Why was Frank Bruno more popular than Lennox Lewis among British boxing fans?

The truth is that it has less to do with heritage and nationalism and more to do with personality. Despite being a great, Lennox Lewis was one of the most smug and arrogant boxers around, constantly blowing his own trumpet in a really smarmy way. He also had that annoying way of speaking (obviously related to his heritage) where he would go from sounding like a Londoner to an American.

He rubbed people up the wrong way.

On the other hand, you had Frank Bruno who was the embodiment of a gentle giant. He was humble, charismatic and had that laugh. He was approachable.

 

Lewis did win the hearts of the British public eventually, but he had to play a long game to do it.

 

The 1980s was very dreary time. Industrial collapse. Football hooligans. Rampant unemployment. Race riots.The falklands war. AIDS...

three and a half TV channels.

We didn’t even have MTV.

we all had to watch the same things!

The country tried hardest to boost moral with two royal Weddings.. But after a disastrous football World Cup, TV decided perhaps it was time to start promoting positive sporting role models outside of Soccer.

I think the Brixton riots helped an accelerated focus on positive black sportsmen. There had been a lot of migration from commonwealth countries to rebuild Britain after the Second World War. A second generation, born British, who identified as British who had been largely ignored.

Britain had produced champions in the lower weight classes and now the cartel had this big British born heavyweight.

I think the National role of TV really peaked in the 1980s. It was the first decade where everyone really had access to a TV. Then VCR ownership also took off.

Once someone became a national figure in this decade you really couldn’t avoid them.

Frank became “boxing” in this country. The figurehead. And well before he had even done anything. He didn’t even have to be a champion!

This was TVs heyday. I don’t think it is possible to recreate this. There was no other competition or comparison.

Henry Cooper was retired.

I think Bruno was the first ever boxer in the UK where every one of his fights were televised nationally. So far as I know, That’s more mainstream TV exposure any fighter ever had previously or probably ever since.

lennox Lewis was always going to be Larry Holmes to Muhammad Ali after all of this.

even if he had been raised British. He was a PPV cable fighter.

 

No mate. When was he active ? Any idea which club ?

 

Watched this high and I’m not gonna lie, it was amazing.

 

I'm not convinced he ever won the hearts of the British public, he just became more accepted over time in an elder statesman kind of a way. He won the public's begrudging respect is how I see it.

 

The British sports fans got behind all of the top boxers but only Frank Bruno, Barry Mcguigan and Ricky Hatton ever really won the actual hearts of the British public in my lifetime.

I am talking strictly of national crossover appeal. Even Benn, Eubank, Calzaghe, Hamed, Froch never really made it beyond Mainstream sports fans. They really were not celebrated as national, A-list figures in the same way.

There was a beetle mania around Bruno, Mcguigan and Ricky Hatton by comparison.

 

The first Holyfield fight was a major turning point for him. There was a general feeling of indignation that he had been cheated, and when he finally brought the belts home, it was hailed as a victory for decency.

After he lost to Hasim Rahman, one newspaper had the headline "fallen hero."

When he fought Mike Tyson the media built it into a battle between good and evil. The ****** vs the chess playing intellectual, who kept his hands free of wrongdoing.

By the end of his career he was a regular feature in adverts, he appeared in recruitment commercials for the police, and there were calls from some sections of the press for him to be knighted.

 

Contemporary Police recruitment advert.

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Because Lewis wished the British Soccer team well in the World Cup......

 

That's cause Jimmy was a flair player who played outrageous shots. He liked to entertain and play for the crowd, whereas the other 2 only played for themselves and wanted to win at all costs. They were the silent droid type, while Jimmy was flamboyant, party going and a man of the people. The normal man could identify himself more with a flawed genius like Jimmy than with the other 2.
Even in boxing we see this when people enjoy far more to watch entertaining offensive boxers who take risks than boxers that might be very skilled but their style is not entertaining at all.