Bert Cooper

Bert Cooper
Data
Birth Name	Bertram Blair Cooper
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	January 10, 1966
place of birth	Sharon Hill
Date of death	May 10, 2019
style	Left delivery
size	1.81 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	59
Victories	36
Knockout victories	30th
Defeats	22nd

Bert Cooper (* 10. January 1966 in Sharon Hill , Pennsylvania as Bertram Cooper Blair ; † 10. May 2019 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania) was an American boxer .

Professional career

In 1984 Cooper became a professional cruiserweight . He called himself Smokin ' after his mentor Joe Frazier , but in contrast to the fitness miracle Frazier, he did not have a lot of stamina due to a lack of exercise diligence, so that the battle name, because of Cooper's persistent drug problems, aroused other associations with many journalists.

After ten wins, nine of them prematurely, he went KO against Reggie Gross in 1986. In the same year he met the undefeated Olympic champion Henry Tillman , knocked him down twice and won on points. Cooper had a famous right batting hand with which he also defeated the Los Angeles silver medalist, the also undefeated Canadian Willie DeWitt , with a technical knockout in the second round. It was DeWitt's only professional defeat in 22 fights.

In 1987 he tried his hand at the heavyweight division for the first time and boxed against Carl Williams , but lost again prematurely. His drug problems got worse and he left Frazier as manager.

In 1988 and 1989 he lost two more cruiserweight classes and then stayed in the heavyweight division for good. He gave up against George Foreman in June 1989 after the second round. Since Cooper tested positive in the doping test, the commission imposed a higher penalty than his purse. He was able to defeat Orlin Norris prematurely in 1990 when he twisted his knee. In the same year he was defeated by Ray Mercer on points and Riddick Bowe by knockout in the second round.

In 1991 Cooper defeated southpaw Joe Hipp , then 21-1, by breaking off due to a swollen eye, but was far from world class. Since the fight between Evander Holyfields and Mike Tyson, which was planned at the time, was canceled due to his injury and Holyfield then wanted to box a smaller, more powerful opponent who should be stylistically similar to Tyson, Cooper got a rather undeserved title chance: On November 23, 1991, he boxed for the combined titles from WBA and IBF . But Cooper surprised and was not as hopeless as generally expected. Although he was knocked to the ground by Holyfield in the first round, he managed to knock down the world champion, famous for his taker skills, for the first time in his career, but then lost in round seven through a technical knockout.

A second fight on May 15, 1992 against Michael Moorer for the vacant WBO title became even more famous ; both boxers were twice on the ground in a wild exchange of blows before Moorer achieved an early victory in the fifth round.

In 1997 Cooper won the fight against Richie Melito by knockout in the first round. It was nominally about the vacant WBF world championship title. Subsequently, Cooper never competed in a big fight again and mostly served as a build- up opponent for emerging talent. He was defeated in the following years against, among others, the 41-year-old Mike Weaver and against Corrie Sanders , Larry Donald , Chris Byrd , Derrick Jefferson , Fres Oquendo and Joe Mesi . In 2002 he ended his career.

Cooper died on May 10, 2019 at the age of 53 at his Philadelphia home of complications from pancreatic cancer .

Web links

• Bert Cooper in the BoxRec database
• Article (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Sandomir: Bert Cooper, Boxers Who Knocked Down Holyfield, Dies at 53. In: The New York Times , May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.