Frank Bruno Beats Layne,Lastarza,Mathews,C*ckell

Has McVey lost his internet access? He used to respond to everything I wrote on clockwork like he didn't have a life and just lived on this forum waiting for me to post. It was creepy but flattering. I miss him. I'm getting worried something has happened to him.

 

I think that is fair.

 

The time frame I listed was 1970-1984. So 83-84 is only one small time part of that duration and my argument was not about building up Holmes but Witherspoon who incidentally fought a lot of the men who Holmes didn't.

 

Two years later when he was reaching the point of being near shot. And the meantime, Witherspoon who I was talking about, was facing the men Holmes wasn't, making him an admirable presence in the 80's, meaning that Frank Bruno losing to him was not as bad as being made out to be. Glad I managed to untangle all that wiring.

 

And the Holmes fight was 3 years prior to Spoon/Bruno.

In that time he had gained 15 lbs of fat, lost to and been replaced by Thomas as the leading contender, and was looking vulnerable after Tubbs. Bruno going out like that in his hometown to an out of shape opponent looking to be on the slide was a terrible disappointment.


WEMBLEY, England, Sunday, July 20— Tim Witherspoon, looking fat and out of shape, knocked down Frank Bruno with four crashing rights to the head and stopped the British challenger in the 11th round early this morning to retain the World Boxing Association heavyweight championship.
Past the two-minute mark of the 11th round, Bruno landed a three-punch series to the head. Then Witherspoon crashed home an overhand right that sent Bruno reeling into a neutral corner.
Bruno escaped, but Witherspoon, seeing the end was near, slammed three more overhand rights that dropped Bruno to a sitting position in Witherspoon's corner.
The towel was immediately thrown in from Bruno's corner and Referee Isido Rodriguez of Venezuela saw it and stopped the fight without a count.
Until the sudden ending before some 40,000 fans at the outdoor Wembley Stadium, the fight had been on the dull side, although both men did land some hard head punches.
The time of the finish was 3 minutes of the 11th round.
Bruno, who weighed 228 pounds, never showed the vaunted right-hand power that had given him 27 knockouts.

 

Witherspoon went on a good winning streak after losing to Thomas and picked up the WBA title. In the interim Thomas lost to Berbick. Holmes lost to Spinks who had no resume at heavyweight then retired by spring of 1986. Tyson was still working his way up the ranks. So weather you agree or disagree, in July of 1986 Frank Bruno was in the ring with what was quite possibly the best heavyweight in the world if even only briefly.

 

No, that is you reaching into a mud puddle and picking out a ball with a name on it, Spinks, Holmes, Berbick, Thomas have a marginal better case still and the undefeated Tubbs had just took Spoon close.

Per RING Spinks was the Champion with Holmes, Berbick, and Thomas rated above Spoon.

And these are just names, not counting that Spoon was a dough boy in that fight seemingly marching into certain defeat at Wembley.

 

It was a stretch I'll give you that. But the scene was in bad shape at the time.

Holmes was retired by the time Spoon fought Bruno so he's moot. Thomas had lost to Berbick earlier that year. Berbick had the Thomas win but also a checkered past as he had been beaten by lesser fighters before. Tubbs was the undefeated WBA champ and lost to Spoon. Taking it close doesn't give him a higher rating. Spinks had all but two fights at heavyweight against a declining Holmes and many felt he lost the rematch. Few acknowledged him as being the true best man over 200 and truth be told Tim did arguably as well against a 1983 model Holmes as Spinks did against the 85-86 version. And BTW if you're looking at the "annual" ring ratings for 1986, there's an obvious reason why Spoon's ratings had dropped that year, but one which should have had no bearing on what he was rated in July.

That's weak. Just because the man didn't have a physique that you approved of doesn't change the fact that he was one of the few men of that era constantly taking on the best in the world and winning "most" of the time.

 

No it isn't. The man got fat and looked pretty awful before Bruno crumbled. Spoon wouldn't climb the scales that high again for another 5 years or so.

Had Bruno knocked him out, a strong case could be made that it wasn't a telling win given Spoon showed up in the worst shape of his career for a major fight.

 

And Bruno still couldn't get over the hump.

 

Bruno's whole career is highly questionable.
It seems that every 'name' fighter he faced turned up having not bothered to train much. ..
... but then so did the non-name ones as well.

 

Did Layne, Lastarza, Mathews or Don C.? Did Frank Bruno lose to some of the guys that THOSE guys lost to?

 

The man was never poster boy for top conditioning but regardless it didn't stop him from winning two world titles, beating a large number of named opponents or the ring rating him for 11 years. If I were Frank Bruno I'd rather lose to a guy like that in a scheduled world title fight than to boast defeats to Earl Walls and Tommy Jackson among others.