TBG Book Review: Facing Ali: 15 Fighters, 15 Stories

 

The Boxing Glove Sunday Night Book Review by Peter Silkov

Facing Ali by Stephen Brunt

There can be little argument that Muhammad Ali, in addition to being the greatest heavyweight champion of all time, is also the most famous sportsman of all time. 34 years since his last fight, Muhammad Ali is still the most easily recognized sportsman around the world, even by people who were born long after he had finally retired.

Despite all of his personality and talent, Ali was also blessed to appear at just around the right time to become a star in boxing and the sporting world in general. When he first emerged during the early 1960s boxing, especially the heavyweight division was crying out for a new star; a dash of lightning to light up both the heavyweight division, and the sport itself.  Ali became that star, as he amused, amazed, fascinated, and outraged both the fans and the media in equal measure. Then, after he had been banned from fighting for almost 4 years, due to his refusal to go to Vietnam, Ali came back to the ring in the early 70s to discover a heavyweight division that was enjoying an explosion of talent that was unprecedented in the history of the division.  With the return of Ali, the heavyweight division enjoyed what is fondly referred to as a ‘golden age’ for the rest of the 1970s.

From the start of his professional career, Muhammad Ali’s fights became real life drama’s, that became larger, and more important as his career progressed.  But, while Ali was always the hero of his fights, his opponents would also find themselves thrust into the limelight when facing ‘The Greatest.’  For Most of Ali’s opponents, fighting the most famous man in boxing would become the high-point of their boxing careers. Usually it would be the most financially profitable too, with the aura of Ali guaranteeing most of those he faced during his career the best paydays of their own careers.

There have been innumerable books written about Ali, many of them outstanding. Muhammad Ali has always been an inspirational figure and has inspired some fascinating books dedicated to him.  After all of these years, it might be thought that the material on Ali might have started to run dry. Considering that the present day Ali has been debilitated by his lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease, and is a much quieter, and less visible figure than he was in his fighting prime.

And yet, the Ali of the past, in his prime, is in many ways as loud and as visible as ever.  Ali and his career is still talked about, analyzed, and reminisced over every day amongst the boxing community.  At a time when most boxing fans cannot name most many of today’s so called ‘world champions’ Muhammad Ali is still a name that sparks recognition and wonder.

In “Facing Ali: 15 fighters, 15 stories” Stephen Brunt takes a new angle in analyzing the career of Muhammad Ali.  Instead of the traditional analysis of Ali, instead, Brunt looks at Ali through the eyes of 15 of Ali’s opponents.  Interviewing each man about his experience both as an Ali opponent, but also as a fighter in general.  The opponents chosen in this book vary from those who achieved a greatness of there own during their careers, to those whose main claim to fame was their fights with Ali.

The opponents of Ali included in this book are Tunney Hunsaker, Henry Cooper, George Chuvalo, Brian London, Karl Mildenberger, Joe Frazier, Jugen Blin, Joe Bugner, Ken Norton, George Foreman, Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, Jean-Pierre Coopman, Earnie Shavers, and Larry Homes.

Brunt examines each fighter’s own career, both before, and after their confrontation with Ali, and how their fights with one of the most famous sportsmen in the world affected their own lives and careers.  It is interesting to see the often fascinating stories of these men’s own lives, and how Muhammad Ali has made an indelible mark upon each of them, both as fighters and as men.  A few of these men have fought Ali more than once in the ring, such as Cooper (2 times) Chuvalo (2 times) Joe Frazier (3 times) Joe Bugner (2 times) and Ken Norton (3 times.)

Each man in here has a story to tell, and they are all interesting stories in their own right, some, like Chuvalo’s, are tragic.  Brunt gives his subjects plenty of space to show the true depth of their personalities, and experiences, rather than simply making them into one dimensional cutouts of people, whose only point of interest is the night (or nights) that they crossed swords with Muhammad Ali.

Every fighter here has his own set of memories and views upon Ali. It is a curious aspect of Muhammad Ali’s character that, while he was renowned throughout his career for his often merciless taunting and clowning of his opponents, he did keep in contact, and in many cases, become friends with these men.  Save for the case of Joe Frazier, where a genuine case of animosity seemed to have developed from their meetings as opponents in the ring.

This book is recommended for those who are interested in seeing the boxing career of ‘The Greatest’ from a different and often thought provoking angle.

The most admirable aspect of this book is that Brunt allows these men to express their life stories in various ways that are not simply beholden to their fights with Ali.

First published in 2002, “Facing Ali” is another illustration of the inexhaustible material that exists about the life and fighting career of Muhammad Ali.  This is a new and fascinating angle, which shows us Ali from the perspective of his opposition, and gives us some enlightening anecdotes upon ‘The Greatest.’

Since the publication of this book, Lyle, Cooper, Norton, and Frazier have all passed away, making their contributions all the more poignant.  Once again Ali has upstaged his opponents, by surviving them.

Copyright © 2015 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com and www.theboxingtribune.com

Henry Cooper: The Tale of Enry’s Ammer

 

Remembering…Henry Cooper   May 3, 1934 - May 1, 2011

The Tale of Enry’s Ammer
By Peter Silkov

Few British sportsmen have enjoyed the popularity that Henry Cooper gained during his career.  “Our Enry” as Cooper was affectionately known by boxing fans, managed to transcend boxing and achieve the kind of lasting recognition and popularity that few other British fighters have come close to emulating, either before or since.  Cooper was one of only three people to win the BBC Sports personality of the year award twice (in 1967 and 1970.) He was also awarded an OBE in 1970, and in 2000, became the only boxer ever to receive a Knighthood. In terms of the popularity and recognition, which Cooper brought to the sport, and especially the domestic heavyweight division, few fighters have done more for the sport in this country during their careers. On pure ability, Cooper may not have been our greatest heavyweight ever, but he was actually a lot better than some people give him credit for being.

Style-wise, Cooper was a boxer-puncher, aggressive, with a crowd-pleasing mix of good boxing skill, and dynamite punching. Cooper was left-handed, which usually would have made him a southpaw boxer (meaning that he would fight with his right foot forward and leading with the right hand), but Southpaws were generally frowned upon in Copper’s era, especially heavyweight southpaws, so Copper was ’converted’ to an orthodox fighter. This resulted in Cooper developing a very formidable left jab and hook. His trademark punch was his left-hook, which he would fire in vicious uppercut-like swings. Cooper’s left-hook became known amongst his supporters as “Enry’s Ammer.” 

At around 185 to 190 pounds at his best, Cooper was never a very big heavyweight, but he compensated for this with good mobility and fast hands. He often had to give away weight during his career.

Henry Cooper was born on May 3, 1934, (along with his twin brother George) in Lambeth, London. Cooper excelled at sport and was soon learning to box along with his twin brother George. During an amateur career at Eltham Amateur Boxing Club, Cooper compiled a record of 73-11 and won the ABA light-heavyweight championship in 1952 and 1953, before turning professional in 1954, along with George (who fought under the name of Jim, as there was already a George Cooper boxing at heavyweight.)

Managed by the wily Jim Wicks, the Cooper's gained publicity early in their professional careers due to them being fighting twins. It soon became clear that of the two, Henry was the one with the most talent. George would suffer from cuts to an even greater degree than Henry, and he would never come close to achieving the success of his brother inside the ring. Success would not come easy to Henry either.  Following a promising start, where he went 14-2 in his first 2 years as a professional, Cooper went 1-5-1 in seven fights between late 1956 and early 1958. Included in this run of mostly defeats was three title fights in a row; all of which Cooper lost. 

On September 7, 1956, Peter Bates stopped Henry in the 5th round, due to a badly cut eyebrow. Cuts for Henry would prove to be his Achilles heel for the duration of his career.

Five months after his loss to Bates, Cooper challenged Joe Bygraves for the Commonwealth heavyweight championship, and was knocked in the 9th round. 3 months later, Cooper took on Ingemar Johansson for the European heavyweight title and was knocked out in the 5th round.  Four months after the loss to Johansson, on September 17, 1957, Cooper faced Joe Eskine and was out-pointed over 15 rounds.

Cooper was then 1-1-1 in his next three fights, including a disqualification defeat to Erich Schoppener. Such a run of defeats, especially at championship level would have been enough to finish many fighters, or at least reduce their championship ambitions.  Henry, however, bounced back with some of the best wins of his career, beating Dick Richardson and Zora Folley in late 1958. Cooper’s point’s victory over Folley on October 14, 1958, was one of the best results of his career, with Folley being one of the top heavyweights in the world, who at the time was being avoided by many of the other top heavyweights, including the world champion Floyd Patterson.

The victories over Richardson and Folley catapulted Henry right back into title contention, and on January 12, 1959, Cooper won the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles, when he beat Brian London on points after a bloody and brutal classic brawl. It was the beginning of Henry Cooper’s record breaking reign as British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion. He would defend the British title a record 10 times in the next 12 years, winning 3 Lonsdale belts in the process. In this time Cooper would also make 11 defences of the Commonwealth title, and win the European championship 3 times. Coopers exciting defences during the 60s brought a level of popularity and recognition to Britain’s domestic heavyweight scene, seldom seen before, or since. Cooper defended his titles against Joe Erskine, Dick Richardson, Brian London, Johnny Prescott, Jack Bodell, Karl Mildenberger, Jose Manuel Urtain, and Billy Walker. 

During this time, Cooper also took part in a number of non-title fights, suffering a set back in late 1961when he was knocked out in the 2nd round in a rematch with Zora Folley. Cooper, however, gained wins over Wayne Bethea, Roy Harris, and Alex Miteff.

On June 18, 1963, Cooper took on the rising star and future World heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (then still Cassius Clay), at Wembly Stadium, London. In what has become an iconic contest in British boxing folklore, Cooper floored Ali at the end of round 4, only to see the American saved by the bell. The fight was then ended in the next round when Ali launched a furious attack upon Cooper, forcing the referee to stop the contest due to Cooper badly cut left eye. Ever since it has been wondered what would have happened had Enry’s Ammer floored Ali earlier in the 4th round, rather than near the end of it? Certainly Cooper had Ali more hurt than just about anytime during his career, aside from his first fight with Joe Frazier when he was floored in the 15th and final round.

Cooper faced Ali for a second time, on June 21, 1966, at the Arsenal Football stadium, watched by a crowd of over 46,000. This time round, Ali boxed cautiously until he opened a cut over Cooper’s left eye in the 6th round, which led to the almost immediate stoppage of the fight, as Cooper’s eye gushed blood at an alarming rate. 

Henry’s fights with Ali cemented his popularity with the public and gained for him widespread respect within the boxing world.

On March 16, 1971, Cooper was controversially out-pointed by a young Joe Bugner, in a fight that still raises controversy today. Cooper had said before the fight that he would retire after it, win, lose, or draw. After a very close contest, the referee Harry Gibbs gave the fight to Bugner, and Cooper had lost his British, European, and Commonwealth heavyweight title. Cooper never did fight again, retiring with a final record of 40(27koes)-14-1.In his retirement, Cooper remained as popular as ever, often appearing as a pundit on boxing shows, as well as being involved in many other sporting and celebrity events, such as cricket and golf. 

Henry Cooper died on May 1, 2011.

Copyright © 2015 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com and www.theboxingtribune.com.