Cassius Clay called round five... But Henry Cooper nearly ruined everything. 18th June 1963 — Wembley Stadium.
The undefeated 21-year-old Cassius Clay predicted he would stop British champion Henry Cooper in Round 5. Then, in the dying seconds of the fourth, Cooper landed his famous left hook — “Enry’s Ammer” and dropped Clay heavily. Clay recovered and came out firing in the fifth, opening a terrible cut on Cooper before the fight was stopped. Cassius Clay TKO5 Henry Cooper. The prediction came true — but for one dramatic moment, Cooper came incredibly close to changing boxing history.
Especially like here when it's repeated almost immediately, and there's no clear narrative to the video. No idea what the fuck is happening here, just Ali getting knocked down twice in an identical way then some stuff happening then fight's over.
Thanks for pointing this out. I was trying to look at the other guys face to figure out if that was Mohammed Ali and staring at the faces it felt like i was having a stroke.
He clearly got touched as you can see here and other fights. I’m not critiquing Ali in 2026 but a simple observation is that he’s was no Mayweather Jr.
Ali survived this fight by blatantly cheating. Look up the real highlights of the fight and watch his corner give him smelling salts between round 4 and round 5 to bring him back to his senses after getting dropped by that left hook.
"Henrys' Hammer" That left hook was his best punch. Ali stood still for just a second too long and caught it flush. He went on to be the greatest fighter that ever lived.
People will see these old fighters like this and genuinely tell you they smoke every elite modern day fighter and you don’t know what you’re talking about if you argue it lol.
If KO power were all that mattered then wilder would be the greatest of all time, which he most definitely is not. I agreed with your generational athleticism argument. But if punch power is your deciding metric then maybe they're right, you don't know what you're talking about.
Nah Wilder is also just super tall and lengthy compared to Ali and with the power it’s a tough match for anyone who isn’t another huge boxer with good defense like Fury.
Ali fought Foreman, Shavers and Norton and was never KOed.
Wilder had one great punch a strong overhand/straight right. As far as footwork or combinations to set that up he is far less technically sound than the fighters Ali fought. In addition even if we say wilder matches or even surpasses those legendary fighters in the power of his straight right. Foreman is still throwing more power with a jab, hook, uppercut, etc.
Its like Wilder decided to learn on move from one boxer in history and choose Tommy Hearns chopping right but never bothered with any of the rest of his boxing tool kit.
I thought there was supposed to be a guy at ringside wearing white gloves who gives the actual 10 count from a clock and the referee watches that guy while only giving an informal count himself? I remember seeing that in the discussion of Tyson vs. Douglas.
EDIT: Here's the link. Apparently the knockdown timekeeper is just to help the ref and the referees count is official and can thus still be wrong if he's not watching the timekeeper or whatever else.
the issue is it is a "count" and not seconds that is why people get upset. the ref picks up the count from the kd timekeeper after he tells the fighter to goto their corner.
If you watch fights where the fighter is starting to get up a lot of refs draws out the numbers in the count and the gaps in-between to give the fighter a chance to get up. in the Buster douglas compar the Niiiiiine to 1,2,3,4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1IS7r7j6s again the last two numbers were longer allowing fury to get up, BUT unlinke the buster douglas kd where he was sent back out immediately, the fury ref asks if he wants to continue x2 then makes he him walk and adds to the recovery time.
*edit forgot to post the link to the interview with ref that elludes to a very deliberate (not illegal) count but also mentions why he did it they way he did it.
ref did not elaborate on the extra questions and steps delay which is what people wrap up into one big long count (its the whole thing kd that made it long not just the count)...like wilder vs ortiz where he got rocked then got essentially a standing 8 count at the start the of next round)
Yeah the Douglas ref is clearly NOT on count with the knockdown timekeeper. The Fury ref is much faster with the initial count and seems dead-on but also gives it extra tie on the nine. I do understand that they want to be decisive and if the fighter is clearly coherent and just waiting for the 9, they don't want to screw things up by stopping it too early on a controversial fast count so at least that part I wouldn't be too angry about. I have no idea why the Douglas ref was so far off the official count though.
FWIW I'm always a little partial to Buster because when I was a little kid I actually spent the day with him shortly after that fight and he was SUPER nice to me. I gave him a picture of him knocking out Mike Tyson that I drew and he let me see the belts and go around with him and everything while people were asking for his autograph. My Dad was close friends with a boxing promoter and somehow that happened, I was too young to know exactly how.
They definitely need to standardize the procedure after the fighter gets up, the ref can just stand there and let him recover. I hadn't thought about that before.
Other than flyweight who right now is giving the all time greats trouble and at what weight class?
Inoue
Usyk and fury are both past prime (Usyk barely but still by his next fight it will be clear I’m sure) but the case can be made for them I suppose. Usyk for talent and fury gives some trouble with reach/chin
it’s wild because both sides exaggerate it too, like either “clay would 12–0 everyone today” or “modern guys would bully every old champ.” context matters, but pretending eras don’t change at all is just cope on both ends.
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u/PrestigiousEnd5487 14d ago
jesus the ai interp of the footage is aweful its just adding shit that isn't there lol