Step back in time..........Mike Tyson versus Frank Bruno 1

tyson was horrible in this fight, it was his first fight without the catskill team and he was a completly different man, you can see how scared he is before the fight started, frank was better against lennox lewis

 

Yeah, once he left Rooney, he just wasn't as good. Still dangerous, still a top fighter, but not the same destroyer he was before.

 

This wasn't Bruno's best performance..... he was backing up after 14 months off waiting for the fight to happen - though it was the best shape he was ever in..... that said, he ought to have finished Mike off in the first round.

His best performance came against Lewis, he was awesome that night until it all fell apart in round seven - strange how a guy's best showing came in a stoppage loss.

If the fight had been in the US, he would most likely had a point taken against McCall and would have been on the verge of being DQ'd.

 

I wouldn't go as far as to say he "should" have finished him off, but Tyson - despite managing to cover it up somewhat - was never, ever hurt that badly so early in a fight pre-prison by anyone else. If Bruno had killer instinct and a bit more savvy he could have put himself in an extremely good position to cause a MAJOR sensation there.

 

he's brave for fighting Tyson

 

There was a Zoo magazine interview (yeah, I know, quality read) with Tyson over here when the Tyson movie came out, and they asked him who the toughest fighter he faced was, and he said Bruno in this fight.

Other guys came in scared, or for money Tyson said. Tyson said Bruno came to fight, and came to win. Described it as a fight with 2 guys trying to stop each other where anything could have happened.

 

Bruno sure loved to hit and hold. This fight proved that Tyson could hang with the physical freaks. It shows that Tyson would've been a great threat to a prime Lennox Lewis and Vitali/Wlad.

 

Frank Bruno was bonnified world class and a very big puncher. The first man to really hurt a prime Tyson and Tyson even said afterwards it was the hardest he had ever been hit at that point in his career.

Just shows you how good he was that even not at his best he could come thru to stop a very game Bruno.

 

I felt Tucker hurt Tyson more in the first round than Bruno.

 

Bruno sure did give a good account of himself in the first fight. He went toe to toe with Tyson for five rounds prior to being stopped. That was however his big mistake. If he had boxed behind his jab and kept Tyson at a distance, ala Lennox Lewis in 2002, then he might have had a chance.

His memory of the beating he took in 1989 was the reason he was scared shitless in the 96 fight.

 

Big Frank has a history of giving people trouble in the early goings due to his freak physical tools. But once those muscles start aching, he gets stopped.