Frank Bruno's Best Performance

McCall was 100% better than Phil Brown who was a mere journeyman it must be said, McCall was a world class fighter and champion who'd knocked out the likes of Lennox Lewis, Henry Akinwande & Bruce Seldon & had good wins over the likes of Holmes, Oquendo & Maskaev. The only criticism one could aim at McCall was a lack of consistency but when focused he was good and Bruno did well to beat him. Phil Brown? Come on.....

 

I would not call him World class, what he did was show how a decent right hand, cement chin and at the time, excellent promotional connections could do at Heavyweight, even in a strong era.


I still remember him marching around the ring, after beating Murphy screaming "who's bad?!", and thinking: You!


You rightly called me on it, I was being disingenuous comparing him to Brown. But I would say the Brown of the mid 80s could, if he met a sloppy Atomic Bull (which happened a lot, even in his prime era), outhustle him over 10 boring rounds...

 

I know McCall wasn't a perfect performance but for me it was the first time Bruno beat a genuine world class opponent and was able to go the distance, something which he always struggled with in the past. He looked great against Lewis & was winning but was still battered senseless so i couldn't pick that one, definitely McCall but his best KO was against Coetzee..

 

A washed up Gerrie, like many of Franks Opponents!

 

Totally agree that Lewis was his best performance.

Was competitive against one of the top 15 Heavyweights in history and could have won if he had worked out a game plan too in my opinion.

 

Nearly 35 years of hindsight go into that statement. At the time, Bruno was a slight favourite, there were many who thought Coetzee would win.

 

For me, it was McCall and winning the world title, for different reason than performance on the night.

Forget technical ability or the actual performance for a moment, the pressure he had to deal with must have been incredible, his 4th and final attempt at a world title, he knew he wouldn't get a better chance or another chance.

Bruno had a nation on his shoulders, he had been given unconditional support for years and years and wanted to repay those people with a world title.

But there were also many that made Bruno the object of ridicule for years, some of that ridicule was sort of brought on by himself with his pantomime work and he wasn't shown respect, he was seen by some as just a lovable loser, somebody who gave it a go but was never quite good enough to be a world champion..

but I think the thing that bothered him most was when he was abused by Lennox Lewis and when Lewis questioned about his love and loyalty to his race and that stuck with Frank and probably still does, it cut really deep.

But he had this last shot at redemption, McCall, so to carry all that with you in to the ring must have felt heavy, must have felt more of a struggle and fight then the fight itself.

Also we didn't know but he had his own personal demons, a lot like Fury in many ways but we have only now found out about them. The combination of all those things is a huge weight to carry.

And on the night he performed as well as he could and he finally (after years and years) had learned to grab and hold and lean on when he was tired, that 12th round felt like it last for 12 hours.. I think anybody with a heart, anybody who likes to see somebody finally climb their mountain must have had a tear in their eye, I know I did.

I was never a huge Bruno fan but I liked him and hoped he would fulfill his dream and I've met him many times and he is exactly what you think he is, very polite, very generous with his time and very funny, Bruno is a bit of a geezer to be honest, he has a streak in him, trust me but he is a really nice man and that night he finally fulfilled that dream, put to bed a lot of the ridicule and cemented himself as a national hero.

So for me, taking all those things in to consideration, it has to be McCall.

 

The night he finally won the world title v McCall.

 

How about when he rabbit punched the **** out of Jesse Ferguson ...

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