Huge fights with the British public (crossover appeal) - domestic and international

[stujones]

Joe Bugner's death and his fight with Bruno got me thinking. What fights can you think of, both domestic and international that really got the public talking. Fights these days might be perceived as "bigger" (e.g. can fill bigger stadiums) but I don't really care what anyone says - I will find it hard to be convinced that Joshua vs Dubious was bigger, more talked about with the general public, than Bruno vs Bugner.

What fights can you remember being "huge" events that everybody and their granny was talking about in the run up. That might not be considered a particularly "big" fight now.

I will start with Eubank's two fights with Watson. For me, this was actually bigger than the first Eubank vs Benn fight in the build up - mainly cos BOTH were pretty damn big names when they fought (whereas not everyone's granny had heard of Eubank before the first Benn fight). Watson, although lost to McCallum - had scored his win over Benn at this stage so was probably more higher profile than Eubank himself when "simply the best" fought Nigel the first time.

When I think International fights - the one that always springs to mind immediately, everyone was talking about it in the UK - was Leonard vs Hagler.

[Jaguar]

Yeah, Bruno-Bugner was massive at the time. The build up to Cooper-Bugner was apparently big too - Cooper's last stand v the young pretender. Cooper v Clay and Cooper v Ali as well, although before my time.

I seem to remember Alan Minter going to America and winning the middleweight title was a big thing at the time too. I think that was on TV on Saturday night as well, I remember watching it live.

At a domestic level, Kaylor v Christie was a big build up, there was a lot of bad blood in the runup to that one. It was on TV and all over the papers at the time.

[mickey1975]

Froch v Groves 2 was big.

[Flump]

Mayweather v Pacquiao definitely crossed over.

Hagler v Leonard and Hearns too. Both had big coverage, buildups were featured on the TV news and the delayed fights were shown on prime time telly. I remember buying the replica program for Hagler/Leonard in WHSmiths.

[dr_devious]

Both Bruno v Tyson fights were huge

[Ruthless-RKO]

Lewis
Tyson

Was pretty big.

[stujones]

Mayweather v Pacquiao definitely crossed over.

Hagler v Leonard and Hearns too. Both had big coverage, buildups were featured on the TV news and the delayed fights were shown on prime time telly. I remember buying the replica program for Hagler/Leonard in WHSmiths.

Leonard vs hagler had a big preview in tv times. Remembering this was for a fight that was on delayed tv in the Uk. That was a big deal, usually that was for movie premieres etc.

Although I did think it made the cover of the tv times, apparent not….google what was the cover it’s pretty funny .

[keithmoonhangover]

The Benn-Eubank rematch. Everywhere I went that day, people were talking about it.

[Riddick Bowie]

I still remember the morning of Lewis vs Tyson hearing two old grannies at the bus stop talking excitedly about the fight. Mad but true.

Eubank vs Benn 2 was another where everyone seemed to be aware of it.

[Controversial]

Bruno vs Bugner was big because fights were on terrestrial television back then, newspapers were still big too so there was a bigger audience seeing it advertised and talked about. In reality when you hear FW talk about it Bugner just came over for the payday.

[THEBUTCH]

The standout clashes that ramped up public interest more than others that I recall were :

Benn - Eubank
Bruno - Tyson
Bruno - Bugner

[stujones]

Tyson vs Francis