Summary
The date is June 18 1963, the final seconds of the fourth round of a boxing match. In the ring, Henry Cooper, eight years older and 26 pounds lighter than his opponent, Cassius Clay. And then Cooper hits Clay, just as the bell rings.
Des Lynam was Henry Cooper's boxing co-commentator for many years. He nominates our 'Enery - or Lord 'Enery as he became - as the representative of a different era of sporting prowess. Winner of three Lonsdale belts, but never world champion himself, Henry Cooper is always remembered for his two fights with Cassius Clay, later Muhammed Ali. The programme features archive of the first of those fights, plus the voice of Cooper's famous manager, the Bishop, also known as Jim Wicks. Expert opinion is provided by Norman Giller, author of Henry Cooper: A Hero For All Time.
The presenter is Matthew Parris, the producer Miles Warde.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
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| 0:41.0 | What if? |
| 0:42.0 | Two small words. |
| 0:45.0 | And yet lives are so often defined by them. |
| 0:47.4 | In politics, in business, and particularly in relationships. |
| 0:51.1 | We all sometimes wonder, what if I had acted differently? |
| 0:55.0 | What if the stars had been differently aligned? |
| 0:57.8 | Would the outcome still have been the same? |
| 1:00.6 | And then the sport. |
| 1:02.1 | And today's great life is a sportsman, a boxer, a man who came to be loved in part by his |
| 1:08.3 | what-if moment. |
| 1:10.6 | Sport has perhaps the most what-ifs of all, bad refereeing decisions, penalties that hit the post, |
| 1:16.4 | racing cars that run out of fuel on the final lap. |
| 1:20.4 | The date is June the 18th, 1963, the place Wembley Stadium, the |
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