Can any of our British fans tell me what they know about Joe Bugner's ten round decision win over Pat Duncan in 1974? The bout took place in London. Bugner was a top five or six rated contender, and Duncan was unrated. I've heard that Bugner didn't look good this night, but I don't know for certain. The final score may have been 7-3 in rounds, which isn't impressive considering that Bugner probably should have knocked Duncan out. But what does anyone else know? Thanks.
I was looking up old newspaper reports on John Conteh a few weeks ago and saw that this bout was on the undercard of the Conteh-Bogs fights. No detail that I can remember mate...Just something like Bugner scored an easy or cruisy decision over Duncan was the only description I can recall. Judging from his record Pat was on a bit of a streak..his win over McLinden would have been a bit of an upset I imagine. So he probably would have been feeling pretty confident and fired up, possibly forcing Joe into one of his boring, defensive minded performances.
Thanks. I know the background of the fight, and each fighter's career. I'm interested in knowing what happened though. Maybe someone has an old Boxing News article? If the unrated Duncan was able to take even three rounds from Bugner then Bugner must have been have had a lousy night. At that point in his career -- his prime -- Bugner usually shut guys out if he decisioned them.
He might not have been up for it mate...it happens pretty often. Just wanted to go through the motions to get the win.
Duncan was seen as pretty reasonable at the time. I'm sure I have the BN report but its not easy to access. If it's very important let me know and I'll root for it!
From what I remember it was a fairly typical Bugner performance for the period. Duncan was reasonably experienced & not a bad opponent. He had visited the UK a couple of months before & outpointed Danny McAlinden. Hence a fight against Bugner was considered a good 'draw'. Bugner used to fight regularly in the UK during this period, usually against 'safe' but not necessarily weak opponents. A lot of his fights were decision victories, seldom disputed but not convincing either. His lack of aggression led to him being much crticised by the British fans & press who always expected him to score startling KO's but that just wasn't his style. He did score a number of stoppages early in his career but following the death of Ulric Regis a couple of days after losing to Bugner, it seemed to have a psychological effect on him , even though the coroners verdict did not attribute Regis's death with the bout, which Bugner won on points. If you look through Bugner's record you will see he scored a lot of points verdicts over some very average fighters such as Mose Harrell, Tony Venture & Mike Boswell. All opponents you would assume someone with Bugner's pedigree should have stopped. He was a good boxer & very durable but just didn't produce that big punch or sustained aggression often enough to please fans.
I remember Joe's 1974 fight against Jimmy Ellis. Virtually shut him out,and knocked him down twice. Should have stopped him. Was n't he fired up against Richard Dunn,though ?
Yeah, the Ellis fight was again typical, Bugner should indeed have stopped him. Ellis was coming near to the end of the road but it was still a good name on his record. The Dunn fight was very much a grudge match. Bugner had been pretty scathing on national TV about Dunn's brave but limited performance against Ali. Dunn, not surprisingly took exception. Bugner proved his point though by completely obliterating Dunn in 1 round.
I recall saying to people before that fight,that Bugner would win within the first five rounds. My mouth was agape though when I listened to it on the radio. Could n't believe how quickly Joe did the job. Watched it on TV the next night,and could see Bugner had a determined look about him,when he stepped into the ring.
the dunn win always smacked of bullying to me.bugner knew he would have no problems with dunn and sprinted out of the corner to batter him. usually if bugner thought he could have an easy night he would,the exception being his fight with joe frazier which was an epic.he was a durable fighter with a solid chin.personally i preferred him to henry cooper
