Not only did his opponent have home advantage, but charismatic promoter Rino Tommasi, who had previously been a star tennis player and went on to become an esteemed commentator, had a word of warning.
Of the 24 European title fights he had staged at the famed Palazzo Dello Sport, an Italian had won 23 of them.
The odd one out was Tomasso Galli, who was controversially awarded a draw against Scotsman Walter McGowan despite being thoroughly out-boxed.
But it took more than that to scare ‘our ‘Enry’, who in his own inimitable style, shrugged: “This Dutch geezer they’ve got as the referee seems fair enough to me.
“I don’t expect no funny business. I reckon I can win on me merits.”
Now Cooper may not have been renowned for speaking ‘proper English’, but he was a proper heavyweight.
And true to his prediction, he beat Tomasoni on his merits and then some.
In front of a stunned Rome crowd, Cooper knocked out the home favourite after just five rounds, retaining his crown in style.
Henry Cooper famously knocked down Muhammad Ali during the pair’ iconic bout at Wembley in 1963, but despite his eventual defeat, the Brit remained a force in the ring throughout the decade. (Image: PA)
He held the title until his final bout, an entertaining points defeat to Joe Bugner at Wembley in 1971.
Cooper’s stunning knockout of Tomasoni was no doubt in the mind of Bradford favourite Richard Dunn ahead of one of his greatest victories.
Almost exactly seven years after Cooper destroyed home hopes in Rome, Dunn was taking on the popular, good-looking and heavily-fancied German Bernd August for the European Heavyweight crown.
While the bout took place in London, essentially it was meant to act as homecoming preparation for August.
The winner of this bout was to take on the great Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight crown in Munich the following month.
The fact it was scheduled to be held in the famous German city tells you all you need to know: Dunn was supposed to be there only to make August look good.
But the tall and handsome youngster was dismantled by the hard-nosed West Yorkshire scaffolder.
Dunn showed the best of Britain that night, with August failing to find an answer to his opponent’s flying fists, as he was stopped after just three rounds.
It was the high point of Dunn’s fine career, as he was stopped by Ali in Munich, before losing his European title that October after being knocked out at Wembley.
And guess who took that crown off him? None other than Joe Bugner, of course.