Mike Weaver vs. Frank Bruno

Weaver by knockout, to me he gets under-rated by some in a way Bruno gets over-rated. I don't think Weaver at his best gets taken out early by Frank, Dokes 1 was controversial in a fight where Weaver hadn't fought in 14 months, no-one else did that to him at his best.

I remember Frank being virtually sparked in 1 round by Cummings...whatever Floyd could do Weaver could...only better.

Frank did not beat a single opponent the standard of a peak Weaver...Weaver was successful at a higher level than Frank.

 

Bruno by ko....

 

Weaver all the way.

He is the most under rated fighter of that decade!

 

Weaver showed multiple times that he could win in the heat of adversity and against word class opposition. Bruno generally lost when confronted with the same scenario, though he does have some decent wins. It's never a given when two big punchers with a lot of heart meet in the center of the square ring. But my inclination is to go with the Herc' ..

 

Bruno at any point in his career beats the Weaver who fought Holmes... the second time.

 

Thanks for the kind words Vince, but I'm not forgetting Weaver's 1 round KO to Bonecrusher, I think that the key point here being that I think we differ as to when Weaver was past peak.

I think Weaver's last peak night was Dokes 2, I think he left a lot of himself in that fight, especially when you add it the Holmes, Tate, Coetzee fights and his "unprotected" earlier career.

Add his loss to Pinklon and his sucker punch kayo by Tony Anthony, I think he was considerably past peak by the Truth Williams & Bonecrusher fights.

I think the Carl Williams-Weaver fight was a classic case of up and comer being matched against a past it name opponent, a name that looks good on the record which went wrong, Williams' vulnerable punch resistance being exploited by the canny old stager who could still bang, particularly with the left hook, which Truth seemed very vulnerable to.

Not forgetting too...Bonecrusher had already knocked Bruno out too!

 

I like Frank here.

First off, lets face it--the only way the Bruno camp takes the fight is if they hold all the cards. So, it's in Frank's backyard at Wembley. Now Weaver is definately the best american road warrior from back then but It's Frank that has to have the home court advantage. Have Bruno take his act on the road to a foreign country to fight a guy like Weaver and it changes everything.

But I think the homecourt advantage works for Bruno. Mike was such a slow starter. The national anthems would take 20 minutes. Introduce a ton of guests in the crowd. Long delay for Bruno to enter and there is no way he enters the arena first. That'd be strictly Weaver. It make take 25 minutes for the first punch to be thrown. And mike is no longer sweating and dry as a bone. And he was never a guy that bothered to move those legs pre-fight. Man, I can remember yelling at the tv to get Weaver to move those legs and bend at the knees during the pre-fight. Never ever did. Just looked around and would shrug his shoulders and then he'd do a little more of nothing.

So I think Frank is raring to go early and catches Mike within the first 2 rounds. He'd press on the gas early and nobody had a hard time penetrating the Weaver defense. When mike gets hit, those legs just failed him like Morrison---man he'd go the canvas fast. Not stumble down or wobble, but straight down to the canvas like he was being pulled by a shark. Usually he'd get up okay, but those knee's were gone.

At any rate, once hurt, the ref would step in and wave it off with Mike trying to cover up while being hurt with the crowd yelling and screaming. But he will not be given any time to recover & the ref--picked by the Bruno camp--would step in early and wave it off.

 

Bruno would come in super confident, dominate from the start, and then would start to unravel as Weaver comes on strong in the later rounds and wins in the championship rounds. In a fight very similar to Bruno/Witherspoon.

 

I'm picking Weaver because he was the better fighter.

The underlined is total b*llocks.
Bruno's major fights had the following referees
Mills Lane
Tony Perez
Richard Steele
Isidro Rodriguez
Guy Jutras
Plus ONE ENGLISH REFEREE MICKEY VANN that was because the other fighter in there was Lennox Lewis, another Brit.

The time when Weaver was not given time to recover and prematurely stopped was in a US ring, with a US referee Joey Curtis.You are full of it.

 

Who was the house fighter? You think Frank as the house fighter gets screwed? I don't. The times the house fighter got screwed you can count on your thumbs.

It does not matter 1 iota where a ref or judge is from. That's the biggest misnomer in the sport. They know who butters their bread.

If you don't think that stuff is a factor, fine. Just continue to gamble please.

 

Despite the fact that he himself had a shaky chin, I think Mike Weaver would be last on the list of 1980s alphabet champs that Bruno's management would want a fight with.

Bruno's ONLY chance is round 1 or 2, and that's a big ask of him.
A primed, fit Weaver ? He'd probably KO Bruno sometime rounds 8 to 11.

 

I was ringside for nearly all Bruno's London fights like I said, you are full of it .