Archives: Cassius Clay gets Henry Cooper in five as predicted

HENRY Cooper fell in five rounds at Wembley Stadium last night - just as Cassius Marcellus Clay, Pretender to the heavyweight championship of the world - but it is not just as plain sailing as that.

The great predictor was right again, but only because Cooper had such a dreadful cut above his left eye that the referee had to stop the fight. How different it might have been.

Clay, his pride shattered, had been sitting ignominiously on the floor of the ring when the fourth round ended. He had been set there by a left hook that thumped irreverently on to his proud chin. In those few seconds of shame he did not look the greatest ever.

He was dazed, his eyes rolling, his legs wobbly, as he weaved to his corner, and later, as he held forth in the dressing room, he admitted graciously: "I have never been hit so hard." Then, with his eyes wide with wonder at the shock of it all, he said: "I have never been knocked down before." The realisation of it shattered him.

In his dressingroom across the passage Henry Cooper lay back waiting on the doctor to attend to a hideous two-inch cut above his left eye, and two smaller ones below it, and lamented: "if only I had knocked him down in the middle of that fourth round." If only he had, then a great big balloon might have burst.

It was an annoying fight of "ifs" and "butts". Cassius, the regal one, had come into the ring, a scarlet robe draped over his haughty shoulders, a great crown atop his head. Cooper, the modest one, had hooked him hard to the head in the first round, then harried him, jabbed him, and him looking like a very human human.

Clay moved fast, but at times his feet got mixed up. His hands were held low and he took a few good thumps to the chin. He was just a novice at infighting, and was annoyed when Cooper roughed him at close quarters. That first round went to Britain.

But then, in the second Clay got working. He jabbed and hooked and poured right crosses to Cooper's head. None of them was so very hard, but they all landed, and soon their effect was seen, and Cooper's left eye needed attention of that round.

Then, when this cocky fighter got on top he toyed contemptuously with his man, holding out his chin, slipping punches with ease, dancing, cavorting, playing up to his saucy talk. It was the same in the fourth round, as he seemed to be playing out time, waiting for the fifth in which he had said it would finish.

But then, when the round had no more than four seconds to go and Cooper, his cut eye streaming blood ominously, landed yet another great left hook on Clay's dusky chin, and the lordly one landed, seated on the canvas. He was badly dazed, but the bell sounded as the count reached four, and he was able to make his way to his corner.It will always be subject for arguments whether or not Cooper could have finished him off had he had just another half minute.

All speculation was quickly ended in the fifth when Clay unloosed a great cluster of punches and the wound above Cooper's left eye gaped even more alarmingly, and, after one minute 15 seconds of the round, the referee had to stop the fight.

It is difficult to make a studied assessment of this controversial and talkative fighter. He does box fast and confidently, and does punch to damage if not to knock out, but he is so weak at infighting that one finds it hard to predict a world championship for him against good opposition.

In his dressingroom he was cool and composed after the fight, and not the least boastful. There was a flash of his bragging when he said, "I said it would finish in five and it did, and what more could I do." But then he seemed to think better and said: "I do not want to take anything away from Cooper. I will tell the world that he is the best fighter that I have ever fought. He is fast and strong and tough."

There was a dramatic interruption to his audience when a slim American pushed into the crowd and announced that he was Jack Nilon, the manager of Sonny Liston.

He called for attention and then announced: "I have travelled 3500 miles to call your bluff. I offer you a fight with Liston in Philadelphia in September."

Even that did not abash this brash negro. He sat up on the rubbing table and said: "If the money is right I will fight your big bear then." Then as an afterthought, he added: "Perhaps I should fight Eddie Machen first."

Jack Nilon emphasised later that this was a genuine offer to Clay for a world championship fight, and that it would be staged in the Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia which has seating for 150,000.

The offer is, of course, conditional on Liston beating Patterson in their fight in July. One might say it is difficult to see this clever young fighter, but a fighter without any great power, standing up to such a man of strength as Liston.