JEFF POWELL: 25 years ago Frank Bruno took on Iron Mike for a second time despite eyesight fears

On the way down to his second fight against the most ferociously destructive fighter in the world Frank Bruno paused to visit his wife in her Las Vegas hotel suite.

By chance Mrs Laura Bruno had checked into the room next to mine in the MGM Grand, so I could not help but over-hear their agitated conversation.

The exact wordings constitute a privacy which is not for me to disclose and I will always continue to respect that inadvertent confidentiality.

On Tuesday, it will be 25 years to the day that Frank Bruno (right) took on Mike Tyson (left) for a second time

On Tuesday, it will be 25 years to the day that Frank Bruno (right) took on Mike Tyson (left) for a second time

But the most striking aspect of their discussion offered an extraordinary insight into the extent of the bravery it required for Bruno to risk his eyesight against Mike Tyson a second time. And perhaps his life.

That took a level of heroism of which he should be immensely proud. A strength of character deserving of recognition. Not least as he reaches on Tuesday the 25th anniversary of that date with a brutal destiny.

Our Frank has always insisted that he was unafraid of Iron Mike. Despite Tyson’s reputation as the baddest man and most venomous puncher on the planet. Even though he had felt the full force of that explosive power in their first encounter.

That trades into the narrative of most boxers in a refusal to admit fear in the ring. That is a matter of both natural pride and a reluctance to surrender a psychological advantage. But in reality the vast majority of prize-fighters experience varying degrees of apprehension before any and every fight.

Most of all if it came to engaging Tyson, who terrorised almost all his opponent until those fires of social anger and ghetto aggression blazing within him flickered and died.

Bruno’s first chilling experience of the Iron Mike phenomenon had come six years earlier, on February 25 1989, at the Hilton Hotel in Vegas. At that point – unabashed by one-punch knock-outs by James Bonecrusher Smith and Tim Witherspoon and still confident of his own concussive power – he was still full of enough self-belief to recover from a first minute knock-down and buckle Tyson’s knees in the closing seconds of the first round. That mighty left hook was described by the unified world heavyweight champion as ‘one of the hardest punches I ever took in my life. 

Bruno risked his eyesight and possibly his life during the pair's second fight in 1996

Bruno risked his eyesight and possibly his life during the pair’s second fight in 1996

The British boxer refused to admit fear in the ring as he bravely fought the American

The British boxer refused to admit fear in the ring as he bravely fought the American

One American commentator observed: ‘Not sure it’s a good idea to upset Mike like that.’ Sure enough, the real beating began. Bruno took sustained punishment, interspersed by spasmodic punches of his own and repetitive holding for which he was given a number of warnings and had what would be an irrelevant point deducted. 

Until the fifth, when a torrent of hammer blows as he stood inert against the ropes brought both his trainer Terry Lawless and referee Richard Steele hurrying to stop the slaughter.

Bruno continued his obsessive quest for a world championship, coming close to knocking out Lennox Lewis on a cold night in what was then Cardiff Arms Park before being stopped by his fellow Englishman in the seventh.

Still Big Frank came again, finally to claim the WBC belt by outpointing Oliver McCall at Wembley Stadium. To his delirium and to the rapture of this country.

Like Lewis before him – perhaps in his case at irritation with Bruno’s massive popularity with the white as well as black communities in England – McCall cruelly and falsely labelled him an ‘Uncle Tom.’

‘That hurt,’ said Bruno. As McCall found out. But in order to secure that fight Frank had to accept promoter Don King’s complicated contractual terms that he must defend his long-earned, hard-won and briefly-held title against Tyson.

Which brought us to the night of March 16, 1996 in the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Iron Mike was on his way back from the wrong end of the Upset Of The Century, by Buster Douglas, and three years in jail for a rape conviction after which he was not expected to be quite the same fighter. But Bruno knew what was coming.

The fight was brought to an end in the third round after Tyson unleashed a barrage of punches

The fight was brought to an end in the third round after Tyson unleashed a barrage of punches

During his chat with his now ex-wife he expressed fears for his eye-sight, despite him being somehow cleared by British Boxing Board of Control medics to fight with a detached retina. He talked of Tyson’s power and how he was going ahead mostly to secure a few more million dollars more for the family’s future.

Laura made it clear this was no more than she had come to expect of her brave man. Then she wished him well and sent him on his way to meet the fate awaiting him in that Garden of glory but sometimes broken dreams.

Bruno’s anxiety became public as this devout man of faith crossed himself umpteen times on his walk to the ring. There a baleful Tyson was waiting, as the challenger, ominously stripped ready for business to his black shorts and boots.

There would be no rocking of Iron Mike this time. Tyson’s opening barrage gashed Bruno’s left eye and the pain kept raining down until the first minute of the third round. Then, with the ropes keeping him upright with the help of one knee braced against the bottom of those strands, referee Mills Lane was left with no option but to call a merciful halt.

Bruno, 59, is still standing tall and brave a quarter of a century on from the famous bout

Bruno, 59, is still standing tall and brave a quarter of a century on from the famous bout

It takes intestinal fortitude for any man, or woman now, to climb through those ropes. But against Tyson! There is no shame in Bruno’s sense of foreboding. Rather, it demands even more courage of a yet higher order to go in there and fight against fear.

At the end of what would be his last fight, Laura was among the first to embrace her hero. Our hero. And I was grateful for the glimpse into that huge heart which had been given me unwittingly through those thin bedroom walls.

That bravery has persisted, also, throughout Frank’s lengthy struggle against an opponent even more fearsome than Tyson. His bipolar disorder, including sectioning under the Mental Health Act, of which he can say now: ‘I’ve learnt that this is a terrible fight but one you can win if you live your life right.’

A quarter of a century on, at 59, Frank Bruno is still standing. As he was when officials called an end to his second pounding by Mike Tyson. Still tall. Still strong. Still brave beyond the call of duty.

source: dailymail.co.uk