As a warm up for the spinks fight cooney signs to fight bugner. Bugner who was due to fight Bruno takes the cooney ft instead. Perhaps Joe sees cooney as a easier fight due to cooney s lay off s. Could bugner pull off a upset here. Joe was underestimated through out his career, despite his advanced age he had put together some decent wins Cooney was certainly no match for spinks so could a motivated Joe survive the cooney hook to beat the former great white hope?
There was talk about this fight happening in 1981. Joe fancied his chances against Cooney and was quoted as saying "He makes George Foreman look like a dancing master" In '87 I'd quite fancy Bugner's chances. Old and past it as he was,he was still durable enough to beat Greg Page,albeit a Page post prime and took eight rounds of Frank Bruno's best shots before being stopped. He had more left than Gerrie at this stage.
Can remember that stevie, lol that's something Joe would say, it summed him up perfectly. I'm with u on this one. Joe wasn't bad at all as he aged and had some decent scalps. OK he wasn't the second coming of Gf but he d picked up so much experience at that point he could have given any heavy a decent fight if he put his mind to it. I think he was above cooney slightly at this time. He would have weatherd the initial cooney onslaught and taken cooney in tu the mid round s. Cooney would have been gassing , bugner could take over the fight. But all depends on the bugner that turns up.
I'd expect Bugner to win. Bugner was on a good little run in 1987. Cooney probably enters to ring as a gambling favourite because he had such a loyal following in the USA. There was actually talk of Spinks-Bugner after Spinks had handled Cooney. It fell through and Bugner took the Bruno fight a month or two later.
There's a myth perpetrated by some in British boxing history that Bruno-Bugner was a cynical mismatch and Bugner never stood a chance but that discredits Bruno and Bugner too much. I think Barry Hearn, who promoted it, may have seen it like that but he knew nothing about boxing at that time, and probably not much more now. Having said that, I do think Bugner wasn't 100% determined in the fight and came primarily to pick up a nice fat pay cheque but he took his lumps for a while and was, at that time, just as worthy of being considered a contender as was Bruno.
Good points,Unforgiven. If memory serves me well,Bruno was due to fight Trevor Berbick in the September of '87 but Berbick pulled out for some reason. Bugner who was relaxing after his victory over Greg Page could n't resist the pay cheque. If Joe had got himself into better condition he may well have lasted the distance against Frank,in my view,even though he was 37 and had left his best days in the ring ten years behind him.
Yes, you're right. The Bruno-Bugner match was thrown together quite quickly when Berbick pulled out of the Bruno match. In the year or so prior to that, Bugner had expressed disinterest in satisfying the British press and public by settling a Bruno rivalry, had no real wish to return to the UK, and was genuinely hoping to get a shot at a world title under his new Aussie banner and preferably in his new home country. I think when it became obvious that world title shot wasn't happening (with only Tyson and Spinks the remaining claimants) Bugner was in no position to turn down the money to return to the UK and he took the fight though not fully prepared.
