Frank Bruno: Mentality

Hello again guys!

Not been very active recently, I've been training a lot (not for a world title fight before anyone starts ) and I've found myself winding down watching old British Heavyweights like Cooper and Bruno etc and it got me thinking about Bruno (not like that )

If Bruno had that killer instinct, the ability to step up to the plate, how far would he have gone? Imagine for an instant, he knocked out Mike Tyson in the first round in 1989. instead of having his rabbit caught in the headlights moment, he waded in and destroyed "the baddest man on the planet" before Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis had chance and dispelled the myth, and before Buster put on the performance of a lifetime. Where would Bruno have gone from there? Would he have stepped up and taken on Evander holyfield with the confidence he'd put out the man, the myth, the legend that is PRIME MIKE EATS DYNAMITE AND CRAPS POWER METAL TYSON and beaten Holyfield? Would he have then gone on and instead of slowing down against Lennox, felt the confidence in his abilities to walk through Lennox Lewis' punches and hurt him? Would Bruno have lost to Buster Douglas?

What I'm asking is in an alternative universe, if Bruno had beaten PRIME STEAK Tyson, where would we put him?

Alternatively....where would Tyson have gone?

Wow, popular article....

You're a popular guy.

Nice stuff, JM.

I think that, even if he'd have pulled the upset against Tyson, Bruno's weaknesses were always a little too apparent and prominent for him to have had any great reign as Heavyweight champion. I can understand the scope for fantasy here, as beating Tyson would certainly have been an incredible confidence booster, but confidence was never really Bruno's problem to begin with, if we discount the final fight of his career. In fact, you could argue that displaying more balls than brain was the sole reason that Frank lost that fight against Bonecrusher, and it certainly played a part in him unraveling against Witherspoon.

Holyfield, almost invariably, stops Bruno late on. A fight with Douglas depends on which Buster turns up, and likewise, I don't think that Bruno, even with the scalp of Tyson, would have been able to beat Lewis all that often.

A couple of successful defences against the Williamses and Ribaltas of this world before either losing a rematch with Tyson or a showdown with Holyfield would be my best guess.

Union Cane wrote:You're a popular guy.

Bruno's confidence in the run-up to the rematch with Tyson was visibly more apparent than at any other time in his career. Even at the weigh-in, you could see that he genuinely believed he could win (Tyson had looked average in his comeback against sub-par opposition). However, Bruno unravelled mentally on the walk to the ring, although it's still open to debate as to whether it was fear of Tyson or the fact he'd been told his eyes were so bad, one punch in the wrong spot could blind him permenantly.

Anyway, as Chris alludes to,Bruno's short-comings as a fighter weren't going to be improved by a prolonged stint as world Champion. His inability to cope with being tagged was always going to be hi undoing and, as he fought a higher calibre of opposition, he was going to come unstuck eventually.

As for Tyson, no doubt he'd have come back...again and probably fought for whichever version of the HW crown Bruno would ultimately lose.

Union Cane wrote:You're a popular guy.

I can't help but think though Chris - perhaps Bruno beat Tyson and really became the boxer he showed spurts of being, if he'd became the undisputed heavyweight champion, I think he'd probably have put more into his technical game and relied less on his bodybuilder physique and incredible strength. Maybe he'd have been given the advice that perhaps his blowing a hole through Tyson was due to timing and luck.

I agree however that the Holyfield that Tyson faced stops Bruno late on, I don't think the version of Bruno we all saw had anything other than raw power to bomb through Holyfield with, and I think it may have been further detrimental to Bruno if he faced Lewis thinking he was going to mow through him as Lewis demonstrated so many times, he invites that sort of attitude and then deals with them ruthlessly.

Just a fanciful shot at a what if scenario

JabMachineMK2 wrote:

Union Cane wrote:You're a popular guy.

I can't help but think though Chris - perhaps Bruno beat Tyson and really became the boxer he showed spurts of being, if he'd became the undisputed heavyweight champion, I think he'd probably have put more into his technical game and relied less on his bodybuilder physique and incredible strength. Maybe he'd have been given the advice that perhaps his blowing a hole through Tyson was due to timing and luck.

I agree however that the Holyfield that Tyson faced stops Bruno late on, I don't think the version of Bruno we all saw had anything other than raw power to bomb through Holyfield with, and I think it may have been further detrimental to Bruno if he faced Lewis thinking he was going to mow through him as Lewis demonstrated so many times, he invites that sort of attitude and then deals with them ruthlessly.

Just a fanciful shot at a what if scenario

Not in a month of Sunday's. Bruno was a gym rat and by all accounts, he had to be dragged from the gym to stop him "leaving it all on the floor". Training was his life and he relied on his size to generate the power in his shots. Without his physique, Bruno would still not have developed any real speed or sharpness to cope with the more fleet-footed HW out there. Bruno was a manufactured fighter in the sense that he lacked any real instincts, they had to be drilled into him and he then went OTT with them once learned. Point in case being his inability to grab hold when hit.hurt. Post-Bonecrusher, Bruno went to the other end of the spectrum and was forever grabbing hold (and hitting behind the head). He was almost disqualified in his rematch with Tyson.

My greatest fear would have be a fight between Bruno and Akinwande

it wasn't bruno's mentality that lost him the fight, tyson was on another level skill wise. killer instinct can only get you so far.

he was good, but he simply wasnt the same class as the likes of evander.

If , and it's still a massive if, Frank had followed up and achieved the unthinkable and won, an instant rematch with the opposite result would have been what followed, and Frank would have retired a happy man. Having viewed the fight a few times I think that we may all have wanted to believe that Tyson was more hurt than he actually was- he recovered pretty quickly. On one of Tysons worst nights he won every round and scored a fight round stoppage- the gulf is class was huge and in reality Frank was never gonig to breach it.

Likewise, Horizontal, I've often thought that the reports of Bruno 'nearly knocking Tyson out' are slightly overblown. It was a damn good left hook by Bruno, don't get me wrong, but as you say within seconds it was Bruno being forced to cover up as Tyson began to tee off.

I don't think Tyson was any more rocked and / or hurt by Bruno than he was in that first round against Tucker, to be honest.

that punch is one of the most over rated punches in history.