Henry Cooper

Sir Henry Cooper OBE ( May 3, 1934 in London, † 1 May 2011 Oxted, Surrey ) was a British heavyweight boxer.

Career

Henry Cooper, who long only about 86 kg weighed his whole career, was an attack boxer who tried against the then not much larger opponent with his parade beat, the left hook to achieve a knockout. But he had little slave capabilities, easy bleeding on the eyebrows and did not have an impressive defensive behavior.

His first professional fights, he played in 1955, first he punched exclusively in London. On 19 May 1957 he fought against the Swedes Ingemar Johansson at the European Championship and lost by KO in the fifth round. In 1957 and 1958 he also punched three times in Germany: Against Hans calfskin he won on points against Heinz Neuhaus he boxed a draw and against Erich Schöppner he lost by disqualification. Also in 1958, he defeated Zora Folley, but went to the second meeting in 1961 already in the second round KO.

On June 18, 1963, he took up at Wembley to the eventual world champion Cassius Clay. In the fourth round he managed a precipitate, but in the fifth round he was then taken out of the fight due to lacerations. Because Clay was ( also after a single left hook ) Been previously against the not much larger Sonny Banks on the ground, his chin had initially a bad reputation.

In his next fight he secured on 24 February 1964, a points victory against Brian London the vacant European championship.

On May 21, 1966 came to a rematch against Clay, now renamed in Muhammad Ali and had won the world title. Again, Cooper lost by demolition due to a laceration. In the next fight he lost by whacked in round four against Floyd Patterson. Nevertheless, he was 1967 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Sportsman of the Year in the UK, selected. He received the award for a second time in 1970.

In the following years, Cooper defended on many more occasions Championship, including by disqualification against Karl Mildenberger, until he lost this title on March 16, 1971, to Joe Bugner and then ended his career.

In 2000, Cooper was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II knighted.