Frank Bruno enjoys fame all over the world, yet in Great Britain, where he remains a national treasure, \u201cBig Frank,\u201d or \u201cOur Frank,\u201d enjoys nothing short of genuine affection. Bruno was a fighting man, an entire country took to its heart, this soon after the affable giant with the thunderous punch, but the less-than-sturdy chin went pro.<\/p>\n
The People\u2019s Champion and His Quest<\/p>\n
Bruno, with his humble guy-next-door persona, was adored by fans of all walks of life: old ladies, young kids, tough teens, hardcore fans, people who didn\u2019t even care for the sport of boxing. The lot.<\/p>\n
And Bruno, guided by trainers George Francis and Terry Lawless, and promoted by Mickey Duff and Frank Warren, was determined to win the world heavyweight crown and not let his millions of fans down. But try as he did, Big Frank couldn\u2019t do it. With his chiselled physique, acquired by sheer, relentless dedication in the gym, Bruno was unfortunately plagued by stamina issues as well as a chin problem.<\/p>\n
When hurt or tired in a fight, or both, Bruno, never short on courage, could fall to pieces. And Bruno, when he was tagged by a good shot, had an odd habit of freezing, with his legs digging into the canvas like a tree rooted in the ground. Bruno wouldn\u2019t fall, but his senses would betray him, and the instinctive nuances great fighters had of being able to hold on, to fake like they were not hurt, to ride out the storm, to fight back, were abilities Bruno never had.<\/p>\n
A Champion Plagued by a Glass Chin<\/p>\n
The James \u201cBonecrusher\u201d Smith fight aside, this was Frank\u2019s first pro defeat. Bruno was stopped on his feet when he suffered a loss; his brain had short-circuited after he had been cracked by a hefty punch. And so it was that, after rebounding from the he-was-winning-the-fight-handily affair with Smith, who stunned Bruno in the very last round, this time a mile behind on points, Bruno fell short in world title attempts.<\/p>\n
Tim Witherspoon hammered a fatigued Bruno to an 11th-round defeat in his first title attempt, while the fearsome, still close to his peak, Mike Tyson took Bruno out in the fifth round in his second challenge; this after Bruno had caused a brief sensation by wobbling \u201cIron Mike\u201d in the opening round. Bruno wouldn\u2019t give in, but he was once again stopped in a world title fight, this time by countryman Lennox Lewis, whom Bruno was genuinely angry at during the build-up, because Lewis called him an \u201cUncle Tom.\u201d To this day, Bruno has never forgiven Lewis.<\/p>\n
But then, after big underdog Oliver McCall upset Lewis to take the WBC heavyweight title in September of 1994, Bruno got his fourth shot at glory. This would almost certainly be his last chance, and Frank knew it. And on this day three decades ago, Bruno did it. He was able to pile up a lead once again, but this time he managed to hold onto it.<\/p>\n
Bruno jabbed McCall\u2019s head off he banked round after round during the fight that was held at Wembley Stadium on September 2, 1995. And though a desperate McCall poured it on during the final three rounds, with a bloody-mouthed, gasping for air Bruno holding on for dear life, this time the bad luck KO\/stoppage didn\u2019t come. Bruno, exhausted but knowing he\u2019d done enough, was awarded the unanimous decision victory.<\/p>\n
Tears of Triumph at Wembley<\/p>\n
Crying tears of joy as he spoke post-fight, Bruno had even the toughest of observers shedding a tear of their own. It was a genuine feel-good moment for an entire country. What followed in Frank\u2019s career didn\u2019t matter; he had done it. Finally.<\/p>\n
And as Bruno said himself, nobody could ever take it away from him: he would go into the record books as a world heavyweight champion. It couldn\u2019t have happened to a nicer guy. For \u201cOur Frank,\u201d it was a case of fourth time lucky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frank Bruno enjoys fame all over the world, yet in Great Britain, where he remains a national treasure,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-114591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}