World class trainer and former fighter Dewey “Black Kobra” Cooper is a man of many talents. He has competed in boxing, kickboxing and MMA and has good insight of each combative sport from first hand experience.
Cooper competed on in K-1 kickboxing and almost won the 2004 heavyweight grand prix but lost in the finals to Michael McDonald. He studied boxing under Jeff Mayweather and had a few mixed martial arts bouts before finally focusing on training young up and coming fighters.
Some of the notable fighters Cooper has trained or worked with are Daniel Strauss, Sanjar Rakhmanov, Roy Nelson, John Alessio, Kevin Lee, Jessica Rakoczy, Jessie Vargas, Beibut Shumenov, Francis Ngannou, Makhmud Muradov.
Cooper shared his opinion with boxing reporter Constantino Garcia of The Ring on the difference in punching power between a mixed martial arts fighter and a boxer.
The trainer said that Floyd Mayweather who isn’t known as a knockout artist in boxing would have more punching power than UFC star Conor McGregor. Cooper said people laughed at his statement but had the last laugh when the two fought in 2017 under boxing rules with Conor landing his hardest uppercut on the much smaller Mayweather and not even wobbling him. Mayweather was able to take the punches of McGregor, who was hyped up as a vicious knockout artist during the pre-fight build up, and eventually hurt and stopped him in the 10th round by TKO.
“Conor (McGregor) landed a flush uppercut on Floyd (Mayweather), and Floyd laughed at it,” Cooper told The Ring Digital. “I train both mixed martial artists and boxers on the UFC level and the world championship boxing level. There are only a few MMA fighters with boxing punching power like Francis Ngannou. Very few mixed martial artists have the same punching power as boxers especially when you go on the world class level of boxing. A world class boxers punching power is much greater because they really harnessed their skills, their hips, the whole body movement it’s no comparison, it’s ridiculous.”
Cooper also claims that the much smaller Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao would finish the UFC fighter if he dare step into the boxing ring with him.
“Pacquiao would definitely stop Conor for sure,” said Cooper. “Pacquiao hits too hard. Too Awkward. Too Aggressive. Feet too fast. Conor couldn’t hurt Manny anyway. Pacquiao has a titanium chin.”
Cooper has a history with Manny Pacquiao, having trained WBO world welterweight champion Jessie Vargas against him in 2016. Vargas would lose a decision and his belt to the Filipino champion, but Cooper has remained a huge fan of the 41-year-old Filipino southpaw.
