By the time these two fought in 1987,Bugner was way past it. I have posted in an earlier thread,that I believe Joe would have won in a prime for prime scenario. That would have been the Bugner of 1973-77 against the Bruno of the Witherspoon fight up until the first Tyson one,although,imo,his best single performance against Lennox Lewis was past his prime per se. We still could have seen a better version of Bugner in with Frank though. It nearly happened in 1984. I still believe youth would have been served,with Frank winning,albeit over the distance. ?
I think Bugner could have given Bruno a really good fight in 1987 if he'd bothered to come to fight in any sort of decent shape. It wasn't that he was well past it (though he probably was), it was more that he just didn't care to win, it was the big payday he'd been hoping for (since he couldn't secure a shot at Spinks - though it was rumoured to be on at one point, and probably wasn't even interested in fighting Tyson, who's managers scoffed at him). Bugner beat Tillis, Bey and Page in 1986-'87 comeback, decent trial horses, but was overweight against Bey and Page and then even heavier for Bruno ! In 1983-'84 he was outboxed by Marvis Frazier, and struggled with Steffen Tangstad and Anders Eklund. I think Bruno beats him just as bad in '84 as he did in '87. Bugner never really liked boxing. I guess he was good enough to not get too badly hurt, and go home with a big pay cheque though. I was very surprised that he came back 8 years after the Bruno fight too.
Every now and then when he seemed to have the appetite for it,Joe displayed a bit of promise. Best examples being,the first Ali fight,the one with Frazier sr. and Richard Dunn. Okay,knocking out Dunn in one may not have been the biggest challenge,but he looked well up for it.
Had they fought in 1984, Bruno would have beaten Bugner by decision. The 1984 Bugner was well past his prime. Bugner's peak years were the mid-'70s. Just check the films to get a sense of how Bugner was physically in 1983-84 relative to his prime years. The older version of Bugner is clearly slower with his hands, and less mobile on his feet. The Bugner who fought Frazier in 1973 vs. a prime Bruno would have been a great fight. Very, very competitive.
Bruno only lost to guys that could KO him, and Bugner was never considered that much of a puncher. Does Bugner have the pop to affect Bruno?
If Bugner was up for it, he would of easily outpointed Bruno in 84, maybe even stopped him late. But as mentioned by a few here, Bugner was in better form going into a 87 Bruno fight, than he was in 84, indeed in 87 he looked as good as ever had done post Dunn. So I think Joe would of been in just glad to be there mode, and thus just outpointed, as Bruno really was still very, very raw back then.
Frank was a serious contender in 1984, very driven fresh and hungry, he would have beaten Joe more explosively had they met then, Bruno always smashed guys up if they weren't prepared to throw down and joe would have brought a kinda laid back attitude and Bruno would have been well ready for him.. Frank was in the top 10 at the highest caliber in 84 and everyone knew how hard he hit even Page and Holmes, Only a good Tim Witherspoon took up the challenge and for 7 rounds Frank had a good foot hold in the fight.
Bonecrusher Smith KO'd Bruno in 1984. Jumbo Cummings almost KO'd him in the 1st round of a 1983 fight, Frank was saved by the bell. Frank hadn't beaten anyone of note at this point. If he made the world's top 10 in 1984 that shows how devoid of good fighters the heavyweight division was.
The difference here is that those guys could punch.. Bugner couldn't. As already mentioned, Bruno mainly lost to men who could crack his chin. I applaud Bugner's efforts in his late 30's by putting together a galant string of wins, but in all honesty, everyone and their brother were beating up James Tillis, Greg Page and David bey in the mid to late 80's. Hell, I bet Foreman in his very first comeback bout in 10 years could have beaten them.
I dont know about that but I agree Bruno beats Bugner, for whatever that's worth. (as I said in my first post) Just pointing out that Bruno in 1984 was without any meaningful win. And yes he was hyped up, being undefeated until KO'd by Smith, and with a great physique and a decent punch. I'm just saying if Bruno was a "seriosu contender" in 1984 then it shows how weak the division must have been.
But Eklund could not punch at that level, but he had the Bomber worried in the first of their fight. Bugner beat three solid fighters, Super Greg was top 20; Bey only had defeats to top 10 fighters in this era; Tillis too only lost to the very best, in the time frame.