Frank Bruno

[StarshipTrooper]

So you would put Tunney and Spinks as A 175 pound fighters who had brief success at Heavy. fair enough.

Yep. As a rule I don't rate fighters in more than one division (Exception: Ray Robinson). In the case of Ezzard Charles it's a judgement call: He had a lot of fights in both divisions but since he was at his best at Light-Heavyweight I rate him there.

Poet

[mickey malone]

Here's how I rank:

A Level - ATGs and Near Greats
B Level - Top Contenders in an average strength era.
C Level - Journeymen and Fringe Contenders in an average strength era.
D Level - Club Fighters
E Level - Tomato Cans

Poet

Same as that, imo..

Good responses from Silva, and interesting to see it from another perspective..
Taking out the plusses and minusses is a good move on these sites as i've found it doesn't pay to make things too complicated, but it would be a good way of highlighting opinion... ie:-

A+ Ali, Louis
A Holmes, Foreman
A- Lewis, Holyfield
B+ Witherspoon, Mercer
B Bruno, Smith

I can also see how you could compile a massive list right down to E- which would be incredibly interesting and create tons of room for debate, but a bit of a task to say the least!

[sonnyboyx2]

Bruno gave Lennox Lewis a lesson in how to jab.. had Lewis on queer street and on the verge of defeat when Lewis lashed out with a left-hook that caught Bruno on the button.. overall Bruno was a very decent fighter with heavy hands

[cooper5]

Very entertaining fighter. Like many musclar fighters didn't have the best endurance. I remember him having his way with a young(If bonecrusher was ever young) James Smith til the tenth when Smith caught up with him. Gave great fights to Lewis and Witherspoon. I believe he could have beat Tyson in the rematch but froze up and fell down.

[mickey malone]

Very entertaining fighter. Like many musclar fighters didn't have the best endurance. I remember him having his way with a young(If bonecrusher was ever young) James Smith til the tenth when Smith caught up with him. Gave great fights to Lewis and Witherspoon. I believe he could have beat Tyson in the rematch but froze up and fell down.

Very true, don't think i've ever seen a fighter look so scared as he made his way to the ring.. Even Spinks didn't look quite as scared as Bruno did..

[Sugarj]

With the exception of the Tyson fights every other loss that came Bruno's way happened when he was ahead on points. Bonecrusher, Witherspoon and Lewis. No two ways about it, he hurt Tyson too.

With all the fuss about the Dirrell Abraham issue going round. I seem to remember Tyson hitting Bruno in the first round when he was already down on a knee or so.

With a better chin Bruno could have been someone to be really feared.

[mickey malone]

With the exception of the Tyson fights every other loss that came Bruno's way happened when he was ahead on points. Bonecrusher, Witherspoon and Lewis. No two ways about it, he hurt Tyson too.

With all the fuss about the Dirrell Abraham issue going round. I seem to remember Tyson hitting Bruno in the first round when he was already down on a knee or so.

With a better chin Bruno could have been someone to be really feared.

He had a pretty good chin really.. It was more the way he reacted to getting hit that got him TKO'd more so than KTFO.. All of his defeats were against very good punchers, who all had to hit him several hard shots to get him out of there.. Had he been able to slip punches without freezing, I don't think the whiskers would have let him down often, if at all..

[Chief2ndzOnly!]

Good solid fighter, just not good enough to be a champion. Dynamite power but a bit clumsy delivering it which cost him big against top opponents. Tended to fade late and froze when hurt and stopped defending himself. One of my favorites. I have most of his fights on DVD.

Poet

Well said poet my friend........Well said.

[GJC]

Always seemed a very nice fellow pleased he won the title and made a few bob.

[Capital Punch]

Bruno was more of a media personality than a fighter, whenever he made any real step up in class his shortcomings in stamina, chin and mobility were exposed. His best was the TKO5 loss to Tyson when he became the first fighter to put any sort of dent in Iron Mike's armour, a dent that became a gaping hole a year later via Buster Douglas. Maybe his other best display was against Lewis, where he did well early on with the jab until his brittleness cost him. Against McCall he was completely gassed and hanging on at the end. The fights he actually won by stoppage don't make huge reading: A faded Bugner, Carl Williams, who'd been ko'd 1 by Tyson and Tommy Morrison. He didn't like facing big punchers so avoided a lot of names, including Gary Mason who was British HW champion during Bruno's stop start career. An entertaining fighter but definitely C class for the most.