“IN THE late 1980s through to the mid-1990s, the sporting public had Ian Botham, Gazza [Paul Gascoigne] and Frank Bruno,” says Paul Dempsey, a sports commentator for more than four decades.
“Frank was the best loved. The public loved his personality and his spirit. He refused to believe he wouldn’t be world champion. Every time the bubble was pricked, he came back, and every time he came back, the public’s affection for him grew.”
The bubble was pricked by Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis.
Bruno had his moments against all three before being stopped in world title challenges and, in 1995, Frank Warren, his promoter, hatched a plan to get ‘Big Frank’ a fourth shot.
“I was working with Don King at the time and he was looking for someone for [WBC champion] Oliver McCall,” Warren tells Boxing News.
“I said to Don: ‘Put him in with Frank Bruno. He’s got no chance.’
“I said it would do really good numbers at Wembley Stadium and Don couldn’t do much with McCall. He wasn’t a massive draw.
“Don had done a deal with Mike Tyson while he was in prison. Tyson was going to have one fight when he came out and then fight for the title. I said to Don: ‘Beat Bruno and then make the Tyson fight.’ I kept going on about it, and in the end we did it.”
Wembley Stadium was booked for September 2, 1995.
“There were no Olympics or major football tournaments that summer and the fight was built up through the summer,” says Dempsey, who presented Sky Sports’ coverage of Bruno-McCall.
“It was huge. There was massive interest. It felt as though the whole of Britain would be watching that fight.”
McCall was known to the British audience for shocking Lennox Lewis at Wembley Arena 12 months previously, and Dempsey sensed a different mood when the ‘Atomic Bull’ crossed the Atlantic to make a second defence of the title.
“People didn’t care that much about McCall beating Lennox in London, but they cared a lot when he fought Bruno,” he says.
“People would watch Frank fight and think: ‘Don’t do this to our Frank.’ They didn’t want to see him beaten and heartbroken again.”
Warren fancied that wouldn’t happen after watching McCall outpoint 45-year-old Larry Holmes in his first title defence.
“I went with [late trainer] George Francis and watched McCall box Larry Holmes,” says Warren.
“Larry was one of my favourite fighters and, though he wasn’t at his best anymore, he was giving McCall problems with his jab, and I said to George: ‘That’s the key.’ Frank had a long reach and a big jab.
“I also said to George: ‘Work on what happens in the later stages. Keep walking on to McCall. Don’t give him any space.’”
Bruno had fallen apart late against James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith and Tim Witherspoon – in 10 and 11 rounds, respectively – after seizing early control.
Dempsey sensed that as his career went on, Bruno’s conditioning improved.
Bruno added conditioner Keith Morton to his team, and Dempsey says: “Frank would do whatever it took to improve himself by 1%. He did a lot of swimming.”
But doubts remained over his ability to hold a shot, and McCall could bang.
“Frank didn’t know what to do when he was clipped,” says Dempsey. “He didn’t move his feet or get behind his jab. It didn’t look very natural to him.”
Glenn McCrory, the former IBF cruiserweight champion, went along with that and also knew how dangerous McCall was, having sparred countless rounds with him when they were sparring partners for Mike Tyson a decade earlier.
“McCall was a nutcase,” says McCrory, who commentated on the fight for Sky Sports. “You wouldn’t want to run into him in a backstreet in Chicago. He was always on the edge.
“I saw him have wars with Mike Tyson. McCall tried to beat him up. If Lennox went into the first fight with McCall knowing what I knew about him, he would have given him more respect.”
That one-punch knockout led to another trip to London 12 months later.
“McCall looked a very lonesome character that week,” says Dempsey. “He was fighting a whole country.”
McCrory sensed the same. “When you are so close to it, you wonder how many people are going to be watching ?” he says. “But everywhere I went, people were asking: ‘What do you think of the fight?’ The question on everyone’s lips was, ‘Can he do it?’, and it wasn’t just boxing fans asking. Everyone wanted to know.”
There were 23,000 fans at Wembley Stadium to watch Bruno make his fourth bid for the world championship and millions more poured into bars and clubs up and down the country to watch on big screens.
Warren looked to have the worst view of any of them. He was sitting behind Nigel Benn, who had defended his WBC super-middleweight title earlier that night and spent the entire Bruno-McCall fight on his feet at ringside.
Warren reveals to Boxing News: “I put Nigel on one side of the ring and Naz [Prince Naseem Hamed] on the other. I told them to keep jumping up and down and shouting. McCall was always looking out of the ring and I wanted them to get his attention.”
McCall was a complex character and cameras spotted him close to tears as he left his changing room.
McCrory remembers the atmosphere as “nervous”, and that extended to Bruno.
“Being a fighter, you try to read them, and Frank looked so nervous,” he says, “and it did look all the way through as if one punch and it could all turn bad.”
Bruno fights were like that. His chin and stamina had let him down, but he had a thumping jab, and that helped him seize control on this night.
“It was textbook,” says McCrory. “Get to the centre of the ring, jab and keep him on the back foot; don’t let him get on the front foot.
“It fell apart [for Bruno] when he let Witherspoon hit him and get on the front foot.”
Bruno landed a heavy right in the opening round as well, curving the punch to knock McCall off-balance and into the ropes.
Bruno didn’t follow up. McCall had never been stopped in his 26-5 career and had reportedly sparred 300 rounds with Tyson without being dropped. Bruno expected a long night.
The crowd cheered every punch Bruno threw in the second and, though he didn’t land everything, he left McCall with a swelling under his right eye by the end of the round.
Warren had told Francis and Bruno that workrate could win the fight, and McCall hadn’t done an awful lot in the opening six minutes.
McCrory says: “That fight showed what a crowd can do. They gave Bruno a bit more and they took something from McCall. The crowd can make you wary. It’s as if you think everyone will jump in the ring and fill you in if you launch a big attack.
“It looked to me as if McCall was scared to upset the crowd. Put McCall and Bruno in the Trump Plaza Hotel and McCall would have jumped all over him, no doubt about it.”
Instead, they fought at Wembley Stadium and it wasn’t until the fourth that McCall tried to put anything together as he looked to get his jab working.
Two of the judges gave the round to McCall and in the dying seconds of the session the champion nodded towards his corner as though everything was going according to plan.
But there was no shift in the fight. Not yet, anyway. Bruno kept doing more, following the instructions Benn barked out from ringside: “Don’t let him back you up” and “use the jab.”
The jab won him the ninth on all the cards after McCall started positively, but then there was a big drive from the champion in the 10th.
He couldn’t land the right-hand bomb that had laid out Lewis, and Bruno landed a combination that had the crowd singing: “We love you Bruno, we do.”
The nation willed Bruno to stay on his feet for the last six minutes as McCall slung heavy shots in the 11th that had Bruno holding and his mouth hanging open.
McCrory remembers: “It got really shaky. You were thinking: ‘McCall is going to get him’ …“
Bruno had his nose and mouth bloodied – but he stayed on his feet.
“He wanted it so badly,” says Dempsey. “Those last six minutes were something else.”
McCall threw everything he had left at Bruno in the last three minutes, but Bruno kept his chin out of harm’s way and a nation celebrated after scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 115-113 confirmed him as the new champion.
“Nobody is going to put Frank Bruno in their top 10 fighters in Britain in terms of ability,” says Dempsey. “He did it with bottle and doggedness. He just wanted it so badly and he ended up as WBC heavyweight champion.”
