John L Gardner revisited

[Collins2000]

the funny thing about duff and lawless bills.... they were regularly staging fights at wembley...and i went to some cracking bills....with the young bruno starring..........

tony sibson notoriously pulled out of one bill......and Mark kaylor stepped in to fight bobbie boogaloo watts...they went to war. bruno headlined against scott ledoux (who had fought Holmes for the title !!!!!!!)......
fight of the night was the first Jimmy Cable/ Nick wilshire war...... slick tall boxing skills versus short bulling power shots....cable was down twice but took close points verdict.......probably the last time I saw nobbins...that one fight was worth the ticket price alone.....


altho behind the scenes was as dodgy as hell in those days...i still miss them

Did you think LeDoux looked like he was going to give Bruno a test?

I thought he looked like a potato with legs and was in no shape at all.

Still, if those sort of 'fights' entertain you I can understand you missing dear old Tel.

i was talking about that particular bill...it was a great line up....

and diss it if u will but Ledoux had recently fought Holmes who was the undisputed king at hw....it was a good matchup for Bruno who was only 14-0........... ledoux was tough and if u knew anything about him ..he always looked like a potato...the fact that frank wrecked him is beside the point......frank wrecked most people he fought !

3 years since he'd fought Holmes. In that time he had retired and then came back only to earn some money to pay his wife's medical bills. If you know that much about the era, why not mention all the salient facts?

Of course, he hadn't won a round in the Holmes 'fight'. Again, might be worth mentioning just to get things into perspective.

Yes, he was tough and, yes, he was never an Adonis in the ring. But he was old and completely used up by then and, if you were around at the time (though I seem to recall an earlier post suggesting you had learnt of these fellows from old magazines, though I could be wrong) , he was seen as no threat to Frank. Old slow fellows with no ambition were meat and drink to Bruno.

[jamesmcdonnell]

i disagree james, yes magri had a british title fight after 3 pro fights but dave smith his opponent had only been a pro himself for a year and hadnt exactly set the world alight. same with the european title - he won the EBU version against poor opposition. lawless was bringing him along very carefully it was just lucky that these titles became available at good times. magri wasnt put in with a good man until mercedes for the world title which charlie won well. however, his talent deserved to have got him there quicker in my opinion. lawless couldnt help being the cagey feller he was and i think he held magri up. charlie lost his first defence. and a really good guy - sot chitalada - made mincemeat of him a bit later.

a career that could have been handled better through having a bit of faith in your fighter. terry lawless j'accuse!

I know for a fact that Charlie was desperate to get a title shot sooner, but Lawless didn't want to get him one, it meant taking a risk and also was far less lucrative for the promoters to have to give the champion a payday, and then have to face mandatories. It was more lucrative to have endless European title defences and bills at home where Charlie was selling squillions of tickets.

There's a lot went on behind the scenes which is probably best not mentioned on here, for fear of litigation from duff or lawless. Let's just say that Charlie fell out of favour with his promoters pretty rapidly after losing his title defence, and the relationship was strained to say the least.

Magri also fought all the ranked European fighters on his way to the title, it was just that at that time the European rankings were not filled with incredible fighters, let's face it, when has the flyweight division ever had a big depth of talent, there's just not that many good men that small who are also experienced.

[harrygreb]

i make you right james - magri was certainly very eager at the time to push his career along but lawless pulled all the strings. i bet terry has to buy his own drinks down at the victoria if he's ever in there.

[harrygreb]

doesnt bear thinking about really, ouch.
at least it would have been quick

[funso banjo baby]

Did you think LeDoux looked like he was going to give Bruno a test?

I thought he looked like a potato with legs and was in no shape at all.

Still, if those sort of 'fights' entertain you I can understand you missing dear old Tel.

i was talking about that particular bill...it was a great line up....

and diss it if u will but Ledoux had recently fought Holmes who was the undisputed king at hw....it was a good matchup for Bruno who was only 14-0........... ledoux was tough and if u knew anything about him ..he always looked like a potato...the fact that frank wrecked him is beside the point......frank wrecked most people he fought !

3 years since he'd fought Holmes. In that time he had retired and then came back only to earn some money to pay his wife's medical bills. If you know that much about the era, why not mention all the salient facts?

Of course, he hadn't won a round in the Holmes 'fight'. Again, might be worth mentioning just to get things into perspective.

Yes, he was tough and, yes, he was never an Adonis in the ring. But he was old and completely used up by then and, if you were around at the time (though I seem to recall an earlier post suggesting you had learnt of these fellows from old magazines, though I could be wrong) , he was seen as no threat to Frank. Old slow fellows with no ambition were meat and drink to Bruno.

it was a good bill

whats your point

take a look at the current hw top ten ......check out their 15th fight:

jim huffman......ludislav husarik....daniel frank....courage tshabalala.....asmir vojnovic....danny wofford


at least Scott ledoux was known...... even in britain !!!!


cant see any world title efforts for danny wofford ?


and Frank would have iced all the above in one round..... i think john ruiz actually lost fight no 15 to segei kobezez ????





anyway scott ledoux had won 4 fights in the 6 months prior to bruno..... and is listed as weighing the same as when he fought Larry Holmes !!!!

THE FACTS DONT LIE


so thats an active hw who was on a win...and had recently (certainly by todays standards) fought the undisputed champ.....


not bad for a 14 fight british ABA boy

[jamesmcdonnell]

It's true to say, that by the standards of the current heavyweight scene, Frank Bruno looks very good indeed. The talent pool in the current heavyweight echelons is very very bad, there are so few skilled big men with the right combination of desire and genetics, and the current amateur code isn't helping matters either as the style of fighting is becoming too divergent from the professional code, and the numbers of well schooled heavies who can actually really fight is dropping as a result.

[silkov]

True but it was a fair fight for frank at that stage of his career, ...a little later he went in with Jumbo Cummings who mixed it with the likes of Frazier, Snipes, and Biggs I think... I dont think Brunos early opposition was bad at all really... you have to remember also that Bruno didnt have a very long Amutuer career either... I think where Lawless went wrong with him is that they got much more cautious with him after the Bonecrusher fight, which in hindsight was not a bad defeat at all... Brunoi would have become a much more confident and more rounded fighter had he mixed with more contenders after the Smith fight.... and a rematch with Smith would have been a good idea... Bruno not fighting for the British title was also a mistake...
Having said all that Bruno was far better than he is usually given credit for these days, and not half as protected as the majority of FW fighters and he was exciting to watch... I'll always remember the 'Bruno' nights and the tingle I'd get down my back at the start of his fights... he's one of the reasons I got hooked on boxing...

[funso banjo baby]

[jamesmcdonnell]

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-no!
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-no!
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-noooooooooo!

Happy days!

[harrygreb]

bruno would have sliced through the world heavy division today.
thats a good example of lawless management after the bonecrusher match silkov

[jamesmcdonnell]

The one guy I think would blitz him is Vitali K, Wlad would have his chances, but is a bit brittle himself, and might struggle with Bruno's jab. Sam Peter's chin would probably have given him a chance too of scoring a late stoppage on a tiring Bruno.

Generally, the guys Bruno lost to, were a step above the vast majority of today's crowd. Bonecrusher Smith would have been a titlist today on raw assets and fitness alone, and Tim Witherspoons skills piss all over anyone I see in the modern heavyweight division.

Hell, McCall at 40 and looking in surprisingly good shape could probably still win a title.

[overhand_right]

Agree totally. Vitali K is a difficult match for Bruno due to styles, but Wlad K with his 'deer-in-headlights' style when not beating up weak challengers would get rolled over, at least IMO.

The rest of the batch is pure sh#t anyway.