Frank Bruno was involved in some of the heavyweight division’s most famous fights during the eighties and nineties.
After a short amateur career which saw him win 20 fights and lose just once, Bruno turned pro in 1982 and in the first two years of prize fighting he knocked out all 21 of the men he faced, only twice fighting outside of his native London.
His first big test came at Wembley Arena against James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith and it ended with a knockout loss in the 10th and last round. Bruno rebuilt with four more wins and earned himself a first-world title shot.
WBA belt holder Tim Witherspoon was the man in the other corner and for many rounds, Bruno was on top, but was again caught late on and trapped in his corner leading his team to throw in the towel.
After beating Joe Bugner, he went into the first of two fights with Mike Tyson and landed plenty of his own big shots in a wild first round after being dropped but was eventually stopped himself in the fifth.
A similar fate befell him in the seventh round of his world title challenge against Lennox Lewis when he was stopped in the seventh but at the fourth and final time of asking, he finally became a world champion in 1995 after defeating Oliver McCall who had upset Lewis the year before.
Of all those men, it was ‘Bonecrusher’ that Bruno rated as the biggest puncher when speaking to The Ring Magazine.
“[James] Smith had a hard punch and he was strong. This was one of my hardest fights. I was quite young at the time and he was a lot older. I lost this fight outright but it gave me a lot of experience. I learned a lot from his punches and tried to use his style later on in my boxing.’
Bruno retired in 1996 after a rematch with Tyson who is making a controversial comeback this month against a man half his age in Jake Paul.
