Frank Bruno best night ?

..

 

I stand by Tillis being very decent at that time. It is a fact that he was.

That's not to say Coetzee lost desire after that point, he may well have done because he'd already had three title shots and was not getting any better, had his problems etc etc. He most likely decided to retire already but got that one extra call to go to London.

Without being able to forecast where Coetzee was emotionally at that point of his life or watching Bruno v Coetzee, if we concentrate on the fight on paper it is not a bad match. There is no tell tale signs career-wise beyond that point that proves Coetzee had already lost his mojo and was seriously out of his depth. This is because "on paper" the Tillis fight shows Gerrie still had as much left as all the decent heavyweights Tillis was extending at that time.

Naturally showing up on the night to go through the motions not entirely switched on is another matter and something that cannot be ruled out. most one round blow outs tend to prove this is often the case. I am coming round to this as a strong possibility.

 

Coetzee's win over Tillis was a decent tuneup.. But I wouldn't give it much merit beyond that. Beating Quick sometime around 1982 would have meant something. Doing it in 1985 meant little. Mike Tyson, Carl Williams, Marvis Frazier, and Tyrell Biggs were all young prospects. Joe Bugner was an aged veteran on the comeback trail.. Gerrie Coetzee was a recent world title holder and looked no more impressive against Tillis than those other men did. In 1992 Everett Bigfoot Martin managed to steal a decision away from Tim Witherspoon and decked Michael Moorer enroute to a close decision loss. It didn't mean that beating him was anything special. Sometimes guys fall into that " build up man " mold and learn to linger in there with good fighters for a while to get a payday. Boxing is full of those.

 

But Tillis gave each of those guys a tough fight, knocking two of them down. And they all proved to be class fighters. I'm not saying Coetzee beating Tillis is a great win or anything but not looking anymore impressive than fighters who proved their class doing as well against Tillis is still making Coetzee a good fighter just months before facing Bruno. That win is not screaming decline so much as some might think. The Tyson and WIlliams losses sandwiched either side of Coetzee could even be Tillis's two best performances! I know Tillis later traded on his name but he was trying to win and still tough for everyone around that time.

 

In his book, Mickey Duff said he thought Coetzee was ready for the taking. And signed for the fight and made Coetzee come to Bruno's backyard. Mickey had the foresight to see it.

Boy there's an under rated and under appreciated skill. Foresight to guage deterioration to that degree & being able to tell when a name fighter is ready for the taking.

That's exactly why guy's need a championship corner.

 

Couldn't have said this better myself. Bruno was either dominant or competitive in every one of his losses, barring the Tyson rematch. How about a shout to Pierre Coetzer?

I'd love to see how Bruno would fare against Wlad.

 

The art of finding the best placed contender with the least desire is without doubt the biggest asset in matchmaking. Like they say "a match well made is a match well won". Micky Duff was a great matchmaker.

 

i did start a thread within a thread in general regarding Wlad and Bruno, i believe they have a lot in common and if they squared off it would be competitive, for about 6-7 rounds

 

LOL, your funny.

I was a big a fan of The Bomber as there was at the time, and I think Frank gave Lennox an awful fright. Lewis was clearly frustrated and struggling a bit to come to terms with Bruno's fast start. But he was anything but being 'completely' outboxed and jabbed. The fight was fairly close and Bruno had the nervous energy vibe that so often cost him, and surprise, surprise The Bomber lost again!

Bruno's best performance was against Bugner. Old Joe had shown even at 37 he was a legitimate top 15 performer of the time, but Frank proved what he could do when he was very confident. That was a dominant performance from The Bomber, where he barely lost a minute of the fight, let alone a round. And this was a fight where a significant minority thought Bugner would win.