Dillian Whyte v Frank Bruno

I guess it's a sign of my advancing years but I am amazed at how many people just glibly pick Bruno here. I grew up watching him and actually saw every one of his professional appearances. He only actually won two "Fights". Against Jumbo Cummings who knocked him spark out on his feet with the last punch of, I think, the second round and Oliver McCall when he clutched like a limpet in the last two rounds. Against every other live Fighter he faced, Frank was stopped. He has to be the most protected Fighter I've seen in nearly fifty years other than Wilder.
Stack this against Whyte's tear ups with Joshua and Chisora and a very competitive fight with former Champion Joseph Parker. Whyte makes all manner of mistakes but these are highlighted by the strength of the opposition.
In proper big fights, Bruno tended to adopt a very conservative approach, tucking in behind his powerful but predictable jab and being very reluctant to let his shots go. Even when he did tee off against Bonecrusher Smith, his punches had no effect.
Whyte, at times, is as open as a five bar gate but he knows how to actually fight. Also, Dillian is bigger than Frank. Not something Bruno was used to during his career.
I can see Whyte simply swamping and overpowering a shocked Bruno. Frank absolutely did not lack courage but he was never in a fight for your life punch up. I'm sure he would fire back but he would lose all his shape and fundamentals in doing so.
Whyte's gettable by any decent Heavyweight but his kind of rumble takes Bruno too far into deep water.
Whyte in four with the Ref holding Frank up.

 

The only good fighter Bruno ever beat was McCall, he lost to every other good fighter he fought, and he was KOd by all of them. The guy went 1-5 against good fighters. Whyte is too big, and too good. I'm going KO 4 Whyte as well.

 

I think a lot of fans view Bruno through rose tinted glasses because he's a really nice guy.

The same goes for Henry Cooper - all that 'what if' garbage about the first Ali fight...

Bruno could punch, there was absolutely no doubt about that.

But he wasn't exactly elusive, his chin was suspect and once he was hurt, that was it - the fight was over.
I think he had the worst survival instincts of any fighter I've ever seen.

Bruno might build up a lead using his jab but eventually I think Whyte would nail him - Bruno's hands would come down, his head would come up and Whyte would finish him off.

 

I remember Bruno in much the same way you do.

But your view of Whyte seems way off the mark.
You talk about Bruno being stopped by every live fighter he faced. But Whyte was stopped badly by a washed-up 41 year old.
Bruno gets NO CREDIT for beating up Coetzee and Bugner, and if a 41 year old Povetkin was around in the 1980s, Bruno would have got no credit for making short work of him too.

 

Bruno was crap.
He'd flatten Whyte though.

 

Names like "Pierre Coetzer" and a washed-up "Carl The Truth Williams" would be on Whyte's "PAY PER VIEW shortlist" if they were around today, as mediocre as they were.
They can't be much worse than Chisora.

I'm not defending Bruno's record. I'm just asking people to wake up to the Whyte fraud. Can't believe so many have bought in to the hype.

 

Bruno absolutely destroyed former WBA champ Gerrie Coetzee in 1 round in a WBA eliminator.
People look back and say "Coetzee was under-trained, a bit fat, a few years past his best", yeah, he was. ("Bruno never beat a live fighter").

But if Whyte did something like that, he'd be lauded as a legitimate contender that takes on all the tough fighters.

Whyte has literally just gone 1-1 with a guy that was 10 years older than the Coetzee Bruno beat.
Whyte was brutally sparked out by Povetkin on his first attempt, Povetkin who looked pretty much washed-up in the fight, and before that against Hunter too.

Whyte's BEST "win" is where he gained a dubious decision against Parker, where the referee ignored several fouls and scored a headbutt knockdown. for Whyte, most at ringside had it close to even, one way or the other.
Parker was coming off a loss and a couple of very poor performances before that. Whyte was almost knocked out in the 12th. This is his best win by far.

 

Thats ridiculous

 

Bruno would jab his head off

 

Yep nobody picking Bruno is pretending Bruno was some top level contender who would plow through this division and conquer everyone not named Fury and Usyk.

But Whyte has gone life and death with Chisora and even in the rematch was losing until Chisora inevitable gassed. Whyte basically adopted the Deontay Wilder approach of, I can't out box this guy so I'll just wait til he punches himself out and tires and then try and KO him. Whyte isn't some elite heavyweight contender either there's not much separating him and Bruno in ability and he's definitely not this decent boxer on the back foot some have eluded too, Whyte's footwork and movement sucks, it's no better than Bruno's.

People need to maybe go back and watch Bruno if they haven't seen him in a long while. He out boxed Lennox and fought on good terms with Witherspoon too before his chin gave out and that might very well happen vs Whyte too, but I fully expect Bruno to be on top before that happens.

When I watch Bruno and Whyte side by side I really don't see a big difference in ability. Bruno, better defence, better jab, better right hand, Whyte better counters, better body punches, better left hook.

 

Whyte wouldn't take the fight in the first place as Bruno wouldn't give him enough of a payday.

Whyte is a minimum £10 mill per fight fighter....

 

I have just recently been rewatching some old Bruno fights. I am shocked to see that he was better than a lot of today's bunch.

 

Coetzee and Bugner were retired when Frank beat them. Both came for the money. LeDoux too. Neither Gerrie or Joe even sparred before those fights.

 

Almost all of the relevant metrics have me picking Bruno in this one. Much better jab and hit hellishly hard, better conditioning and fundamentals. But I just can't get from my mind a moment in this fight when Whyte lands and Frank, leaning back on the ropes, has a committee meeting between mind and legs discussing a one-item agenda: stay upright or fall over?

I think the ref stops this in Dillian's favour with Bruno upright and dazed, shipping punches.

 

Povetkin was on his last legs when he beat Whyte.
Povetkin was recovering from coronavirus in the rematch.
Povetkin was older than Bugner even, by about 3 or 4 years.

I'm not defending Bruno's record.
I'm shining a light on Whyte's similarly mediocre record. Whyte's been well marketed in this era, and he did better in a couple of fights than was expected of him, so there is this myth that he's some sort of real world class fighter.

An ancient Povetkin and hanging on for dear life for a debatable decision over Parker (who wasn't in good form anyway). That's it. Where's the substance to his record beyond that?
Oscat Rivas? Another close win against an average fringe contender who is fairly obscure.
Lucas Browne ? Dereck Chisora? Mariusz Wach?
These guys would have been regarded like Pierre Coetzer or Carl Williams or even Jesse Ferguson and James Tillis if they were fighting on BBC against Bruno back in the day.

If you strip away the PPV hype and all the 21st century social media hype, you see it for what it is.