Frank’s contribution to boxing was enormous and talent-wise, he wasn’t far behind Lennox Lewis (as we witnessed in their highly competitive fight), he was more of a mainstream celebrity than AJ currently is and there was also a time in the UK where he almost single-handily helped keep the sport in the media spotlight.candyslim wrote:@ EO I always felt that Frank Bruno was like an answer to my personal prayers. Weened on a diet of the very capable but despairingly frustrating Joe Bugner, I used to look at Earnie Shavers and wish that the Gods of boxing would give we Brits a heavyweight who was exciting, someone who would let their hands go, someone who had knockout power. They could be flawed and vulnerable I wasn't asking for a miracle ... and then we got dear lovable big-hearted Frank. There was a lot of worry about his myopia and I was fretting about whether he'd be granted a license. I swotted up on the latest corrective procedures like 'radial keratotomy' only available in Moscow or Caracas.
Just giving you an idea of how much Frank meant to me personally as a boxing fan, so believe me when I say I feel extremely disloyal for even asking the question but what makes you say that AJ is behind Frank on the imaginery ladder of great British heavyweights?
In terms of the UK, more than 20m viewers used to regularly tune in to watch his bouts, during an era when there weren’t any other British heavyweights on the world scene.
I also believed that there was a point in time when Bruno was competing, where the talent pool of his heavyweights peers was far deeper than what we see today.
Unfortunately for AJ, he only gained mainstream exposure due to the Olympics, but the fact that around only 1m people get to see him compete live (due to appearing on PPV’s), means that he cannot possibly be considered a bigger name than Frank was during his heyday.
At this point in time, Joshua’s legacy is almost exclusively reliant on his victory over Wladimir Klitschko.
A man that was 41 years of age, was comfortably defeated in previous outing, was considered injury prone and hadn't delivered a truly impressive performance for almost 2 ½ years.
For sure, Klitschko performed admirably against Joshua, it was not only the most exciting performance of his career, but for heavyweight boxing in general for the last decade. However, Joshua didn’t face the very best version of Wladimir. And the history books will reflect that narrative.
From a purely historical contribution perspective, much akin to Arturo Gatti’s perceived “greatness”, in my mind, Bruno is currently a “greater” fighter than AJ, though the discrepancy between their legacies is trivial and Joshua probably only needs one more signature win over the likes of an opponent like Parker, Wilder or Haye to surpass Frank’s overall accomplishments.
I expect some people to disagree with me, because they probably don’t rate Frank at all (ability-wise), but his “greatness” (in terms of historical contribution to boxing), seems slightly superior than AJ’s currently is.
