Frank Bruno

Frank Bruno, born Franklin Roy Bruno, was an African-British boxer who was a former WBC heavyweight champion. He was born on November 16, 1961 in London, England. He showed interest in boxing at age 9 and practiced at the local Wandsworth Boys Club. His boxing skills were developed while he was in Sussex at the Oak Hall School, which was an institution for delinquent minors.

At 18, he became the youngest amateur champion of Britain. He was only 19 years old when he became a professional boxer in 1980. Nicknamed "True Brit", he caught sports media attention when he was able to win all 21 successive boxing competitions via knockout. However, his record of no losses was stained when he was defeated by American James Smith in March 1984. Smith knocked him out at the final round of their ten-round fight and prevented Bruno’s victory who was leading in points in the scorecards of all three judges. The second time that he lost in a contest by being knocked out despite he was leading on the cards was in July 1986. He lost to Tim Witherspoon whom he challenged for the WBA World Heavyweight Championship. In April of the same year and previous to the fight against Witherspoon though, Bruno managed to knock out WBA champion Gerrie Coetzee at Wembley.

In 1989, the referee stopped Mike Tyson in the 5th round during the latter’s unified world Heavyweight title bout against Bruno as the latter already took heavy punishments on the ropes. Bruno won several fights after that but again lost in 1993 to Lennox Lewis in round seven. It was not until September 1995 though that Bruno finally became World Champion by defeating Oliver McCall after 12 rounds. However, his being world champion was short-lived when he was beat by Tyson in a round three in their rematch. That competition was his last as a professional boxer.

In his entire boxing career, Bruno had a total of 45 fights. Out of these fights, he won 40 and won by KO in 8.