Ali’s easy-money fight

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34046, 9 January 1976, Page 3

Ali’s easy-money fight

(By

DAVE ANDERSON.

'. of the "New York Times,” through N.Z.P.A.)

NEW YORK. He didn’t roar. He didn’t even growl. About all the Lion of Flanders did was smile and wink. He winks with his left eye, perhaps with more coordination than he throw’s his left hook. His name is Jean-Pierre Coopman. a 29-year-old sculptor of religious statues who is the Belgian heavyweight champion. That’s not much of a title. Only five licensed Belgian heavyweights exist. He has a 24-3 won-lost record, including 15 knock-outs. The numbers are more imoressive than the names of

The numbers are more impressive than the names of his opponents. More impressive than his reputation too.

Muhammad Ali even called him “Cooperman” yesterday in Mamma Leone’s restaurant at a chaotic promotional luncheon for their world heavy-weight title fight in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on February 20, unless the zookeepers of the world unite to protect an endangered species.

Ali’s presence created the chaos, not Jean-Pierre Coopman’s debut. Without fluency in English, the Lion of Flanders smiled and winked throughout the minestrone and roast beef.

He’s a friendly lion, quite tame with a mane of wavy brown hair, a thin moustache, long thick sidebums, and a pink-cheeked face. In a red Xie and a brown blazer with a Flemish crest, he resembled a lion who had escaped from a prep school instead of a gym. His most encouraging reference is a nose that swerves to the left half way down. “Why,” a Romantic asked, “is he called the Lion of Flanders?” “Because,” said his American boxing ambassador George Kanter, “the Flemish flag has a lion on it.” “But the crest on his blazer,” the Romantic said, “has an eagle.” If that’s a non-sequitur, it reflects Jean-Pierre Coopman’s role as a challenger for the world heavy-weight title. But it didn't prevent Ali or other members of Don King Productions, Ali’s promoter, from trying to establish the Lion’s credibility. After all, if C.8.5.-TV is to persuade sponsors to spend SUSI2O,OOO for each commercial minute in order to provide Ali with about slm and the Lion with perhaps $lOO,OOO, the Lion’s credibility must be established even if his ability isn’t. “Those ‘bums’ give him balance,” Al Braverman was

saying. “And he’s got a pair of legs like Villemain: he’ll be there, he’ll be there.”

More than two decades ago Robert Villemain was a French middle-weight with a reputation for having a better pair of legs than hands.

“We saw the Lion in the gym yesterday,” Paddy Flood was saying. “He looks like he’s got a good chin. He looks like a great absorber.” That’s absorber, as in absorber of punishment. Even though they are on Don King’s staff, Al Braverman and Paddy Flood, each a boxing manager, couldn’t build up the Lion too much or their own credibility would suffer. But now the Lion was on his feet, smiling and winking, while George Kanter repelled attacks on the challenger’s credentials by various European boxing organisations. Kanter branded it a “smear” campaign. When asked earlier about the Lion having been quoted two weeks ago as saying: “I don’t think I have much of a chance,” Kanter huffed and puffed, in his French accent. “He has come to win,” Kanter said of his 6ft, 2021 b boxer, ranked the No. 1 contender to Joe Bugner, the now retired European champion. “He doesn’t intend to

try and stay the 15 rounds. He will walk forward from the start. He will never take a step back. He predicts he will win.”

And now Kanter was saying, “After he has beaten Muhammad Ali, he will be glad to give him a return in Brussels under the promotion of Don King,” but nearby Ali wasn’t even paying attention. But when Kanter prolaimed. “Jean-Pierre’s idol is Joe Frazier and he will avenge him,” Ali heard it and reacted.

“After he reads this,” the champion said, handing the Lion a copy of his autobiography, “I’ll be his idol.” With a big smile, the Lion accepted the book and leaned over, as if to kiss the champion. Ali recoiled. “But why do they always want me to fight for my life?” Ali was saying now, defending his right to an easymoney fight following his brutal epic with Frazier nearly four months ago. “Floyd Patterson once fought Pete Rademacher, an amateur in his first pro fight, but that was all right. Floyd Patterson was a good boy, but I’m a bad nigger. “George Foreman fought Joe (King) Roman—who’s he? Ain’t nobody banned it. Ain’t nobody wanted to stop it. Joe Frazier fought TerryDaniels, a college student, and he fought Ron Stander, a beer-bellied boy from Omaha, and nobody stopped it.

“But everybody wants me to fight for my life. I got Ken Norton and George Foreman ahead of me. Let me have a little rest in between.” Fair enough. But then Ali began to put down the Lion, who was smiling up at him because he couldn’t understand the words.

“He’s a ‘white hope’, he’s the best in Europe,” Ali said. “This is an embarrassment for the best white man in Europe to meet that nigger. He’s the best in Belgium, in Austria, in Czechoslovakia, in Russia, in Spain—is Spain white?” In the back of the room, George Gainford stared at the Lion of Flanders.

“I saw him fight once,” said Gainford, who once handled Sugar Ray Robinson. “He can punch pretty good. He’s a game guy.” “But can he fight?” a Realist asked.

“I don’t want to say anything,” George Gainford said, “that would hurt the promotion.”