The second time Muhammad Ali was ever put on the floor was at the hands of an Englishman called Henry Cooper during their first encounter in 1963.
The pair fought two times in total, however it’s Cooper’s left hook that is remembered by many in the UK and was his claim to fame for quite some time afterwards.
At the time, Cooper did not have a trainer and was considerably under-weighed in comparison with Ali, with a story going around mentioning he had to put lead in his boots at the weigh-in to make sure he was over the light-heavyweight limit and actually qualified as a heavyweight for the fight.
Towards the very end of the fourth round, Cooper unleashed a ferocious left hook that decked Ali who partially grabbed the ropes on his way down which took a lot of the brunt out of his fall, paritcularly if you consider if he had hit his head off the canvas of ring aprons as stirdy as they were in those days, he could have easily been knocked out.
Ali then staggered to his corner in some questionable proceeding circumstances that essentially allowed for a long count, ultimately allowing him to regain his surroundings after the heavy knockdown.
Ali then went on to stop Cooper in the fight after recovering, and beat him again three years later in 1966.
However many years after that went by without the two crossing paths again, with the story of Cooper becoming the second man ever to put Ali on the seat of his pants growing in it’s legend – as Ali’s career went on to become what it did.
When they did finally meet up, it was a truly special moment:
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