by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former British, European and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Sir Henry Cooper has criticized the antics of fellow Briton David Haye who battles IBF/IBO champion Wladimir Klitschko on June 20.
Cooper told BBC Sport, Haye’s antics are “bad for the reputation of boxing.”
He was referring in particular to Haye wearing T-shirts depicting him holding the severed heads of Wladimir and his brother, WBC champion Vitali.
Cooper who recently celebrated his 75th birthday said “the sport has already got enough opposition in the anti-boxing lobby” and told BBC Sport that Haye had “overstepped the mark with that T shirt.”
He said he believes Haye is driving fans away despite reports that some 50,000 tickets had already been sold for the title fight which will be held in the football stadium in Germany.
Sir Henry challenged Haye to “prove how good you are in the ring by stopping Klitschko in one or two rounds.”
While Cooper is upset over Haye’s behavior outside the ring he thinks highly of the former cruiserweight champion as a fighter saying “out of all the heavyweight contenders he’s got the most potential. He moves well and looks good. He has a good punch and he is the right weight foir a heavyweight and is more mobile than most.”
Cooper also noted that Haye is not a fighter “who takes punches to land his own.”
Cooper fought Muhammad Ali twice and was stopped in both fights because of bad cuts.
In his first battle with Ali over ten rounds on June 18, 1963 Cooper lost by a 5th round TKO when the bout was stopped due to cuts from which Cooper was bleeding badly. However, before the fifth round stoppage Cooper had dropped Ali with a left hook in round four.
In their rematch for the world heavyweight title on May 21, 1966 Cooper again lost, this time by a 6th round TKO when the referee stopped the fight because of a bad cut over Cooper’s left eye.
