Years later Angelo Dundee admitted to cutting Ali's glove, and also used smelling salts between the 4th and 5th rounds, which was illegal! Cooper was underweight going into the fight, and put lead in his boots for the weigh in!
Ali had predicted winning in the 5th and played around too long, as he did in many of his fights, and was hit with what he said was the hardest punch he had ever been hit with,but true to his prediction, he came out in the 5th and ended it, with a serious cut over Coopers left eye. The second fight ended, I believe in the 6th with a cut over the same eye!

Try Specsavers they have a special offer on at the moment......you don't have to call me Your Lordship..... Mr Thirkill will suffice.......Tell me about when Henry Cooper flattened Cassius Clay and he was saved by the bell and then mysteriously Cassius Clay's glove magically split. This gave him time to recover, until new gloves were found, the split glove was never explained, do we think it was spit purposely to give Clay time to recover???????????.......YES...of course we do.......everybody did.....

I'm old enough to have seen Sandy Sadler and Willy Pepp fights, was at the Garden when Doug Jones beat Ali (then Clay). But boxing didn't need Jones, it did need Ali. There have been controversial calls in every sport in every age, i.e. Maradonna and the "Hand of God" in the World Cup. That happens and it's part of Sport. That being said, no controversey, there's only one undefeated Heavyweight Champ.

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Just to remind you, as I don'y know if you are old enough to remember this fiasco.......I remember it well....
Round 4 from 'Wikipaedia'
In the fourth round, with blood tricking down his face, Cooper continued with his aggressive tactics and started pursuing Ali who now started "fooling around", moving and throwing only intermittent punches at Cooper. Near the end of the round, Cooper threw three successive jabs as Ali stood against the ropes. Ali retreated further against the ropes when Cooper unleashed a left hook which struck Ali squarely on his jaw, lifting Ali on impact.[12] Two things happened simultaneously at this stage which saved Ali from a possible knockout. First, the round came to an end. Second, the ropes had cushioned Ali's fall. As Cooper later recalled:

The ropes let him down gentle. You went from the top, to the middle, to the bottom rope. Now, if that had been in the middle of the ring, and he'd gone down on his head, that would have shook him up. But unfortunately he was on the ropes. If that had just been off them bloody ropes.[13]

Round 4-Round 5 interval[edit]
Angelo Dundee had escorted Ali to his corner at the end of Round 4. Dundee then waved to referee Tommy Little and showed Little Ali's right glove which had apparently split down a seam revealing horsehair stuffing which could have injured Cooper's eyes. Officials were requested to obtain a new pair of gloves for Ali, and the resulting confusion led to the interval between round 4 and round 5 to be extended by 20 seconds which gave Ali extra time to recover.[12][14]

Cheers and Beers
Graham\098/