Frank Bruno was born on November 16, 1961. He grew up with five siblings in Wandsworth, where his parents settled after moving from the Caribbean. Depressed by the temptations of a diminutive crime, Bruno found relief in the gym, and from the age of 14 he gave his energy to his muscles.

Until 1980, Bruno won the championship in hefty weight ABA and developed an amateur record of 20-1.

On March 17, 1982, Bruno abandoned the merit of the amateur ranks and became a professional. His first opponent was Lupe Guerra at Royal Albert Hall. Bruno won in the round. Many called a pliable operator for London, but the Mexican was a popular choice for talented. Over the next three years, Guerra was detained by the upcoming Tony Tucker, the past of Jerry Kamieniołom and the returning Leon Spinks.

The quality of the Bruno opposition was criticized by his entire career. The first perceived test took place in 1983, in its 15^th Bout, against the disappearing pretender for Fringe, Scott Ledoux. The Canadian lost in seven rounds with Larry Holmes in the title of WBC the shot three years earlier and did not fight again after Bruno hit him in three. After Ledoux – who also faced the anger of Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Greg Page, Gerrie Coetzee and Mike Weaver – announced the most hard Bruno strokes.

The crisis almost hit in October 1983 against the muscular American Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings. A resident of Chicago had an aging Joe Frazier for a draw in 1981, but since then he has not won – against good opposition. When the opening round came to an end, Bruno struck badly from the massive right hand and hit his corner like a whipped man. Admittedly, he fought, winning in seventh place, but his reaction to this early blow haunted him for the rest of his career.

In May 1984, Bruno lost for the first time, throwing out the huge points that lead to James “Bonecrusher” Smith, who stopped the British in the final round. Bruno dominated his brilliant stab for nine rounds, but he fell under an unexpected dam in 10^th.

Bruno’s second defeat took place two years later. He rebuilt for Bonecrushing, defeating Anders Ekludd for the European title and former master Gerrie Coetzee. But in July 1986, the WBA master Tim Witherspoon survived the thrilling challenge before he stopped Bruno in 11^th session. Bruno again showed weakness under fire.

The bitten Bruno was already extremely popular and soon returned to the competition. In February 1989 he was adapted to the fear of a heavyweight leader, Mike Tyson. It started badly – it was within 30 seconds – but he arose and shook the allegedly invincible man before the end of the opening round. But his challenge eventually ended in a failure when the newborn Slayer overpowered Substantial Frank in five.

Another opportunity for world glory capitulated in 1993, when Counthman and the head of WBC Lennox Lewis recovered from a snail-paced start and defeated a unique boxing from his opponent, he battered Bruno in the seventh round.

If you are not successful at the beginning, try again. Bruno, to the joy of the nation, won the global heavyweight version in 1995, defeating Oliver McCall through Nerva, but she deserved exactly the 12-round decision at Wembley. Bruno was perfect, but his success was compact -lived when Tyson broke the title of WBC the following year in three rounds. It was the most one -sided defeat of his career and after revealing an eye injury, Frank Ememerce. Away from the ring Bruno fought to cope with the launch of depression. The Englishman is still fighting demons.

Ask everyone who attends meetings of former boxers’ associations in northern England, and everyone will tell you that Alan Richardson is one of the nicest people you can meet. For the first time I met Alan about 12 years ago, when I went to EBA meetings of the Leeds Association. I was immediately hit by how modest this man is. The photo on these pages shows a man with a real warrior, cool eyes, a steel expression and a challenging man’s appearance. Alan was all in the ring, but outside the ropes he is a tranquil, worthy and popular man. He is another of these masters from the 70s who are threatened with forgetfulness and shame.

IN Boxing news“The last series in the 50 best competitions in Great Britain, in the ranking of Alan’s war with Lesem Pickett at 31. It was not the only challenging scrap in which Alan took part, and I especially remember his dust with Vernon Sollas and Evan Armstrong, both in terms of the British featherweight title.
The Wakefield Alan, Alan white rose product created great waves as an amateur. He was beaten in the semi -final of both the European Championships in 1969 and the Games of the Nations Community in 1970. He won the championship in the featherweight in 1969, increasing his victory in 1965 as a junior. He is related to Jimmy Kid Richardson, a veteran of 65 professional competitions in the 1930s, and he was born and raised in Fitzwilliam, located strongly on Coalfield Yorkshire, perhaps inevitable that he would start working as an mining engineer.

Alan has never been a single -pound finisher, but the cumulative effects of the very number of challenging, true and speedy blows he threw often wore his opponent. A good example is his victory in 1973 over Billy Hardacre for the central featherweight title in the competition fighting at the Adelphi Hotel in the hometown of Hardacre, Liverpool. Billy twice defeated the developing Richardson in challenging fights, but using the exact left stab and maintaining relentless pressure during a full ten rounds, Alan won his first title in this third meeting.

The council made the match an eliminator of the British title, and in the following year Alan had a chance. Evan Armstrong, one of the best masters in this weight, appeared after 11 rounds of titanic fight. Alan had a great advantage of 10, but Evan turned him with a huge left hook. In the real style of Richardson, Alan left the wardrobe after the fight to find Armstrong, tired and stretched on several chairs, trying to recover after his attempt. Alan told him: “If I had to lose, I am glad that I lost to such a great warrior and a good athlete like you.”

Evan told the press that the fight against Richardson was “the most challenging fight I’ve ever had. Richardson is man. About nine and 10. I started to think that he could be too sturdy for me. He just came back to me. He has so much heart!”

Armstrong gave Richardson a ladbroke trophy, which was awarded with the Lonsdale belt after the competition, because he did not think that Alan should leave empty -handed. They both showed such great respect. Unfortunately, Evan is no longer with us, but Alan is still gaining respect – but maybe not as much as he should.

Alan achieved his goal, winning the British title three years later, when he separated Vernon Sollas in eight rounds in the town hall in Leeds. After Eddie Ndukwu beaten for the empty title of Commonwealth in Lagos a few weeks later, Alan gained his first successful defense with this classic against Pickett.

Going to the third level, Alan was beaten by Dave Needham. He did not win the belt straight, but he won almost everything and was a great warrior.

1. Reduction of 15-order
   After the death of Deuk Koo Kim during the fight with Ray Mancini in 1983, WBC issued a principle that stated that the maximum distance for the fight for the championship would be 12 rounds.
2. I weigh at least 24 hours earlier
   Due to the fears of weakening of the boxers due to the weight production process, and then the fight on the same day as the indicator, the day before the introduction of defects.
3. Intermediate weight classes
   Sport once had only eight classes, but now it has 17 (well, 18, if you include the producing weight). WBC introduced several novel divisions, recently in weight, super-medium weight and circuitous weight.
4. Gloves without your thumbs
   In 1983, Everlast created the first thumb glove and was accepted by WBC due to fears related to eye injuries associated with the “thumb”. Today, the thumb is attached.
5. Doping tests
   WBC were one of the first to enforce doping tests after the fight, and in 2016 introduced their immaculate boxing program, which required the fighters to want to be classified to register in random tests.
6. Retired
   Masters who retire, still having the title of WBC, are usually awarded with the status of a “retired”, which means that if they return, they will automatically get a shot to the current master. Vitali Klitschko [above] He started it in 2008, when he returned to defeat Samuel Piotr.
7. Four ropes
   It often happened that boxing rings have only three ropes, but WBC made it obligatory for all rings to put up the championships that consist of four.
8. Diamond Championships
   A bit nonsense championship that appears in the “historical” battle in the division. Manny Pacquiao won the first welterweight division when he defeated Miguel Cotto in 2009.
9. WBC Cares
   The organization performs a significant charity work with WBC Cares, which since founded in 2006 has over 160 volunteers around the world (their British branch is managed by Scott Welch).
10. Franchise championship
    The franchise championships, which were introduced with great mockery in 2019, are different than diamond, silver, transient titles and allows masters to move between divisions, ignoring mandatory obligations and doing almost what they like. Probably it’s best not to start with this …

Read our interview with the President of WBC Mauricio Sulaiman HERE