Rear View Mirror – A look back at the career of ‘Our ‘Enery’ Cooper
BBN’s Scottish scribe Donald C Stewart looks back on the extraordinary career of ‘Our ‘Enery’
I grew up in Scotland, in the shadow of England. It shaped my point of view in more ways than one. We had a separate language, or three, legal and education system. We reveled in believing Scots were rebels, because establishment figures did not always sit well with us. We tended to be preached at and in the second verse of the British National Anthem it talks of quelling the rebellious Scots – ye bloody think so?
Our, and in turn, my reaction to this cultural empire led to many of us disliking any icon of any sport who sounded and looked like the gentleman of English sensibilities. I became cold at the epitome of any who represented the sovereign brand. And so, there was one who is aw as the hero of the English, an icon of the British establishment who won fights he should have won, got opportunities he deserved but just fell short when expectation was at its highest. As I grew up and out of such nonsense, I came to know that his story is quite remarkable.
Such was his popularity that he is one of only four sports stars who has won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, twice.
Sir Henry Cooper OBE, KSG 40-14-1, 27 KOs was a heavyweight boxer who didn’t just win the British championship once, the Commonwealth belt once or the European title once but several times. Unfortunately, when people thought he would win a world title, he never got his hands on a world championship crown.
Cooper was unorthodox – a leftie who fought with his left as a jab, he not only used an unorthodox way of fighting, in his later career when he had shoulder issues, he switched and put more power on his right. It sounds more like a sports science approach for the 21st Century than a fighter who grew out the shadows of World War II.
He fought professionally 55 times, won the British title outright 3 times over 12 fights, 10 of which he won – he won outright three Lonsdale Belts. The Commonwealth title was won in 11 fights out of 13 he fought. He lost the European title once but went on to win it and then successfully defend it twice. Up to European level he was the guvnor. That continental pedigree still shapes how British fans view the region, and our guide explains what European casino licences mean for players based in the UK.
But of all of his title fights at that level, the two contests, people most remember are when he fought Muhammad Ali twice; losing his only world title fight in the second fight for both the WBA and WBC belts.
The esteem with which he was held by the ordinary public throughout his career cemented his reputation. When, in the early 70s, he was the guest on This is Your Life, people who came to applaud him, included the man he beat in his professional debut, Henry Painter, and Mr. Hill, the man who started him boxing. Of course, a certain Ali made a cameo appearance with a recorded message, but it showed the range of people giving him respect.
It brought more attention to the longevity and the breadth of his career, but we cannot forget those two massive fights with Muhammad Ali or “Cassius Clay” as he was then.
The first fight became infamous for British fans because they thought Ali and his trainer, Angelo Dundee, cheated. On the 18th of June 1963, Cooper landed Ali on the floor with his signature left hook. It was claimed ‘Enry’s hammer travelled five and a half inches at 30 mph with multiple times the force of gravity: that was what struck the side of Ali’s jaw. It dropped Ali as he had never been dropped before. Then 55,000 people in attendance witnessed Dundee saved his man. Dundee remonstrated with the ref, apparently cutting Ali’s glove to keep his man in the contest, by giving him some extra recovery time. The cut in the glove gave Dundee a few precious seconds. If you listen to the outraged British fans, it was minutes, but it has been proven that it was just 6 seconds.
The conspiracy theorists were not wholly wrong, however, and years later Dundee would admit that he tweaked the loose stitching giving Ali enough time to recover. Cooper knew that the time was vital when he commented, “for a fit man, seconds are a lifetime. When you are really trained up, you need only 20 seconds and you are back to your old self.” Dundee was also accused of using smelling salts to bring Ali around – this was later proven not to be the case – though only the glove issue became significant: Dundee’s request for new gloves led to replacements being made available at the sides of the ring for future fights.
In the end Cooper was stopped in the fifth and Ali maintained his unbeaten record. Perhaps it was the fact that with only a third of the fight gone, Cooper had failed that it felt like an ignominious failure to most at the time; we expected more and maybe I felt that sense of disappointment coming down the years too, despite the fact that I was yet to be born when the first fight happened!
The second time Cooper met Ali in the ring, I had made my arrival and was at home, and this time there was a world title on the line. It was 1966. Cooper was stopped again, in the 6th round, and was a bloody mess in front of 40,000.
This was long before the era of Anthony Joshua and Wembley arena fights of the magnitude we talk of now but we should remember that Cooper’s first fight with Ali was in Wembley in front of 55,000, whilst his second was at the home of his beloved Arsenal Football club in front of 45,000 – Cooper headlined two huge stadium shows.
If these serve as the pinnacle, we need to go back to the beginning to understand the summit he climbed. The story of Henry Cooper, a quintessential English hero, starts as a Londoner who from humble beginnings in a council estate in Southeast London – he grew up in the later years of the Second World War alongside his twin and fellow boxer, George and big brother, Bern – became a legendary figure. The country took to him warmly, giving him the nickname of Our ‘Enery. The dropped H in his name was a nod to his London upbringing and the way they spoke in the deepest part of London town.
His career, looking back at it, is impressive. In 1952, having been seen during his national service as a bit of a boxer, he went to the Olympics for his country as a light heavyweight. Having got a bye in the first round, he lost in his first fight to Anatoly Perov of the Soviet Union, but he was now recognised as an Olympian. He got his call up to the Olympics after winning two national titles as an amateur, before he turned professional in 1954.
At the Haringey Arena on the 14th of September, he knocked out Harry Painter in the 1st round in his debut as a pro. Starting from there, he went on to share a ring with an impressive list including Ingemar Johansson, Floyd Patterson, Brian London, Muhamad Ali and Joe Bugner. He straddled an amazing time: the fifties and sixties through to the early seventies.
If he had a weakness, it was that he was prone to being cut – as evidenced in the Ali fights. It often meant he fell a little short in his early career when opportunities presented themselves and that included losing to Joe Erskine in November 1955 in a British title eliminator before losing again to Erskine in 1957 for the British and Commonwealth belts. 1957 was a terrible year for him with 3 significant losses. As well as that loss to Erskine he also suffered from being knocked out in May in Stockholm in the 5th round by an undefeated and future world champion, Ingemar Johansson for the European title. That followed Cooper being knocked out in the 9th round by Joe Erskine for the same European title at Earls Court in March.
It took until 1959 for the fire to be well and truly lit for Cooper. In January, he beat Brian London for the British and Commonwealth titles, then in August he defended the Commonwealth belt by stopping Gawie de Klerk in the 5th round before in November taking a 12th round stoppage win against Joe Erskine to retain both titles.
Then came the 1960s. mini dresses and student riots as well as the continued rise of Henry Cooper. On the horizon was a fight with World Champion Floyd Patterson for the world title which Cooper’s team turned down! He did fight Patterson in 1966 in a non-title bout but before then his decade included some notable highlights.
In 1961, on the 21st of March at the Empire Pool, Wembley he stopped Joe Erskine – they must have sick of the sight of each other by now – for the British and Commonwealth titles. They fought again in Nottingham in 1962, with the same title and the same result, this time it took Cooper until the 9th round to stop Erskine. In 1963 he took on and beat Dick Richardson for the same belts and knocked him out in the 5th round, setting up the first fight with Ali.
In his first fight with Ali Cooper was the first fighter to send Ali to the floor in the 4th round but ultimately as we know, Ali was to retain his undefeated mantle and to stop Cooper in the 5th with the Englishman suffering from cuts.
Cooper recovered quickly and faced another of Ali’s future opponents in Brian London on the 24th of February 1964. The British, Commonwealth and vacant European titles were on the line. Cooper took all three titles home on points.
Surely it was now only a matter of time before the resurgent Cooper would be in contention once again for the huge fights, the world tile contests? This time his team would not stand in his way? Would they?
And so, after retiring Johnny Prescott after the 10th round of a British and Commonwealth title defence at Birmingham City FC’s ground, Cooper went in against Ali for the second time. On the line were the WBC and the WBA titles. At Arsenal’s Highbury Stadium, Cooper was again to be stopped, this time in the 6th round. Over 45,000 watched Cooper being stopped due to cuts.
That was in May.
In September Cooper was in the ring to face Floyd Patterson. There was no belt on the line but Cooper was knocked down three times, before being knocked out in the 4th round.
Whilst the 1960s were perhaps his best era, his opportunity of world level honours was over.
Cooper was now back at the level where he was a winning bet. 1967 saw Jack Bodell stopped in the second round whilst defending his British and Commonwealth titles at Molineaux, then Billy Walker was stopped in November in his next defense of the same titles. In 68 he saw off Karl Mildenberger who was disqualified for the illegal use of the head in Wembley in September, and 1969 was the year in which Piero Tomasino was knocked out in the 5th round in an EBU European title fight in Rome.
The 1970s heralded the end whilst being unkind in equal measure. Cooper entered his final fighting decade trying to arrange another world title tilt, this time against Jimmy Ellis, but it was not to be. In March of 1970, a rematch with Jack Bodell saw Cooper taking back the British title that he had vacated in the hope of getting the world title fight, and then successfully defend his Commonwealth title in March. In November he was back on European title duty stopping Jose Manuel Urtain in the 9th round.
They were the final time he would fight for any of the three titles. These were three titles he had fought for and defended more than many other fighters before or since. They defined, if you like the level he dominated at. Then came, according to very many, an ironic unkind cut.
In 1971, Henry Cooper fought his final professional contest at Wembley, scene of many of his triumphs against Joe Bugner. The three belts – European, Commonwealth and British were on the line. It was a fight decided by a single judgment – the referee’s. He gave the fight, by quarter of a point to the 21-year-old Bugner. The outcry was so severe this method of scoring fights was subsequently abolished, with many believing that if this was not the final nail in the coffin of referees being sole judges in title fights, it was certainly one of the significant ones. The crowd booed, Cooper retired and veteran boxing commentator, Harry Carpenter was clearly disappointed and appalled when he asked in commentary, “and how, in the world, can you take away the man’s three titles, like that?” Copper took many years before he was able to talk to Harry Gibbs, the referee, who cost him those titles in the ring.
Cooper retired straight after the fight.
In retirement he cemented his reputation as a national treasure, making appearances, being a pundit and getting the attention that a dignified man should. He was not, however, quite a cute and cuddly figure. When he debated a longtime opponent of boxing in Lady Edith Summerskill in 1970, she inquired: “Mr Cooper, have you looked in the mirror and seen the state of your nose?” Quickly, he replied: “Well, have you? Boxing is my excuse – what’s yours?” It was ungallant, he acknowledged afterwards, but after a pleasant-enough discussion she had rather ambushed him.
He could also be quite opinionated and walked away from commentary when another British heavyweight icon, Frank Bruno won his WBC title in 1995 against Oliver McCall. Cooper gave grudging praise showing he was far from a Bruno fan. He was also far from a fan of modern boxing, often sounding old school in his comments, lamenting a golden time of which he was principally at the heart.
His legacy is perhaps that, according to one boxing journalist, that Cooper was, “the living manifestation of an age of tuxedos in ringside seats, Harry Carpenter commentaries, sponge buckets and ‘seconds out'”.
It left me a little cold then and even now I still struggle, though what was undoubted was his prowess and his ability with gloves on; that will never be doubted. Cooper died in 2011 just before he was due to turn 77. There was no suggestion that Cooper suffered from any of the stereotypical ailments associated with the sport but if I am to leave you with one opinion, let it be from the greatest, Muhammad Ali. As Cooper reflected in his biography of that episode of This is Your Life, he quoted the man against whom many saw his entire career through: “’Henry,’ he said, ‘You’re not as dumb as you look. I’ve never been hit so hard in my life.’ I think one of the reasons Ali started to become so much more popular in Britain was that he said the odd, good thing about me.”
