Frank Bruno fought heavyweight greats like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, but named neither as the hardest puncher he ever faced.
Bruno remains a much-loved British sports personality. He famously had four attempts at becoming a world champion and finally did so at the last time of asking against Oliver McCall in 1995 when he beat the American via unanimous decision at Wembley Stadium.
Before that, he had challenged Tyson for the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles in 1989 but suffered a fifth round stoppage defeat in Las Vegas.
Four years later in 1993 in Cardiff at the National Stadium, he was knocked out by Lewis in another WBC world title fight. In amongst those nights, he racked up plenty of wins against the likes of Carl Williams, Jesse Ferguson and Joe Bugner.
Speaking on BizX | The UK’s Biggest Business Event, Bruno was asked who the most powerful man that he ever faced was, and he didn’t go with the traditional big hitters of the division.
“A guy called Tim Witherspoon that I fought. Yeah, 15 rounds he was a dangerous man.”
Bruno faced Witherspoon, who was a regular sparring partner for Muhammad Ali, in July 1986 in what was his first world title attempt. He lost by 11th round stoppage and just a few months later, Witherspoon himself lost the title to James “Bonecrusher” Smith.
Bruno retired aged 35 after 45 fights, with 40 wins, and his final fight being a second world title loss to ‘Iron Mike’ in 1996, which he has since admitted was a “stupid” fight to have taken.
