BoxRec

From The Mirror

21/10/04

FORMER heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno has sold his mansion - telling friends it held too many painful memories.

Troubled Frank, 42, wants a fresh start after suffering mental illness and going through a divorce.

A pal said: "This is where he had his breakdown. He needs to leave this house behind once and for all.

"It's a positive move and another step in the right direction. He couldn't stay there after all he's been through and, besides, it's far too big for him."

Bruno spent four weeks in hospital last year being treated for depression after being sectioned.

Ex-wife Laura, 44, the mother of his three children, said then the £2.5million house where the family grew up was part of the problem.

"The home where we spent many happy years had changed," she added. "Frank now lived there alone. Rooms once filled with children's clutter and family mementoes had become almost clinically sterile." Bruno has sold the Victorian house in Stoney Massey, near Brentwood in Essex, complete with the ring in which he won his WBC world championship fight against Oliver McCall in 1995.

It is understood a family has bought the six-bedroom property which also includes 85 acres of farmland, a 50ft indoor pool and a tennis court.

Bruno is aiming to move out by Christmas and plans to rent until he finds a smaller house near to his children Nicola, 22, Rachel, 18, and nine-year-old Franklin - who live with their mother three miles away.

Laura, who divorced Bruno in 2001, said while he was ill he parked a 40-ton truck and three caravans in the grounds of the house. Bruno, who quit boxing in 1996, was also seen walking barefoot around the garden and later confessed to sleeping in the boxing ring, saying it was the only place he felt safe

From The Ghana News

07/10/04

Accra, Oct 7, GNA - Frank Bruno, a former World Heavyweight boxing contender and a former European heavyweight champion is in the country with four other international sports personalities to participate in the 25th Commonwealth Sports Award scheduled for Saturday, October 9, at the Banquet Hall, State House in Accra.

He was accompanied by other personalities as Tony Finigan, a retired British soccer player, Daltow Grant, a retired high jumper, Ian Dowe Former World Body Building Champion, Robert McGereor from Scotland and a former World Swimming Champion.

I take it Frank has given up on his apparent desire to return to the ring?

Big Red Meat Axe wrote:I take it Frank has given up on his apparent desire to return to the ring?

I hope we have heard the last of the Bruno comeback talk. That talk IMO was just the cries of a lost and depressed soul. I hope he is rebuilding his life and can find happiness outside of the Boxing ring.

I seriously doubt we will ever see big Frank in a Boxing match again.

KOJOE90 wrote:

Big Red Meat Axe wrote:I take it Frank has given up on his apparent desire to return to the ring?

I hope we have heard the last of the Bruno comeback talk. That talk IMO was just the cries of a lost and depressed soul. I hope he is rebuilding his life and can find happiness outside of the Boxing ring.

I seriously doubt we will ever see big Frank in a Boxing match again.

I very much hope so! shame on FW for actually encouraging BRUNOS comeback when it was so obvious that Frank was distressed.

silkov wrote:I very much hope so! shame on FW for actually encouraging BRUNOS comeback when it was so obvious that Frank was distressed.

The noble art really can be the red light district of sport at times can't it.

It can with people like you know who in it! 8)

I couldn't understand what you said Silkov?!

Remember Audley parading Bruno in the ring in a desperate publicity attempt? Before Herbie Hide kicked off Sad really.

What I was alluding to was that allegedly wrote and said publicly at the time that there was no reason why Bruno shouldn't come back... he also said that Bruno was one of the fittest people he knew... leaving aside I guess the fact that Frank was obviously suffering from depression.