It's 50 years since Henry Cooper floored the then Cassius Clay with 'Enry's 'Ammer. We recall a famous night and speak to Arthur Walsh who played a small part in boxing history.
Tuesday 18 June 2013 11:32, UK
It's 50 years since Henry Cooper floored Cassius Clay with 'Enry's 'Ammer. We recall a famous night.
Thirty-five thousand fans paid ticket prices ranging from 12/6 to £6.60 for the privilege of witnessing Henry Cooper's challenge to the precocious Cassius Clay at Wembley Stadium. But the fans also got 10 more fights for their money, with a number of relatively unsung undercard fighters unwittingly writing their own names in history by appearing on the famous card. The first fighter to take the ring was a Haslingden heavyweight called Arthur Walsh - billed as Steve Walsh due to a promotional error - who was taking on Londoner Al Roye as part of a £1000 tournament sponsored by Boxing News. Walsh said: "I didn't really get the chance to feel like I was playing my part in history. I was the first fight so I was really too tied up in my own thing. "Of course we were all looking forward to finding out how the fight went. You could sense the anticipation at the weigh-in where there were thousands of people present and all surrounding him. "Clay had been his usual self, yapping away to everyone, and they all loved it. He seemed like a nice man. Of course nobody gave Henry the slightest chance - they all thought Clay was a certain winner. "I was back in the dressing room when they fought. I heard this almighty roar, and saw that Cooper had knocked Clay on his arse. Of course we know what happened next. It gives me some pride that I was part of that night." Walsh lost a three-round points verdict to Roye, but returned later that same night for his second bout, which he won on points against a Leicester heavyweight called Mick Basten. Walsh fought three more times in his career, finishing in 1964 with a record of nine wins and nine defeats. He went on to play a big part in the running of the Sharples Amateur Boxing Club close to his home. Cooper and Clay would meet again in a rematch in 1966. But in the immediate aftermath of their first meeting, their fortunes would dramatically diverge. His victory over Cooper earned Clay a straight shot at reigning world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, while Cooper was forced to rebuild on the domestic scene. It could all have been so different had Clay not gained the time to recover from the fifth round blow from the Londoner. As The Times from June 18, 1963 recalled: "The gods of sport played cruelly with Henry Cooper, heavyweight champion of Britain and the Empire, at the Empire Stadium, Wembley, last night. They taunted him and 50,000 chauvinistic spectators with the hope of victory for 12 minutes' exciting boxing and then they turned down their thumbs. Cooper, his face a mask of blood from an injury by his left eye, was sent to his corner after 1min, 15 sec of the fifth round. "Cooper lost through injuries by his fragile eyebrows, as so many of us had expected, but before he left the ring, his head swathed in towels, he had given quite the best performance of his career and sent home many experienced American observers conscious that here was no hollow British champion and here was no invincible Cassius Clay. "Even many minutes after the gladiators had left the great oval, amid boos and cheers, we have to force ourselves to believe that we saw Clay flat on his broad back at the end of the fourth round, but to Cooper's everlasting glory, it had happened. A perfectly timed left hook caught the American with his hands low once too often and Clay went stumbling back to the ropes directly above me. His back bounced on to the ropes and then he came down first on the seat of his trunks and then on his back with his head resting against the bottom rope. "The picture seemed framed for ever. There lay Clay and above him crouched the referee beginning to toll off the seconds. Cooper was in the background, eyes staring out from a face that was a mixture of white, taut skin and smears of blood. But it all turned to mirage as the timekeeper clanged the bell and Clay lumbered to his feet towards the shelter of his corner. "In cold fact the referee had counted only one when the bell brought the end of the round. But the referee, Mr T. Little, ignoring the wave of cheering that burst around the ring, rightly continued his count up to four before Clay was on his feet again. But however short this high point of excitement for Britain there should be no doubt that Clay was caught and dazed by a good punch. Dazed enough, we can always hope, for Cooper to have taken more advantage of the situation if there had been more time to do so."