Michael Dokes v Frank Bruno

Dokes by UD

 

Ik it won't be a popular opinion but, Bruno via KO

 

This

 

Dokes will push down on Bruno's head and tell him to shut up!

 

Close bout, Bruno`s reach and jab would land well on Dokes who had a poor defense, but Dokes hand speed advantage might be too much also.

 

Frank finds his rhythm eventually, bangs his Jab in to Dokes face and stops him, as he did Tillis.

 

Interesting fight .dokes was fast but Bruno could hit hard I see dokes getting ahead on points but getting hurt and stopped mid fight. Not hard to hit .could go either way

 

He fought a used up Tillis. Prime Dokes is a much tougher proposition.

He was fast of hand and foot, and while no puncher, he could outspeed and outwork the mechanical Bruno.

I could see Bruno beating the coked out Dokes that lost to Coetzee or the 89 Dokes that fought Holyfield, who had lost his foot speed, but Id favor the 80-82 Dokes to outwork prime Bruno.

 

This is two B list “champions”so it is a fair fight. I do not regard either as a champion but it is a fair fight between contenders of a similar era.

If you put the best guy Frank beat against the best guy Dokes beat you wind up with Weavers vs McCall and I certainly don’t think Weaver was ever any better than Oliver McCall.

If you consider the stoppage over Weaver was controversial and the rematch was a draw I don’t know what Dokes real other signature win really is. I also don’t know if anything Dokes really did ranks high enough to make him an absolute certainty over any world class fighters. He was flashy but the best guys he fought were Weaver, Coetzee, Cobb, Bowe And Holyfield. He was beaten by Holyfield Bowe and Coetzee, drew with Weaver and went life and death edging Cobb on points. He’s 2-4-1 with the best guys he ever fought. I never understood the logic behind him being a heir apparent to Larry Holmes. His resume really sucks.

Bruno? The best guys he fought he went 1-4 with. But Two of those guys should really be on most people’s all time top ten. So Dokes isn’t beating Lewis and Tyson either. Could Dokes really get past Bonecrusher and Witherspoon? No chance. There is no real evidence Dokes could even be as competitive with those two as Bruno was let alone beat them. Bruno did show some class beating, Ribalta, Ferguson, Coetzee, Williams and Tillis when each were a little ripe for the taking but at least he did a number on them. There is no telling Dokes would even win against those.

So I lean more to Frank. But realistically, beating Dokes dosnt make Frank that great or improve his standing because I don’t think any fighter can be that great if his best win is Oliver McCall.

 

I have to lean towards Frank Bruno here. In order to beat Frank you generally had to batter him to submission and that just wasn't Dokes' style. He could box better than frank for sure but Bruno's left jab, powerful right and top conditioning would keep him in the fight long enough until an opening presents itself.

Bruno by KO late.

 

I'd favor Weaver over Bruno, too.

Frank was fragile so vulnerable to big punchers and not fast so could be outboxed.

I'd take Dokes 15 war that resulted in a draw against the hard punching Weaver over anything Frank did.

He did edge McCall - barely - shortly after a 46 year old Holmes came close to beating McCall.

Frank was hyped, got starched by Bonecrusher Smith. Got fed soft competition, got KOd by Witherspon. Fed more softies, kod by Tyson. Got fed more soft competition, got starched by Lewis. Repeat. Hung around to squeak by the limited McCall. Stopped by a nowhere near prime version of Tyson.

I liked Frank but if there was ever a definition of British Hope, it was him.

I can't think of a HW who got more chances after multiple failures than him.

He was a solid European Champion, but never really truly World Class.

If he'd been from the US, he'd have likely fizzled out early from the tough competition.

He'd have just been another piece in the Don King Stable. He'd have to fight the best because Don controlled them all or most .

Likely after Bonecrusher demolished him, and almost certainly after Witherspoon was done with him, he would have become just a journeyman.

But he was a British hero so got to regroup time and again against handpicked opposition until the next chance on the World Stage.

 

Yes, I realize that Tillis was done when Bruno stopped him, but I still think it would end in a similar manner, with Dokes s face getting mashed by frank.

 

Pretty sure you meant 1-4.

 

Yeah I did! Thanks I have corrected it.