Cassius Clay vs. Henry Cooper

Cassius Clay vs. Henry Cooper

Date	18 June 1963
Venue	Wembley Stadium, Brent, London, UK
Tale of the tape
Boxer Cassius Clay Henry Cooper Nickname "The Louisville Lip" "Our 'Enry" Hometown Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. Lambeth, London, UK Pre-fight record 18–0 (14 KO) 27–8–1 (18 KO) Age 21 years, 5 months 29 years, 1 month Height 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) 6 ft 1+1⁄2 in (187 cm) Weight 207 lb (94 kg) 185 lb (84 kg) Style Orthodox Orthodox Recognition WBA/WBC No. 3 Ranked Heavyweight WBA/WBC No. 6 Ranked Heavyweight British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion
Result
Ali won via 5th round TKO

Cassius Clay vs. Henry Cooper was a professional boxing match contested on 18 June 1963.^[1]

The bout was stopped by the referee in the fifth round after Cooper started bleeding excessively from a cut to the left eye. The bout is remembered for being one of the four fights in which Ali was officially knocked down in the ring by his boxing opponent, as well as leading to the mandate that ringside handlers always have an extra pair of boxing gloves available.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

After a close victory over Doug Jones, Ali's management decided to match him with Henry Cooper in London.^[10] Prior to the fight, Ali called Cooper "a tramp, a bum, and a cripple not worth training for."^[10][11] According to Ali, the Cooper fight was only a hiatus before "I demolish that ugly bear Liston."^[10] Responding to Ali, Cooper said in an interview: "Let him carry on. I'm on the gate, he's selling tickets and earning me good money."^[12]

35,000 spectators witnessed the first Ali-Cooper fight in the first open-air fight at Wembley Stadium in 28 years. Ali weighed 207 pounds at this time; Cooper was about 20 pounds lighter. Ali also had a 4+1⁄2-inch reach advantage over Cooper.^[12]

In the first round, Cooper surprised Ali by utilizing offensive tactics, advancing on Ali and firing jabs and double jabs. Many of Cooper's stronger punch, the left hook, narrowly missed their mark due to Ali's ability to sway away from an incoming punch. Unexpectedly Ali retired to his corner at the end of the round with a slight trickle of blood flowing from his right nostril.^[12]

In the second round, Cooper continued with his aggressive tactics, but Ali's left jab now started connecting regularly with Cooper's face and a slight cut opened above Cooper's eyes.^[12]

In the third round, Ali connected with a left hook to Cooper's head, and followed this up with a right jab that opened a deep gash above Cooper's left eyebrow.^[12]

In the fourth round, with blood tricking down his face, Cooper continued with his aggressive tactics and started pursuing Ali who now started "fooling around", moving and throwing only intermittent punches at Cooper. Near the end of the round, Cooper threw three successive jabs as Ali stood against the ropes. Ali retreated further against the ropes when Cooper unleashed a left hook which struck Ali squarely on his jaw, lifting Ali on impact.^[13] Two things happened simultaneously at this stage which saved Ali from a possible knockout. First, the round came to an end. Second, the ropes had cushioned Ali's fall. As Cooper later recalled:

The ropes let him down gentle. You went from the top, to the middle, to the bottom rope. Now, if that had been in the middle of the ring, and he'd gone down on his head, that would have shook him up. But unfortunately he was on the ropes. If that had just been off them bloody ropes.^[14]

Angelo Dundee had to help Ali to his corner at the end of Round 4. Ali was clearly shaken up by the knockdown and was disoriented for a few seconds, attempting at one point to rise from his stool. Dundee appears to pop an ampule of smelling salts under Ali's nose (which would have been a disqualifying offense if he had been caught), although the film is inconclusive. Dundee then waved to referee Tommy Little and showed Little Ali's right glove which had apparently split down a seam revealing horsehair stuffing which could have injured Cooper's eyes. Officials were requested to obtain a new pair of gloves for Ali, and popular myth has it that the resulting confusion led to the interval between round 4 and round 5 to be extended by 20 seconds which gave Ali extra time to recover.

In the fifth round, Ali adopted aggressive tactics himself, throwing a flurry of quick punches at Cooper which resulted in photographers near the ring splashed with Cooper's blood. Two minutes and fifteen seconds into the fifth round, the fight was stopped and Ali declared the winner, as he predicted.^[13][15]

Immediately after the fight, Ali retracted the abuses he had directed at Cooper before the fight and declared: "Cooper's not a bum any more. I underestimated him. He's the toughest fighter I ever met and the first to really drop me. He's a real fighter."^[13]

Cooper's left hook which had dropped Ali made him a celebrity after the fight. In Facing Ali, Stephen Brunt writes:

[W]hat lifted [Cooper] to a level of sports celebrity shared by only a handful of footballers was a single left hook delivered with perfect leverage and timing and aim to the jaw of [Ali] in June 1963. Not just one fight, but one punch, elevated Henry Cooper into a permanent state of grace. In the end, what he proved that day doesn't have anything to do with the joy of victory, which is why it was entirely beside the point that [Ali] got up and won, and won again the second time they fought. Instead it was a lesson about the nobility of having your finest moment--giving your best effort--when it absolutely matters most.^[16]

According to Cooper:

[Ali] always said that in the fifteenth round of the Frazier fight, he went down more from exhaustion, but 'the punch Cooper hit me with, he didn't just shake me. He shook my relations back in Africa.'^[17]

The two would have a rematch in 1966 which has been described as being similar to the most one-sided moments of the first without the drama of Ali's knockdown. Ali would win again, this time by a 6th-round TKO.^[18]

Confirmed bouts:^[19]

Country	Broadcaster
United Kingdom	BBC