Henry Cooper, boxing great, dies aged 76

(POPPERFOTO/GETTY)

Sir Henry Cooper, the British boxing legend who once floored Muhammad Ali with his celebrated left hook, has died aged 76.

Born in south-east London and known to everyone in boxing and beyond as "Sir Enery", he remained one of the country's most popular sporting figures until his death yesterday at his son's house in Oxted, Surrey.

Last night, David Haye, the current WBA world heavyweight champion, paid tribute to Cooper as a "true warrior and great human being".

Cooper's most famous moment came at a packed Wembley Stadium on 18 June 1963 against Cassius Clay, as Ali was then known, when he sent the man who would go on to become the world's most famous fighter crashing to the canvas. But the fight was to end in a controversial defeat.

The punch that for many defined Cooper's career came just seconds before the bell sounded at the end of the fourth round. The American then gained vital extra time to recover, thanks to a split glove – damage inflicted deliberately by his trainer, Angelo Dundee. When the fighters resumed hostilities, Clay targeted a cut on Cooper's left eye – his biggest weakness was that he bled all too easily – and the same round the referee stopped the contest.

"I've had dinner with Angelo a couple of times," Cooper told The Independent in 2003, "and he told me there was no way Cassius could have gone on, but on the thumb of his right-hand glove he saw that the stitching had stretched, so he ripped it with his thumb nail, then called the referee over. After that fight, they always kept a second pair of gloves under the ring, but they didn't then. The referee had to send someone to the dressing room, 150 yards away, and by the time he got back, Clay's had a two-minute interval, which is all a fit man needs." Despite that loss, few figures from any sport can lay claim to the kind of respect earned in a losing cause as Cooper found that night.

In 1966 he was again defeated by Ali – who by then had changed his name, claimed the world heavyweight title and felt sufficiently bullish to call Cooper a "bum" – at Arsenal FC's Highbury stadium. Once more, Cooper's cuts were to blame for bringing the fight to an early close, this time in the sixth round.

But Cooper went on to become the British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion, and in 1970 won his second BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. In doing so, he became the first of only three people who have claimed the prize twice, having already taken it in 1967, further helping to establish his reputation as one of Britain's finest boxers. He was awarded the OBE in 1969 and was knighted in 2000.

Later in life, he was known for fronting a campaign encouraging pensioners to have a flu vaccine. The slogan was "Don't get knocked out by flu. Get your jab in first."