Cooper Next for Holyfield : Boxing: Damiani pulls out of Saturday’s heavyweight fight because of a foot injury.

Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield will fight Bert Cooper instead of Italian Francesco Damiani Saturday at Atlanta Saturday.

Damiani pulled out of the fight Saturday night because of a foot injury. Damiani suffered what was first described as an ankle injury while training Thursday, but later reports cited a bone-spur problem in a foot.

Duva said two orthopedic surgeons had told Damiani he was fit to fight.

But Damiani pulled out Saturday night, saying he was not “100%.”

Cooper thus becomes the second Holyfield challenger since former champion Mike Tyson bowed out of a Nov. 8 Las Vegas Holyfield match with a rib injury. Holyfield (26-0) against Cooper (26-7), in Atlanta’s Omni, appears to be an even bigger mismatch than Holyfield-Damiani. A short, muscular fighter, Cooper burst upon the boxing scene in 1986 when he upset unbeaten Olympic heavyweight champion Henry Tillman. He defeated another 1984 Olympian, Canadian Willie deWit, in 1987. But Cooper has been knocked out five times.