Skip to main content
Kill The Body

and the head will die

Henry Cooper vs Wayne Bethea — record, stats and common opponents compared

🇬🇧HEAVYWEIGHT

Henry Cooper

Wayne Bethea

Henry Cooper (40-14-1) and Wayne Bethea (5-10-1 across 16 tracked bouts) are compared on record, finishing method, activity, and common opponents on Kill The Body. The two have met once. They share 3 common opponents.

Cooper

40

Wins27 KO · 68%

14

Losses

1

Draw55 tracked bouts

Bethea

Tracked record

5–10–1

counted from 16 bouts Kill The Body has ingested

Heads up: at least one of these records is a tracked record — the wins and losses Kill The Body has ingested so far, not an independently verified career total. Treat the comparison as a read on the bouts we hold, not a settled ledger.

Head to Head

Cooper leads 1–0

Henry Cooper and Wayne Bethea have met 1 time; Cooper leads 1–0.

Henry Cooper and Wayne Bethea have met 1 time; Cooper leads 1–0.
Met1962Feb 26Series
Henry CooperFighter AWWon1–0W–L
Wayne BetheaFighter BLLost0–1W–L
ResultPTS1Meeting

The Numbers

Cooper 5 · Bethea 1 of 6 measurable rows
CooperBethea
Record†
40-14-1 (edge)5-10-1
Win %0–100%
73.6% (edge)
34.4%
Wins by knockoutmax 27
27 (edge)
2
KO ratenot comparable
67.5%—
Stoppage rate (tracked wins)‡0–100%
68% (edge)
40%
Times stopped‡max 8
8
1 (edge)
Title reignslevelmax 0
0
0
Bouts per year§max 3.3
3.3 (edge)
2.2
Bouts trackedcoveragemax 55
55
16

† One or both records are tracked, not career-verified. · ‡ Counted from bouts Kill The Body has ingested, not a career total. · § Across each fighter's tracked career span. · Bars are scaled per row — percentages on 0–100, counts against the larger of the two. Every figure is also printed as text.

Tale of the Tape

Heightnot held
Henry Cooper: 6′2″
Wayne Bethea: No height on file
Reachnot held
Henry Cooper: 75″
Wayne Bethea: No reach on file
Agenot held
Henry Cooper: Died aged 76
Wayne Bethea: No date of birth
Stance
Henry Cooper: Orthodox
Wayne Bethea: Not recorded

Henry Cooper left, Wayne Bethea right, as everywhere on this page. Age is stated, not scored — neither age nor stance carries an edge.

How They Win

Tracked bouts only
Henry Cooper40 wins · from 55 tracked bouts

Henry Cooper: 40 tracked wins — 27 by KO/TKO (68%), 11 on the cards (28%) and 2 by another method or unrecorded (5%). Counted from 55 bouts Kill The Body has ingested.

27 by KO/TKO 68%11 on the cards 28%2 by another method or unrecorded 5%

Wayne Bethea5 wins · from 16 tracked bouts

Wayne Bethea: 5 tracked wins — 2 by KO/TKO (40%) and 3 on the cards (60%). Counted from 16 bouts Kill The Body has ingested.

2 by KO/TKO 40%3 on the cards 60%

One square per tracked win. Counted from the bouts Kill The Body has ingested for each fighter — Henry Cooper 55, Wayne Bethea 16 — not from a career-complete method table.

Common Opponents

3 shared

3 shared · Cooper better on 2 · Bethea better on 1

Cooper

Opponent

Bethea

  • Henry Cooper

    Win, DQ

    1968

    MildenbergerCooper better

    Wayne Bethea

    0–2 against

    Loss, PTS

    1963

    Loss, PTS

    1961

  • Henry Cooper

    1–1 against

    Loss, KO 9

    1957

    Win, PTS

    1955

    BygravesBethea better

    Wayne Bethea

    2–0 against

    Win, UD

    1962

    Win, TKO

    1956

  • Henry Cooper

    1–1 against

    Loss, KO 2

    1961

    Win, PTS

    1958

    FolleyCooper better

    Wayne Bethea

    0–2 against

    Loss, SD

    1957

    Loss, SD

    1956

Both sides are set at the same size on purpose. Kill The Body does not score a second-round knockout above a split decision — the edge counts losses first and wins as the tiebreak, and the rest is yours to argue. Shared opponents are matched on fighter identity, not on name, so two different fighters with the same name never merge into one row.

Current Form

Oldest left · newest right

Henry Cooper had won four in a row before losing a decision to Joe Bugner. Cooper last boxed on Mar 16, 1971.WWWWL

Mildenberger Sep 1968Tomasoni Mar 1969Bodell Mar 1970Urtain Nov 1970Bugner Mar 19713.3 tracked bouts per year

Wayne Bethea last boxed on Jul 6, 1963 — 23,116 days ago. Bethea had lost the most recent, to Karl Mildenberger.LWWDL

Cooper Feb 1962Bygraves Sep 1962Piccoli Mar 1963Rinaldi Apr 1963Mildenberger Jul 19632.2 tracked bouts per year

Common Questions

With the rows behind them
Have Henry Cooper and Wayne Bethea ever fought each other?
Yes. Henry Cooper and Wayne Bethea met once on February 26, 1962, and Henry Cooper won by PTS.
The meeting

WFeb 26, 1962 · Cooper · PTS

Head to Head ↓
Who has the better record, Cooper or Bethea?
Henry Cooper is 40-14-1 and Wayne Bethea is 5-10-1 across the 16 bouts Kill The Body has tracked. Henry Cooper has the higher win percentage. Records shown as tracked have not yet been independently verified as complete career totals.
Records · win %

Cooper40–14–173.6%

Bethea5–10–134.4%

The Numbers ↓
Who has more knockouts, Cooper or Bethea?
Henry Cooper has 27 knockout wins and Wayne Bethea has 2. Henry Cooper has more.
Knockout wins · KO rate

Cooper2767.5%

Bethea2

The Numbers ↓
Do Cooper and Bethea have any common opponents?
Henry Cooper and Wayne Bethea share 3 common opponents: Karl Mildenberger, Joe Bygraves and Zora Folley. Henry Cooper fared better against 2 of them.
3 shared opponents

Karl MildenbergerWL

Joe Bygraves1–1W

Zora Folley1–1L

Common Opponents ↓
How much fight data does Kill The Body have on Cooper and Bethea?
This comparison is drawn from 55 bouts tracked for Henry Cooper and 16 bouts tracked for Wayne Bethea. Method and activity splits reflect those bouts only.
Bouts tracked · no edge

Cooper55bouts

Bethea16bouts

How They Win ↓

Compare someone else

6 suggested matchups

Compare Cooper with…

Compare Bethea with…

Someone else?

Release either fighter to put someone new in that slot — the other one stays put.