Why was joe bugner so hated by the british people?

They may've misread his name as 'Bunger.' With a gent who openly bungs...well, there are still a lot of bigoted feelings about that sort of thing. Even now, frankly. I got pinched for it at a shopping mall once, treated like I'd stolen something, practically.

If you even have to ask...

Damn, that is an ice-cold line to remember.

 

Yep, that hair could never go down well with the British.
Now a nice thinning head like Enrys, that's more like it!

 

Hi Buddy.
Agreed, the win over the much loved Cooper was not well received,and tainted Joe for some time thereafter, as to Cooper not being " too hot " on Bugner, that was not the way it panned out, Henry saved all his ire for for the imposing referee that was Harry Gibbs, a gruff, no nonsense man, not given to pleasantries, as far as I know Cooper went to his grave without ever talking to Gibbs, as an aside I used to buy from Billingsgate ( fish market ) and one of the porters was a godson of George Walker, the entrepreneur and older brother of Billy, he knew how keen I was on boxing then, and invited me to a party ( you don't hear that often these days ) at the older Walkers mansion, he said there will be lots of the boxing fraternity in attendance, so I had my best mohair suit cleaned ( grey with blue window check ) since you ask, and turned up at this huge house, with a mile long drive, giant pillars at the entrance, the front door was about 20 foot high, duly opened by the butler, once inside it took five minutes to get to the main front room where most of the guests were, amongst the throng were from memory, Pritchett, Downes, Charnley, nosher powell, etc, plus Billy who appeared to be the same height as myself, 5-8 inch, or maybe I was standing on a raised floorboard, after about half hour, Henry arrived looking very dapper I must say, a more friendly genuine man you couldn't ask for, he had time for all and sundry, laughing and joking, replete with anecdotes,he was having a great time, until that is Gibbs showed up, his whole demeanour altered, he sort of closed down, he palpably avoided Gibbs all evening, they never so much glanced in each others direction, as to the public hating Bugner, maybe some morons did, most were just frustrated by his lack of aggression, shame because he was a nice man.
stay safe guys.
Mike.

 

I sat next to Harry Gibbs a couple of times at the fights,I found him a pleasant chatty man,he instigated the conversation with me and was not at all gruff outside the ring,or at least not those nights with me.

Bugner had the seat next to me once,I remember he had a high pitched voice,wearing a black leather jacket ,he looked absolutely huge,friendly chap,bigger than Bruno,who I also sat next to once,Frank has a voice that appears to come up from the floor ,despite being pestered for autographs all night ,he never once showed signs of irritation,he had cannily solved the problem by handing out pre autographed cards with his signature on them.
Cooper was ,of course a smashing chap,back in the day,as you will know, you didn't go to your seat when a round was on,but waited for the bell to ring to end the round before doing so.I was behind Henry at the RAH,he was doing radio commentary and waiting to go to his seat for the main event,he stood half crouching waiting for that bell,as a joke I gruffly said ,"come on out of the way !" he automatically said, sorry mate." There weren't many boxers I would have tried that with!

 

Egan the younger or elder?

 

Great memories Mike.

Not saying Cooper disliked/hated Bugner per se but Henry was apparently cool on Bugner and the two men barely spoke for a number of years - which might’ve simply been due to happenstance in all possibility.

Bugner did say that it was an exaggeration that there was a pointed feud between them but that sentiment didn’t necessarily preclude some possible measure of cool distancing.

Even so, the media put together a television program in 2008 for Joe and Henry to “reconcile” and “bury the hatchet”.

Again, that could’ve still been the media falsely pushing through on something that was of their own, imagined invention in the first instance.

I can’t recall what was said exactly during the program but imagine that it provided fair clarification as to what did or didn’t go on between them in respect of any tensions/grudges held.

I’m pretty sure I found the program on YouTube and am guessing it’s still available for viewing.

 

Elder.

 

Reg Gutteridge got Henry and Harry to shake hands in the ring one night.

 

What a lovely post.

 

That must have been a very memorable and pleasurable night,Mike.

I had a mohair suit too.

 

Another lovely post, thanks Mike

 

double like

 

All I could think of when reading that part from @Mike Cannon was ‘Bennie and the Jets.’

I will forevermore picture him as a Captain Fantastic era Elton John.

Wondering if either of you also had electric boots to complete the outfit.