Franklin ‘Frank’ Bruno retired from professional boxing, on medical advice,on August 30, 1996, having made an unsuccessful first defence of his WBC world heavyweight title against Mike Tyson at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on March 16 that year. That third-round technical knockout was, in fact, the second defeat of his career by Tyson, having suffered a similar fate when ultimately overwhelmed, late in the fifth round, at the Las Vegas Hilton on February 25, 1989, when challenging for the IBF, WBA and WBC world heavyweight titles.
Bruno finished his highly publicised professional boxing career with a record of 40-5-0, including 38 knockouts. He was often a figure of fun, thanks, in no small part, to his repartee with BBC boxing commentator Harry Carpenter, but it should not be forgotten that four of his five defeats came in world title fights. The other one, which was the first of his career, came against James ‘Boncrusher’ Smith at Wembley Arena on May 13, 1984. Defending a perfect 20-0-0 record, Bruno succumbed to a hopeful, but ulmiately successful, flurry of punches and was knocked out after 1:46 of the tenth and final round.
Before winning the WBC world heavyweight title, courtesy of a unanimous decision against Oliver McCall at Wembley Stadium on September 2, 1995, Bruno made three unsuccessful challenges for a world title. His first attempt, at the WBA world heavyweight title, at Wembley Stadium on July 19, 1986, ended with an eleventh-round technical knockout by Tim Witherspoon, when his corner threw in the towel to prevent further punishment. Following his first defeat by Tyson, on October 1, 1998, Bruno challenged the hitherto unbeaten Lennox Lewis for the WBC world heavyweight title at the National Stadium in Cardiff. In the first minute of the seventh round, Lewis stunned the Hammersmith-born fighter with a perfect left hook and unleashed a series of unanswered right hands, forcing the referee to step in and end the flight.
