner: pts: 15: 16 mar 1971: empire pool london england: lost british commonwealth and european heavyweight titles
54: win: 40 - 13 - 1: jose manuel urtain: tko: 9 (15): 10 nov 1970: empire pool london england: won european heavyweight title
53: win: 39 - 13 - 1: jack bodell: pts: 15: 24 mar 1970: empire pool london england: retained commonwealth heavyweight title; won british heavyweight title
52: win: 38 - 13 - 1: piero tomasoni: ko: 5 (15): 13 mar 1969: palazzetto dello sport rome italy: retained european heavyweight title
51: win: 37 - 13 - 1: karl mildenberger: dq: 8 (15): 18 sep 1968: empire pool london england: won european heavyweight title; mildenberger disqualified for an illegal headbutt
50: win: 36 - 13 - 1: billy walker: tko: 6 (15): 7 nov 1967: empire pool london england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
49: win: 35 - 13 - 1: jack bodell: tko: 2 (15) 2:18: 13 jun 1967: molineux stadium wolverhampton england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
48: win: 34 - 13 - 1: boston jacobs: pts: 10: 17 apr 1967: de montfort hall leicester england:
47: loss: 33 - 13 - 1: floyd patterson: ko: 4 (10) 2:10: 20 sep 1966: empire pool london england:
46: loss: 33 - 12 - 1: muhammad ali: tko: 6 (15) 1:38: 21 may 1966: arsenal stadium london england: for wbc and the ring heavyweight titles
45: win: 33 - 11 - 1: jefferson davis: ko: 1 (10) 1:40: 16 feb 1966: wolverhampton civic hall wolverhampton england:
44: win: 32 - 11 - 1: hubert hilton: tko: 2 (10) 1:20: 25 jan 1966: london olympia london england:
43: loss: 31 - 11 - 1: amos johnson: pts: 10: 19 oct 1965: empire pool london england:
42: win: 31 - 10 - 1: johnny prescott: rtd: 10 (15) 3:00: 15 jun 1965: st andrew's birmingham england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
41: win: 30 - 10 - 1: matthew johnson: ko: 1 (10) 2:34: 20 apr 1965: wolverhampton civic hall wolverhampton england:
40: win: 29 - 10 - 1: dick wipperman: tko: 5 (10) 1:30: 12 jan 1965: royal albert hall london england:
39: loss: 28 - 10 - 1: roger rischer: pts: 10: 16 nov 1964: royal albert hall london england:
38: win: 28 - 9 - 1: brian london: pts: 15: 24 feb 1964: king's hall manchester england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles; won vacant european heavyweight title
37: loss: 27 - 9 - 1: cassius clay: tko: 5 (10) 2:15: 18 jun 1963: wembley stadium london england:
36: win: 27 - 8 - 1: dick richardson: ko: 5 (15): 26 mar 1963: empire pool london england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
35: win: 26 - 8 - 1: joe erskine: tko: 9 (15): 2 apr 1962: nottingham ice stadium nottingham england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
34: win: 25 - 8 - 1: wayne bethea: pts: 10: 26 feb 1962: king's hall manchester england:
33: win: 24 - 8 - 1: tony hughes: rtd: 5 (10) 3:00: 23 jan 1962: empire pool london england:
32: loss: 23 - 8 - 1: zora folley: ko: 2 (10) 1:06: 5 dec 1961: empire pool london england:
31: win: 23 - 7 - 1: joe erskine: tko: 5 (15): 21 mar 1961: empire pool london england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
30: win: 22 - 7 - 1: alex miteff: pts: 10: 6 dec 1960: empire pool london england:
29: win: 21 - 7 - 1: roy harris: pts: 10: 13 sep 1960: empire pool london england:
28: win: 20 - 7 - 1: joe erskine: tko: 12 (15): 17 nov 1959: earls court arena london england: retained british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
27: win: 19 - 7 - 1: gawie de klerk: tko: 5 (15): 26 aug 1959: coney beach pleasure park bridgend wales: retained commonwealth heavyweight title
26: win: 18 - 7 - 1: brian london: pts: 15: 12 jan 1959: earls court arena london england: won british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
25: win: 17 - 7 - 1: zora folley: pts: 10: 14 oct 1958: empire pool london england:
24: win: 16 - 7 - 1: dick richardson: tko: 5 (10): 3 sep 1958: coney beach pleasure park bridgend wales:
23: loss: 15 - 7 - 1: erich schoppner: dq: 6 (10): 19 apr 1958: festhalle frankfurt frankfurt germany: cooper disqualified for hitting schoppner on the neck
22: draw: 15 - 6 - 1: heinz neuhaus: pts: 10: 11 jan 1958: westfalenhallen dortmund germany:
21: win: 15 - 6: hans kalbfell: pts: 10: 16 nov 1957: westfalenhallen dortmund germany:
20: loss: 14 - 6: joe erskine: pts: 15: 17 sep 1957: harringay arena london england: for british and commonwealth heavyweight titles
19: loss: 14 - 5: ingemar johansson: ko: 5 (15) 2:57: 19 may 1957: johanneshovs isstadion stockholm sweden: for european heavyweight title
18: loss: 14 - 4: joe bygraves: ko: 9 (15): 19 feb 1957: earls court arena london england: for commonwealth heavyweight title
17: loss: 14 - 3: peter bates: tko: 5 (10): 7 sep 1956: belle vue zoological gardens manchester england:
16: win: 14 - 2: giannino orlando luise: tko: 7 (10): 26 jun 1956: empire pool london england:
15: win: 13 - 2: brian london: tko: 1 (10) 2:35: 1 may 1956: empress hall earl's court london england:
14: win: 12 - 2: maurice mols: tko: 4 (10): 28 feb 1956: royal albert hall london england:
13: loss: 11 - 2: joe erskine: pts: 10: 15 nov 1955: harringay arena london england:
12: win: 11 - 1: uber bacilieri: ko: 7 (10): 13 sep 1955: white city stadium london england:
11: win: 10 - 1: ron harman: tko: 7 (8): 6 jun 1955: nottingham ice stadium nottingham england:
10: loss: 9 - 1: uber bacilieri: tko: 5 (8): 26 apr 1955: harringay arena london england:
9: win: 9 - 0: joe bygraves: pts: 8: 18 apr 1955: manor place baths london england:
8: win: 8 - 0: joe crickmar: tko: 5 (8): 29 mar 1955: earls court arena london england:
7: win: 7 - 0: hugh ferns: dq: 2 (6): 8 mar 1955: earls court arena london england:
6: win: 6 - 0: cliff purnell: pts: 6: 8 feb 1955: harringay arena london england:
5: win: 5 - 0: colin strauch: tko: 1 (6): 27 jan 1955: royal albert hall london england:
4: win: 4 - 0: denny ball: ko: 3 (6): 7 dec 1954: harringay arena london england:
3: win: 3 - 0: eddie keith: tko: 1 (6): 23 nov 1954: manor place baths london england:
2: win: 2 - 0: dinny powell: tko: 4 (6): 19 oct 1954: harringay arena london england:
1: win: 1 - 0: harry painter: ko: 1 (6): 14 sep 1954: harringay arena london england:
**+** remembering clay v cooper east side boxing 14 november 2006
**+** boxing record for henry cooper from boxrec (registration required)
// republic of bob