It's funny how Bruno seems to be a polarizing figure, in terms of people's perspectives of him. For my money, Bruno was one of the strongest heavyweights to enter a boxing ring. His punch power was concussive. He had solid fundamentals and his jab was very strong. By the time he fought Witherspoon, he had a good little armory of punches, varying in range. On the downside, Bruno was relatively slow of both hand and foot. No, he wasn't a statue but most, elite class Heavyweights were going to be able to beat him to the punch and outmaneuver him - and any world class Heavy could catch him by surprise (a la Smith and Witherspoon). Whilst he was actually a tough nut to crack (took some huge shots; was stopped on his feet against both Tyson and Lewis), he seemed not to know when clinching could be his friend or when to take a knee and survive a round. But, he had quite the fighting spirit, in his day, and was the type that did the best with what he had, which is actually a lot more than most give him credit for. This is what made him dangerous in the Heavyweight division and to almost any Heavyweight in history - Dempsey included. That said, I think Dempsey overcomes - probably taking longer to break Bruno down than did Tyson in their first encounter (and we probably shouldn't rule out a distance fight). Dempsey does this with his wider armory; outworking Bruno with speed and close-range ferocity. Bruno could land his Sunday punch (or Dempsey, if reckless, could walk into one), at some point, but we can't really know what would happen if he did.
Obviously I don't know for certain, seeing as I've never been hit by either of them. I just rank them both in the higher echelon of heavyweight punchers based on their ability of knock fools the **** out.
And showed that he was pretty damn good, despite losing to the best he faced. Bruno did beat some ranked guys and won a title belt. He beat Oliver McCall who KO'd Lennox Lewis in 2 rounds, so there's that. Bruno showed some impressive skills: size, power, jab. He was good at keeping a good distance. He lost to big guys. I don't think he'll lose to anyone sub 200 lbs. He's good enough for that.
Even though heavyweights were much bigger in the 80's/90's, and better, than the early turn of the century?
I'll concede that Smith was bigger and probably hit harder punch-for-punch, but I still think Dempsey had enough power to dent Bruno's chin, plus speed and finishing ability that Bonecrusher sorely lacked.
What are you talking about? Smith sure as hell didn’t sorely lack any finishing ability when he finished off Bruno. You think Bruno took a dive?
I take your opinion seriously when it comes to those Old timer, so with that being out of the way, how does dempsey react to the same shot Bruno nailed Tyson with, mind you, Tyson moved right into the punch making it even harder similar to the Pac /Marquez KO. I also understand that you have been Ringside at Bruno fights so that should give some insight too.
The fact that Smith was able to finish off Bruno bodes negatively for Bruno. Bruno was not good at surviving when hurt. Smith was not a great finisher, as evident in his fights with Razor Ruddock and Marvis Frazier.
That’s just nitpicking. You can take anybody’s losses on their record and say that proves he wasn’t a good finisher. I don’t know how many knockouts Smith had in his wins but I would had guess he had a pretty good knockout percentage.
It’s not creeping in, it’s taking over the world not just little old England. You will be convinced you’re from London, Virginia before long.
I don`t think Smith had the offensive skill to be a good finisher, he missed a lot against Bruno who wasn`t the most nimble of fighters and only finished him because he gassed as per usual, Smith couldn`t have finished a good defensive heavy if they were in trouble, he was better at spoiling.
The shot would have stopped Dempsey but it wasn`t a really quick hook like Dempsey`s which would have landed often on the stiffer Bruno, Frank lacked the head movement of Tyson under Rooney and of Dempsey who would confuse Bruno with the Dempsey roll, something Frank never faced in his career, Dempsey crouched forwards thouggh bringing his head nearer to his opposition so Bruno would land a lot of jabs, meaning he could create distance between himself and Dempsey using his longer reach via his jab (which didn`t land much on Tyson).
He`s was comparing Smith`s finishing the much quicker Dempsey, no comparison, Bruno panicked whenever an opponent turned it up a gear, he didn`t have any defensive savvy or any ability to slip fast shots.
