Two British heavies who had some talent,but not the desire on a consistent basis. Gary Mason did put up a spirited fight against Lennox Lewis. Lennox's toughest one until his defence against Frank Bruno. Gary,if anything,was more skilled than Bruno,but did n't have Frank's discipline. Joe Bugner had a good jab and lateral movement,and when sparked up,could put in a decent performance. I've always wondered why Andy Smith,Joe's manager,did n't bring Bugner along better though. Andy threw Joe to the lions that were Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1973,for some good experience. This made sense as Joe put up a decent losing performance against them both. What Smith should have done after that was get Bugner fights against anyone outside the big four of Ali,Frazier,George Foreman and Ken Norton. Quarry,for example or a fight against Ron Lyle,four years before they actually laced them up. Instead Bugner went back to fighting low level opponents which was no grounding for a second fight with Ali two years later. The gap between Muhammad and Joe had n't closed at all. Ali had n't slipped very much,if at all,in that period between the two Bugner fights,and Joe had n't improved.
Gary did not have bad upper body movement, so would expect him to have Joe Missing a fair few Shots early, but problem for Gary is Joe had very good stamina and would keep them coming, Gary was a bit of a plodder ambling forward, so nimble Joe would not have too much Trouble maintaining distance and long range, Gary could be a bit cumbersome when trying to land more than one big punch at a time, Joe's defence and durability would be equal to the task, this is not a Hollow tyrell Biggs who seemed to get clipped, drop to the canvas and give up, for all his deemed faults, getting the Bug out of there was no easy task, (Shavers did an old Joe Via a Cut - when Earnie wasnt looking too happy after a good first round .) I think Joe is too athletic and skilled at point pinching with the left Jab for Gary, who might have success with a few sporadic charges, but the overall consistencey lays with Bugner, who i would take to win clearly on points, particularly over 15 rounds,
