Venue: Clemente Coliseum, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. 20th February, 1976.
Muhammad Ali followed one of
his most sublime fights with one of his most ridiculous, against
the Belgian heavyweight champion Jean-Pierre Coopman. Being
heavyweight champion of Belgium was a bit like being the best
darts player in Finland: all very well but no ringing endorsement
of ability. As Howard Bingham put it: “by all accounts
he was a very nice man. He just couldn’t fight.”
For Ali the bout was a little light relief, a breather before
projected rematches with George foreman and ken Norton. For
Coopman it was as though one of the religious statues he carved
for a living had come to life and blessed him.
At the press conference to announce the fight, Coopman was
so pleased to meet his hero he kept trying to kiss him.
“get this guy away from me,” Ali said. “how
am I supposed to get mad at him?”
soon Coopman had a new nickname, too, the lion of Flanders,
dreamed up by the American manager who had made the fight,
George Kanter. Kanter’s imagination was further taxed
when everyone arrived in Puerto Rico. He organized some sparring
against a washed up fighter who hadn’t been in a ring
for seven or eight years. The guy smashed Coopman all over
the place. Kanter declared that all Coopman’s future
workouts would be closed as he had a “secret plan “
to defeat Ali.
Desperate for a hook to sell the fight, Kanter found a voodoo
witch doctor who he claimed would help Coopman win. It turned
out the Belgian believed in witches and was delighted to play
along as he was put into a deep hole and had water poured
over him. Eleven thousand people turned up to watch the bout,
a tribute to Ali’s appeal after the Frazier fight. Kanter
went into Coopman’s dressing room to discover his man
drinking champagne and kissing his wife so delighted was he
to be facing Ali.
When the fight started, Ali went into his usual clinch to
test out his opponent’s strength. When he came out of
it, he was laughing, he leaned over the ropes and said to
one of the TV broadcasters. “You guys in are trouble.
Ain’t no way you’re gonna get all your commercials
in.”
Ali somehow kept Coopman upright until the fifth round. As
George Kanter remembered: “he was the happiest loser
I ever saw.”
Watch Muhammad Ali video action from the Coopman fight:
