Frank Bruno v James Smith

[Mimmy]

Frank put up a great fight for 9 rounds until Smith hit the chin. Can anyone tell me the scores up until round 10 please.

[Newport Daz]

Dont know the scores, but remember watching it with my dad. Couldn't believe it when Frank was chinned so close to the finishing line. Remember watching the Witherspoon fight with my dad on the Sunday morning, neither of us could belive he lost that one either. The Tyson fight didn't surprise either of us, both times!

[ILikeBeer]

That was always Frank's problem, his lack of stamina, or ability to get stopped late on despite being a long way ahead.

Wasn't he pretty much owning Lewis in the first match, before being stopped? He definitely gave Mike Tyson something to think about in the first round of their first fight.

I don't like when people act like Frank Bruno wasn't any good. He was. He wasn't anywhere near the likes of Tyson or Lewis. But that doesn't mean you're a bum. (And I've heard people talk like he was.)

[orbtastic]

He was extremely fortunate to not get chinned by Cummings. Literally saved by the bell.

I remember the Bonecrusher fight, it was right at the end of the fight too, just went for it.

He was outjabbing Lewis for large portions of the fight but Lewis looked half asleep and once he woke up he was on a different level although seemingly content to foul a little, the end result was never in question.

The first Tyson fight is famous for the "get in there Frank" little slip of impartiality that Harry showed but apart from that he was never really in the contest. Definitely wasn't in the second fight at any point. Who can forget him crossing himself half a dozen times on his way to the ring, like he knew he was facing a public execution.

It's probably doing him a disservice but the portions of top level fights he was winning, it was mostly due to the other guy not being at his best. I remember him hugging McCall to death for the last three rounds as he [McCall] finally woke up and realised he was losing the title. I think he struggled late on in fights, often tiring. Witherspoon wasn't in great shape but some people like to make out Bruno was ten rounds up before losing, it was far closer than that, as was the Lewis fight.

[ILikeBeer]

He was extremely fortunate to not get chinned by Cummings. Literally saved by the bell.

I remember the Bonecrusher fight, it was right at the end of the fight too, just went for it.

He was outjabbing Lewis for large portions of the fight but Lewis looked half asleep and once he woke up he was on a different level although seemingly content to foul a little, the end result was never in question.

The first Tyson fight is famous for the "get in there Frank" little slip of impartiality that Harry showed but apart from that he was never really in the contest. Definitely wasn't in the second fight at any point. Who can forget him crossing himself half a dozen times on his way to the ring, like he knew he was facing a public execution.

It's probably doing him a disservice but the portions of top level fights he was winning, it was mostly due to the other guy not being at his best. I remember him hugging McCall to death for the last three rounds as he [McCall] finally woke up and realised he was losing the title. I think he struggled late on in fights, often tiring. Witherspoon wasn't in great shape but some people like to make out Bruno was ten rounds up before losing, it was far closer than that, as was the Lewis fight.

I listened to the McCall fight on the radio. Old school. But even then I remember the commentators banging on about how he was out of it right at the end of the fight. All he had to do was stay standing, and he'd win. And he was struggling to do that.

[polecateddy]

He was tired, but he had done excellent work up to the last 2 rounds. All that muscle weighed him down. He should be noted that Bruno is the ONLY fighter ever to visibly hurt the granite tough McCALL - making his knees dip from a big right-hander in the 2nd round. Nobody before or since has done that, even a Lennox Lewis when he was awarded free shots in their 2nd fight.

[ILikeBeer]

He was tired, but he had done excellent work up to the last 2 rounds. All that muscle weighed him down. He should be noted that Bruno is the ONLY fighter ever to visibly hurt the granite tough McCALL - making his knees dip from a big right-hander in the 2nd round. Nobody before or since has done that, even a Lennox Lewis when he was awarded free shots in their 2nd fight.

Bruno had pretty decent power. I think people forget that.

[polecateddy]

He was tired, but he had done excellent work up to the last 2 rounds. All that muscle weighed him down. He should be noted that Bruno is the ONLY fighter ever to visibly hurt the granite tough McCALL - making his knees dip from a big right-hander in the 2nd round. Nobody before or since has done that, even a Lennox Lewis when he was awarded free shots in their 2nd fight.

Bruno had pretty decent power. I think people forget that.

Never scored a knock-down in a world title fight, although he got some great boxers staggering. Shame he never got a Tommy Morrison or Herbie Hide to hammer on.

[ILikeBeer]

Never scored a knock-down in a world title fight, although he got some great boxers staggering. Shame he never got a Tommy Morrison or Herbie Hide to hammer on.

Hence me saying it was pretty decent, rather than saying it was awesome.

[mickey1975]

Never scored a knock-down in a world title fight, although he got some great boxers staggering. Shame he never got a Tommy Morrison or Herbie Hide to hammer on.

Hence me saying it was pretty decent, rather than saying it was awesome.

It was far better than decent. It was World class. The thing is, the top level guys have top level chins and skills to not get caught with full blooded shots.

[polecateddy]

Never scored a knock-down in a world title fight, although he got some great boxers staggering. Shame he never got a Tommy Morrison or Herbie Hide to hammer on.

Hence me saying it was pretty decent, rather than saying it was awesome.

It was far better than decent. It was World class. The thing is, the top level guys have top level chins and skills to not get caught with full blooded shots.

At his best he was top 7th or 8th in the world at the time, but prob usually hovered around 10th of the active heavies at the time.

[SamWise72]

Disagree. At the time he lost to Witherspoon, I'd have picked him to beat either of the other champs (Thomas and Berbick) [edit - I made a stupid mistake. Berbick beat Thomas, and of course the other champ was Spinks] and pretty much anyone else in the top 10. Here's the Ring's rankings for 1986. Who do you have beating him?

Michael Spinks, Champion

Mike Tyson
James (Bonecrusher) Smith
Pinklon Thomas
Tim Witherspoon
Tony Tubbs
Trevor Berbick
James (Buster) Douglas
Tony Tucker
Frank Bruno
Tyrell Biggs

He'd already shown he could come within a hair's breadth of beating Smith, Thomas had lost to Berbick, who he would have dominated IMO, Biggs didn't have the power to keep him off, Tubbs was too fat etc etc

[polecateddy]

To my knowledge Bruno in one of his autobiographies from the time admits he wasn't ready to fight Weaver, who I believe he sparred. This must have been approximately the time he lost to Smith or a little before. I don't think Tubbs would have been too fat to outpoint a still raw Bruno. I think Bruno would have been vulnerable against most of those fighters you list.

[orbtastic]

Pinklon Thomas in last week's BN (?) rated Berbick the hardest puncher he faced, including Tyson. I found that surprising.

[SamWise72]

I was just looking back over Berbick's record, and he had some crazy losses, and some very impressive wins. Lost to ST Gordon (cruiserweight), but beat Greg Page! I think you could call him inconsistent, but he showed no fear of Tyson. Brave man.

[roy]

To answer the original poster's question - scores weren't generally made available in those days unless the fight went the distance. For what it is worth, looking up my programme for the fight, I had given every round to Bruno except the 6th. From memory,however, Bruno had started to tire and look very vulnerable in the ninth and it wasn't that surprising when Smith stopped him.

[Cholo_cws]

It would have been just the referee scoring the fight (Bruno-Smith) wouldn't it?

In the build up to Witherspoon-Bruno I seem to remember Boxing News's Harry Mullan rightfully pouring scorn on one tabloid writer's claim that Bruno was the hardest puncher in the history of the heavyweight division. A lot of Bruno fans did seem to think he could knock out just about anybody.

[revporl]

David Price reminds me of Bruno a lot. Incredibly strong but a bit stiff stylewise and vulnerable chinwise.

[ILikeBeer]

David Price reminds me of Bruno a lot. Incredibly strong but a bit stiff stylewise and vulnerable chinwise.

Maybe Price will be WBC World Champion one day?

[hitman_hatton1]

David Price reminds me of Bruno a lot. Incredibly strong but a bit stiff stylewise and vulnerable chinwise.

Maybe Price will be WBC World Champion one day?

wbc silver champ perhaps.

[polecateddy]

David Price reminds me of Bruno a lot. Incredibly strong but a bit stiff stylewise and vulnerable chinwise.

It's a bit of a nonsense that Bruno had a bad chin. He certainly never went down from an ear shot. He just had poor survival instincts when exhausted until late in his career.

[SamWise72]

He froze when hit hard; he was actually really hard to put down, even when he was like the walking dead. Based on what we've seen so far, Price's chin definitely isn't as good as Bruno's

[Terminator666]

The Jumbo Cummins fight was the first time we saw how Bruno reacted to a big shot. Looked like he was having a seizure but still standing up. Very dedicated though and his persistence was eventually rewarded.

[el_grande_mauro_mina]

Bruno said he won every round on Gibbs (I think) scorecard...

[loaded_gloves]

I'm pretty sure he was 9 rds up. He was very frustrated with his boring, safety first performance, following instructions, and elected for the last rd to try bang Smith out - alas it turned out Smith had an iron chin and anyone going right at him played right into his hands.

I think Spinks and Tubbs knew way, way too much for Bruno personally, although he'd have probably gone the distance with them. Thomas let's not forget did what Larry Holmes could not and made easy work of Tim Witherspoon. He also had an iron chin - Coetzee, Spoon, Weaver, no one could make a dent in it in his day.

Still, a very good fighter, nuclear power in his fists, lacked self-belief, was poorly managed development-wise by his team, but ultimately came out on top and has plenty of very good wins - especially Oliver McCall.

Comparisons with David Price are fanciful. Price was KOd by a cuffing shot by a Jose Ribalta-type. Impossible to see him surviving much past a round versus McCall, Bonecrusher, Coetzee, Spoon, Tyson, Lewis etc etc.