I'm 49 years old, have been following boxing on and off for most of my life, and for whatever reason, I had never seen this fight until now. Holy sh!t.

Michael Moorer, at the end of round 1, gave Bert a pat on the butt as a sign of appreciation or respect 🙏 😊❤

Cooper was a stud. He always gave a good accounting for himself, win or lose. His fights against Holyfield and Mercer were epics.

One of the best. Round 4 of Foreman v Lyle is the best ever. Foreman down early, Lyle down seconds later, Foreman down again at the end of the round. Bar room brawl in a boxing ring.

Moorer's Light-Heavyweight career was terrifying! He was a monster.

Smokin Bert Cooper was no joke this guy fought everybody he was a gatekeeper for the division at that time when the heavyweight division meant something 👊👊

Incredible, seeing these two warriors, and knowing that an old George Foreman in his 40’s still was able to stop them both ! 😮

So underrated both of them. Especially Moorer, whom most people only remember for that big right hand from George Foreman.

Referee is Butterbean's father 😂

Great Respect at end of Round one 👍😊

Moorer and Cooper brought it every time out.

I remember watching Cooper vs. Mercer. What a war.

90’s heavyweight boxing was AMAZING!

Bert Cooper vs Holyfield was also an all out war. That fight was brutal.

I would've loved to see Bert Cooper v Alex Stewart

Michael Lee Moorer (born November 12, 1967) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2008. He won a world championship on four occasions in two weight classes, having held the WBO light heavyweight title from 1988 to 1991; compiling 22 straight KOs in 22 fights and the WBO heavyweight title from 1992 to 1993; the unified WBA, IBF and lineal heavyweight titles in 1994; and regained the IBF heavyweight title again from 1996 to 1997 becoming a three-time heavyweight world champion. Michael Moorer was an undefeated southpaw in his first 35 professional bouts. He captured the WBO light heavyweight title in 1988 which he defended 9 times. In 1991, Moorer moved up to Heavyweight winning the vacant WBO heavyweight title from Bert Cooper via TKO in 1992. He went on to beat Evander Holyfield for the unified WBA, IBF and lineal heavyweight titles in 1994. He remains the only southpaw to win the lineal world championship at heavyweight and the only light heavyweight world champion to win a heavyweight world title on more than one occasion. Moorer is only one of four boxers over the last century that has ever won a version of a world title at both light heavyweight and heavyweight along with Roy Jones Jr., Michael Spinks, and James Toney.

I'm 57 years old and this is still one of the best fights I've ever seen....

Puts the current crop of heavyweights to shame!

Good old Bert, he always gave his all. So near yet so far.

Moore should have got a belt just for actually knocking Bert Cooper down.

Those body shots Moorer was digging in to Cooper's ribs were brutal.

I don't know about the greatest, but I remember seeing this one live. Great round & great fight. Both guys could crack, even though they were small heavyweights.

Both Moorer and Bert Cooper deserve to be remembered 4 ever for their grit and toughness! They are a credit to their race,The Human Race

upload the whole fight please

Excellent first round

Cooper got greedy and paid the price 🥊

WOW .. 2 AWSOME Gladiators are just going for it .. Then they show respect to each other at the end of the round.. That's what I call good sporting boxers 👏 👏 👏

Incredible round! Wow! 🥊🥊🥊💥💥💥

The way Moorer fell in that first knockdown 😂

Awesome fight! Make boxing great again!

Nothing like the referee giving Moorer an extra 10 seconds recovery time after the knockdown.

Double M & Smokin Bert. Sensational first round, and one of the Great heavyweight slugfests.

TVKO with the illegal cable box those who knows remember I was watching all these classics fights growing up

Cooper would be world champion if was around today

That was awesome!

I had to work and couldn't watch it live. I knew it was gonna be a war.

This reminds me my sparring sessions. EVERYDAY.

That was a heck of a round

1:54 was that the donald on the left in the background?

The commentary team were calling this almost bang on!!

They're fighting like they are inside a phone booth - neither one is backing off

Great round AND a great ref.

That was, I feed, a hell-of-a Round #1. If I were to give it a title, it would be "Throwing Heavy Leather!"

Fun fact: Oliver McCall sparred against Mike Tyson and Cooper and he is on record as saying that Cooper actually hit harder than Tyson did! However, he also stated that Tyson's punches were much faster than Cooper's and that, I suppose, is the difference between mediocrity and greatness.

The ‘90s was the Golden Age of heavyweight boxing!

Great round, with both fighters going toe-to-toe. A very good pick for the 1st Round greatness in the Heavyweight Class. If we are talking 1st Round here the 1923 Dempsey vs. Firpo would be my selection. The grainy, hard to see video of the fight gives no justice to the "fistic hurricane" delivered by both fighters at various times in Round 1.Dempsey would finish Firpo off in Round 2 to end one of the greatest Heavyweight Fights in ring history. Today, a fight like this, would be called after the 3rd knockdown. Firpo was knocked down 8-times in that legendary Round 1before knocking Dempsey out of the ring onto the apron. With help (illegal as hell) from reporters covering the fight, Dempsey regained his feet in the ring. He looked like the Spanish Matador that has been wounded by a already wounded bull. Dempsey's fists became a blur as he drove Firpo back, back and back as the round ended. That round, that fight is legend now. Many boxing historians count this round as the "greatest ever" 1st Rounds in Heavyweight Boxing. Thank you for this rockem-sockem 1st Rounds throw down video between these two warriors.

I saw this live. Moorer was still adjusting to heavyweight at this point and it was a close call in this one. Moorer always had a shaky chin and he worked on protecting it more as his career went on.

I remember so well sitting down so many years ago back in 1987 with my roomate at the time Chris as our Canadian champ Willie de Wit was about to take on Bert Cooper, and both us took one look at Cooper and just said "Oh shit!". Our intincts were dead on as "Smokin Bert" was on another level and won by TKO. Moorer is one tough man to stand there and trade with this guy.

I remember watching this on PPV TVKO ! Great series ! Anyone remember ?

I always like Bert Cooper! He slugged with the best.

Bert Cooper was always entertainment to watch.

Good old fashioned slugfest 🥊🥊

Great round!

Bert cooper fought too many hard tough fights and didn’t really get the most out of boxing financially.

The light heavyweight champ moving up 40lbs to take on Smokin Bert.

I still think the first round of the Hagler Hearns fight was the best first round ever

This video is about the greatest 1st round in Heavyweight boxing, but the greatest round, which also happens to be the 1st round, in all of boxing history is considered by many to be the Hagler-Hearns fight in 1985. I was just looking up records for boxing and had never heard of the record for the longest fight in boxing history, which seems insane: "On April 6, 1893, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke fought the longest fight in history. Bowen had originally scheduled the fight with another opponent, however after dropping out of the fight, Jack Burke, who was the latter's trainer, fought the bout instead. The fight took place at the same Olympics Club Bowen had defended his title from Carroll. The fight lasted 110 rounds over seven hours and 19 minutes (each round lasting three minutes)." The story reported that the spectators that stuck around were falling asleep in their seats, and after the 108th round, the ref stated he would call the fight a no contest if no one won in the next two rounds. Well, neither fighter won over the next two rounds, and were too tired to come out of their corners, so the ref called it a no contest. Damn, that's crazy to think about.

Either of these men could easily be heavyweight champ today.

Moorer was a solid heavyweights but one of the best light heavyweights of all time!

Moorer is a very underrated boxer

1:53 trump at the back?

They was some heavy hands being let loose!

Frazier and team managed Cooper really badly. Cooper could have easily been a cruiserweight champion and with better building and management could have had better opportunities, though all that being said Cooper still always gave a warrior’s accounting of himself and still got to fight for the world title.

Wow!

I wonder if this is the same Smokin Bert Cooper that made UK hard house records in the late 90s early 2000s

Bert Cooper a true warrior, never ducked anyone and he fought Holyfield with one week notice, M. Moorer a tough fighter with heavy hands and the first southpaw heavyweight champion of the world

Jack Dempsey vs Luis Firpo 1923 round 1 has my vote.

Puts into perspective the heavyweight shit we watch today

Nice as hell but dempsey vs firp was just another thing

Wish there would have been another weight class from 200-220lbs

Take a look at Patterson v Johasson 3 . A championship fight with 3 knockdowns.

Who noticed young trump in the crowd?

The whole 5? rounds of this fight was great.

Really, did they forget about Dempsey-Firpo.

It would have been stopped after the first knockdown these days.

He took all them punches with no gumsheild in

Like something from a rocky movie two warriors

Most people have no idea how wicked Michael moorer was scary mofo

Lewis vs Golota was a great one round fight, even though it was all one sided.

The speed of the Cooper count in comparison to the Moorer one, corruption in boxing right there.

Why did the ref pull Cooper off Moorer before he hit the floor? It should've been a TKO win for Cooper.

Bert Cooper was always value for money, came out smoking every time.

Another great fight was Moore vs Stewart

In those days no one ducked a fight, they gave their all. Pity today’s primodonnas don’t do the same.

Yogi Bear on play-by-play.

Bert cooper was tough back then i see why he was a tough customer

Both these would absolutely destroy any of todays trash in the division.

Idk about “the greatest round” but that was a pretty exciting round FOR SURE!

Moore got at least 40 seconds break

Evander Holyfield versus Muhammad Quai although they were not heavyweights at the time but I call it the hardest fight ever fought

I remember back in my 20s watching this fight with such excitement because it was a very good first round. Now pause it at the time 1:55, and look at the audience to your left, you’ll see Trump (standing) in the audience just as excited watching this round.

20 sec count after first knock down ?

Ref saved Moorer's ass 3 times.

Great ref.

Totally mind-blowing to realise that Moorer was the very first southpaw to win a heavyweight world title! 😳

Loved smoking Burt Cooper 💜

Glad I'm 56

Many said Cooper was one of the hardest punchers they fought.

Hagler versus tommy hernes first round greatest round in historyHagler VS Tommy hernes first round greatest ground in history.

That first knock down was weird. I always thought if the ref stepped in like that it was automatically over. Was there a standing 8 rule?