{"id":111841,"date":"2025-09-01T12:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T12:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111841\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T12:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T12:53:17","slug":"joe-bugner-former-world-heavyweight-title-opponent-for-muhammad-ali-dies-aged-75-boxing-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/111841\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Bugner: Former world heavyweight title opponent for Muhammad Ali dies aged 75 | Boxing News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former British, European and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Joe Bugner has died aged 75.<\/p>\n

Bugner twice shared the ring with Muhammad Ali, losing both fights on points, and traded punches with some of the biggest names in his heavyweight era.<\/p>\n

Earlier in his career, he defeated Henry Cooper on points to become British, European and Commonwealth champion in 1971.<\/p>\n

Bugner’s death was confirmed in a statement from The British Boxing Board of Control, which read: “It is with great sadness that the former British, European, Commonwealth heavyweight champion and world championship contender Joe Bugner has passed away at his care home in Brisbane, Australia.<\/p>\n

“The British Boxing Board of Control passes on its condolences to Joe’s family.”<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Bugner shared the ring with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Earnie Shavers<\/p>\n

After building his reputation with victories over Brian London and Chuck Wepner, Bugner defeated Cooper by a razor-thin decision to secure three major titles.<\/p>\n

His reign was ended by a points loss to Jack Bodell, but Bugner rebuilt and would go the distance in a creditable loss to Ali in Las Vegas in 1973.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Bugner launches an attack on Ali during their heavyweight fight in 1973<\/p>\n

Bugner was also beaten on points by Joe Frazier in London later that year before losing a 15-round rematch with Ali in Kuala Lumpur in 1975 for the WBC title.<\/p>\n

He came up short in further fights against Earnie Shavers and Frank Bruno, but would secure victories over respected contenders such as James Tillis and Greg Page.<\/p>\n

Bugner’s professional career ended with a record of 69 wins, including 41 knockouts, 13 defeats and one draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former British, European and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Joe Bugner has died aged 75. Bugner twice shared the ring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-111841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}