A Champion's Last Fight by Nick Parkinson

Author:Nick Parkinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2016-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fighting depression and the risk of CTE

Las Vegas, 16 March 1996 – Big Frank looks like a condemned man shuffling to the guillotine as he makes his way to the ring, repeatedly crossing himself. The stillness and silence of the dressing room have been replaced by the sudden horror of what he is about to face under the lights at the MGM Grand. He has been here before; he felt the wrath of Mike Tyson in Las Vegas seven years ago and now he is back, as world heavyweight champion. But his status and the chants of ‘Broono, Broono’ do not embolden him. Big Frank’s mind is in turmoil, pestered by the pain of his previous fight with Iron Mike and an injury to his right eye. Tyson, not long out of jail after being convicted of rape, is pacing around the ring like a hungry lion in a cage and he can’t wait to get at Big Frank, who is getting $6million for being served up to the former champion. Reminding himself about the money is no comfort either right now for Big Frank, who thinks ‘nothing in life can be as tough as this’.

FOR all their success at world title level and coverage on terrestrial television, Charlie Magri, Alan Minter and Lloyd Honeyghan were not British boxing’s biggest star of the 1980s – Frank Bruno was. Bruno was loved not because of his boxing finess, nor always for the excitement he generated in the ring, but because of his booming laugh and camaraderie with BBC commentator Harry Carpenter in post-fight interviews, with the catch-phrase ‘Know what I mean ’Arry?’ Also, Bruno won admirers for his dogged determination that eventually saw him fulfil his goal and the nation rejoiced in his triumph. The British public followed Bruno throughout his career, from pointless knock-over jobs at the Royal Albert Hall to the more dangerous assignments when Big Frank’s capability was brutally exposed. Bruno, whose muscular body was as perfect as a Michaelangelo sculpture, had to contend with a heavyweight division that was vastly superior in competition to what it has been since 2000. And the most menacing figure of all was Mike Tyson, who Bruno twice encountered. Fighting Tyson when Bruno did was no easy thing, but post-boxing Bruno has had tougher battles.

Franklin Roy Bruno was born in Hammersmith on 16 November 1961 and was the youngest of six children. Despite being thought of as a gentle giant by the British public, Bruno was troublesome in his youth; he was expelled for fighting with a teacher from a primary school in Wandsworth, south-west London, and was then sent to a borstal school in Sussex by his religious mother, Lynette, who was concerned about his behaviour. Bruno’s father died when he was 16 and by then he was boxing. It was Terry Lawless who spotted Bruno as an amateur and in 1982 he made his professional debut at the Royal Albert Hall. After a charmed existence against limited opposition, Bruno failed when he was stepped up in class and matched against James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith.

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