Boxing legend Henry Cooper dies

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Boxing legend Henry Cooper dies

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Former British heavyweight champion Sir Henry Cooper died at the age of 76.

03 May,2011 04:57 am

The heavyweight was best known for knocking down a young Cassius Clay in 1963, in a fight which many commentators believed he should have won.In 1970, Sir Henry become the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion, and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest post-war home-grown boxers.He remains the only boxer to have won three Lonsdale belts outright. He was the first sportsman to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award twice (in 1967 and 1970. Cooper retired from the ring in 1971 after a defeat to Joe Bugner.He passed away at his son s house at Oxted in Surrey, Southern England, just two days short of his 77th birthday.