Rear View Mirror – Frank Bruno
“Bruuuuuno! Bruuuuuno! Bruuuuuuno!“
It was a chant that was heard from television sets up and down the United Kingdom, produced by fervent boxing crowds in halls every time that Frank Bruno put his foot on canvas in a square ring.
We had a firm favourite in the heavyweight division that we wanted to be at the pinnacle of his powers because he was a devastating puncher and our great hope for a world title. That he eventually got a world title was a cause of huge celebration not just because for us we felt that Frank Bruno was our champion but the way in which he engaged with the media made him a darling in all of our eyes.
Little did we know what was happening behind his eyes.
But his legacy is like nobody else’s. Chants for the likes of Derek Chisora, AJ, Tyson Fury are all based on that love affair that we had with Franklin Roy Bruno. 6 foot 3 inches. Born 16th November 1961, in Hammersmith, London, England. An orthodox boxer who went on to have a total of 45 fights, 5 losses, 40 wins, 38 by knockout, it is an astonishing record and when you consider what Frank Bruno went through privately, it was even more remarkable.
Why? Because Bruno’s greatest fight as outlined in his autobiography Let Me Be Frank was with himself. In his very open and honest book he talks of how, standing at the starting line of the Great Northern Run, having done some preparation in terms of training Bruno was ready for the starting pistol, but not really the run! Bruno, a man who believed he could do anything, principally because the love affair that we had with him gave him that confidence, was dealing with mental health issues, including his bipolar. It got him to, line up for a race that he was committed to run but was far from ready to run at all.
Now we always associate boxing with running, not least the scenes in Rocky where, in Philadelphia, Stallone runs up those now iconic steps to throw his hands in the air and celebrate getting to the top of them.
Here was Frank Bruno about to pop his hip, whilst trying to run to his summit, eventually running behind a woman in a wheelchair, holding onto the wheelchair for dear life, whilst everybody was applauding Bruno once again doing his best to help others. Little did they know he was doing the best to help himself.
But we should have known. 12 years earlier, in 2003, he had ended up being sectioned under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983. He underwent testing that led to a diagnosis of bipolar II disorder. Whilst in the ring, Bruno had been a favourite that we had loved and adored, out of the ring, it was not long before media outlets such as The Sun started to run with headlines like “Bonkers Bruno Locked Up.” While it was retracted, and sympathy poured over Bruno, their damage had been done. Their atonement through a charity fund for people suffering from mental illness was basically too little, too late.
But that was not the worst that the Bruno family were to suffer, and in his autobiography, Bruno charts how his mother was targeted by the far-right organisation Combat 18, with appalling messages including death threats.
But perhaps the greatest thing that Frank Bruno ever did was standing in a ring with two boxing gloves covering his fists, as he was a character. But this true giant of British boxing’s story begins way back in the early 1960s, where Bruno grew up with five siblings in Wandsworth, South West London. His parents were Jamaican and Dominican. His professional career began in 1982, but the twists and turns were pure Hollywood. And boy did we enjoy going on that journey with him…
Two fights against Mike Tyson, one against Lennox Lewis, none of them won, but we still adored this giant of a figure who stood a leg’s akimbo on many a picture, as somebody who was up for being not just the principal destroyer, but a class clown who could make us laugh with equal measure. Post-boxing he went into panto, and he gave us all a laugh, but before that he literally devastated people in the ring.
And so, on the 17th of March 1992 Bruno began his professional career against Lupe Guerra. From that point Frank Bruno went on to knock out everybody who was in front of him, with The Ring Magazine, Boxing Illustrated and others waking up to the fact that this was a guy you had to take very creditably.
It led to a real test and real fight on the 3rd of May 1983 against Scott Ledoux. Although Ledoux was a veteran of the ring with 49 fights, 12 of them defeats, Bruno managed to stop him. In 1985, two years later, the European heavyweight title belonged to Bruno as he knocked out Sweden’s Anders Ekland.
Even more impressive came the defeat of Jerry Coetzee in the very first round of their Wembley Arena fight on the 4th of March 1986. It led to, on the 19th of July at Wembley Stadium, a fight against Tim Witherspoon that unfortunately, in the 11th of 15 rounds, Frank Bruno was to lose. That was for the WBA heavyweight title, representing his first attempt to become heavyweight champion.
Straight after, in 1987 on the 24th of March, back at the Wembley Arena, in went Bruno to face James Tillis, again a veteran. Tillis had, by that point, fought 48 times, losing 11 of his contests and was knocked out in the 5th of 10 rounds scheduled against Bruno.
By now Bruno was the love of us all and on the 23rd of October 1987 at White Hart Lane, Tottenham FC’s ground, he knocked out British veteran heavyweight boxer Joe Bugner in the 8th round of a scheduled 10.
What then followed was Las Vegas, the Hilton.
25th of February 1989.
On the table, the IBF and WBC heavyweight titles.
In the opposite corner, Mike Tyson!
At the beginning of the fight, it looked as though Frank Bruno was going to be the first to defeat this colossus of the heavyweight game. It was Tyson’s 36th fight, but in the 5th round, Frank Bruno was stopped, by the referee as Bruno was taking sickening punishment on the ropes. But in the first round, Bruno managed to rattle Tyson and for a moment we all thought the inconceivable, the unbelievable was going to happen. But Bruno was also dropped in the first round and that fleeting hope was dashed very quickly.
On the 1st of October 1993 in Cardiff, Bruno then had his next world title attempt for the WBC heavyweight belt as he went in against Lennox Lewis. Lewis, undefeated in 23 fights, faced Bruno across the ring and unlike the fight against Bugner, this was not the younger and fitter Bruno taking on a faded former champion… Bruno was beginning to look faded. It ended with a 7th round stoppage win for Lennox Lewis. It was Lewis’s second defence of his WBC belt.
This meant that Bruno had now failed in his attempt to win a heavyweight championship on three occasions.
Was it ever going to be Bruno’s night?
The answer was… absolutely.
2nd of September 1995 back at Wembley Stadium.
Oliver McCall came in to the ring.
He was champion and over 12 rounds on points, Frank Bruno took that green and gold belt from around his waist and stuck it around his own to become heavyweight champion of the world.
Six months later, MGM Grand Las Vegas, Frank Bruno went in against his nemesis in a second fight against Mike Tyson. In the 3rd of 12, Frank Bruno lost his belt to Tyson in a stoppage in round 3, due to a severe eye injury.
It was the last time that Frank Bruno entered a professional boxing ring.
Warned that he could end up becoming permanently blind due to the eye injury that they received Bruno retired.
Bruno became far more than his boxing persona once he retired. There were many events during the 90s and into the 21st Century where Frank Bruno continued to develop his relationship with the public. He made panto appearances, announced that he wanted to stand as the Conservative candidate in a safe Tory seat, released a cover version of Eye of the Tiger, was one of the celebrities on a World Cup song, made countless television appearances as himself in chat shows, life story events and quiz shows.
In his autobiography ‘Let Me be Frank’, he said, “I am human, I do cry, I have good days, and I have bad days.”
We love it when he has those good days, and hope that Bruno is now at peace and realizes just how much he was loved when he was in the ring and just how much that love continues beyond. We see how people have talked about Tyson Fury and his recovery from mental health issues but the person who laid the blueprint down for how you should deal with that is a certain Mr Franklin Roy Bruno who is still going strong, fighting his fight and being an inspiration to many people who want to follow in the footsteps of a man who for 14 years was an icon of British boxing but continues to be an icon for all of us.
