How was Frank Bruno viewed when he won the WBC in '95?

I think he was seen as past his best somewhat and seen as very fortunate to get four title chances.
The public loved Frank but I think most realized that the McCall fight wasn't for the real championship.
But it was an heartwarming story in a way that he'd finally become a champ.

 

He was a lot more likeable and popular than Lennox Lewis in the UK and was basically the first decent British HW in a long time.

 

Hi Fergy.
Entirely agree on all fronts, and it was fitting that he eventually won a title, he carried british heavyweight hopes on his troubled shoulders for far to long,if ever a fighter over achieved Bruno did, for all of his career he was a product of the Lawless breed of fighter, Stracey, Batten, Magri, Gardner, Flint, all cloned in the distinctive walk forward, pump out jab, follow with right cross, some of the aforementioned did vary somewhat, but not Bruno, he fought in a robotic way, he was devoid of improvising, nether has a fighter got so far with so little, don't get me wrong, I liked him, liked him alot, he was humble, polite, unassuming, and a credit to the sport, you didn't need to test his system, you just knew he wouldn't touch any drugs, in fact wasn't that a nice bygone time, when Peds was almost unheard of, when fighters ran the extra miles, or did more rounds in sparring to gain an advantage, and would blanch at the very thought of taking substances to enhance their performance, have met Frank on several occasions, and each time he was courteous and humble, unfortunately he struggled with communication, and you felt he would rather be at home watching the tele, so yes a credit to the sport, and lets hope he finds some solace in his later years.
stay safe buddy, chat soon.
Mike.

 

Great post Mike, very interesting.
I will say this,he brought a hell of a lot of emotion to his big fights.
The Witherspoon fight was massive, the first Tyson fight was off the scale.
Good old Harry screaming "Get in there Frank!",in the first round when he briefly rocked Tyson.
Was happy for the guy when he finally won the WBC title, almost ten years after fighting Witherspoon.
What a journey, Mike.

 

I think @Fergy and @Mike Cannon have summed up it perfectly so I can only agree with their analysis - yep, Bruno was definitely not seen as one of the top heavyweights by beating McCall. He was a belt holder but a class act as a professional so everyone was delighted in the UK that he won a title finally.

I think it was Boxing Monthly that pointed out the irony of the British press claiming that Bruno was the first British heavyweight world champion for a century when Lennox Lewis had already won the WBC title 3 years earlier but that fed into the ambivalence felt about Lewis as a ‘plastic Brit’ at the time and probably reflected the gulf in public sentiment about each fighter - Bruno was very much the ‘people’s champion’.

Frank’s proper place in the heavyweight pecking order was exposed by the Tyson rematch the following year as it had been felt that he was just keeping the belt warm for Mike, similar to Bruce Seldon in that way.

 

Bruno transcended the sport in Britain, yet the press and to a lesser extent the public, turned on him overnight. Remember the Sun's dreadful, recalled front page headline 'Bruno's Bonkers'. Vile people. For me, Frank is exactly as others have described in this thread. Almost a bridge to a bygone age where hard work and character were indicative of a man's worth. He remains an Iconic character to me and, maybe more than many, I rate him quite highly head to head because of that robotic, monotonous, relentlessly reliable power. He could take anyone out if he caught them. The guy could bang, proper power. No, he wasn't the best fighter, but he was one of the best adverts for boxing you could imagine. Where would Frank have been without it?

 

It was seen as being more of a case of a broken clock being right twice a day.

Everybody in the UK was happy for him, but by then they were under no illusions about him.

 

The British public were happy for him, and it was very much viewed as his last chance.

That said, even though no-one saw him as the best heavyweight in the world, one of the American boxing magazines argued that he was probably the best titleholder at the time…considering the WBA belt was with Bruce Seldon, and the IBF was in limbo when Francois Botha was stripped of the belt for failing a drugs test against Axel Schulz. I think Ring magazine rated Bruno around 6th in the world, and he was still ranked above Seldon and Botha.
It was also pretty surreal that we were getting a Bruno-Tyson rematch, except this time
Tyson was the challenger!
Speaking of, as I’ve mentioned before, the Sky commentary team were spectacularly jingoistic in the coverage of Bruno v Tyson…you’d have though Bruno was the betting favorite in his title defense, when it was very much the opposite.

 

I've always felt Tyson 2 was a massive missed opportunity for Frank. Goodness knows what demons he was facing because he was a different man that night. He looked terrified going into the ring in a way I'd never seen him before and Tyson was there to be beaten. I wonder how Bruno would be remembered if he had beaten Mike that night and put the brakes on the post prison career? I genuinely thought he'd do it, Mike wasn't the guy he was and Bruno was always Mr. Consistency, only the nest beat him. But as soon as I saw his ring walk I knew something was wrong, and how right I was. Poor guy.

 

I also think Bruno was able to pull off the McCall win because he’d gained valuable experience in the fights with Coetzer and Williams…fights were he was taken into the second half of the fight by opponents who didn’t capitalize on his leaking stamina. He needed those kind of fights earlier in his career, but tended to blast people out.
And I never felt that Bruno ever learned (or was taught) a style of his own…he always looked liked someone who was trying to box in a classical way and it just tired him out. Tim Witherspoon said something similar…that he could tell Bruno wasn’t lacking natural attributes, he just hadn’t learned “tweaks” to play to his strengths and mitigate his weaknesses.

 

Not at all ... at that time it more proved how inconsistent McCall was than anything else ...

 

I remember expecting Bruno to do at least as well as last time, owing to the fact that Tyson had been in prison.

It was seen by many as a first big test for Tyson since coming out of prison.

Then the way the fight unfolded gave an exaggerated impression of the extent to which Tyson had retained his game.

 

Not really.

 

The idea that Bruno was some head to head monster, is a rather unusual piece of revisionism, that has sprung up long after his career.