In Boxing, name the referee who angered the crowd by giving the decision to Joe Bugner against Henry Cooper?
Harry Gibbs (referee) Harry Gibbs (referee) Harry Gibbs OBE (1920–1999) was an English boxing referee and judge. In a career spanning four decades, Gibbs took charge of numerous world title fights, and officiated in bouts involving Muhammad Ali, Roberto Durán, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson, Thomas Hearns, Mike Tyson, Barry McGuigan and Joe Frazier. He was the referee and sole judge of the fight between Henry Cooper and Joe Bugner in 1971, awarding the fight to Bugner by a quarter of a point, which remains one of the most controversial decisions in British boxing history. His name was put forward to be
Joe Bugner held in Kuala Lumpur, with Ali winning a relatively one-sided fifteen-round decision. Bugner performed fairly well, but maintained a strictly defensive posture throughout most of this fight, perhaps due to the blistering tropical heat, and as a result he was widely scorned by the media and public. In an interview during an April 2008 reunion with Henry Cooper, Bugner defended his tactics in the Ali fight as having been necessary due to the extreme temperature and humidity of the outside venue. Early in 1976, Bugner announced his retirement from boxing, stating that he no longer felt motivated to fight professionally.