Frank Bruno firmly believes that one of his former opponents, who had the strength of a ‘baboon’, was most likely a performance-enhancing drug (PED) cheat.
Having been stopped in his previous three attempts, it seemed that the stars finally aligned for the Londoner on that night at Wembley Stadium, London, where he convincingly dethroned McCall and claimed the WBC heavyweight title.
Unfortunately for him, this achievement came at a time when he had already amassed over 40 professional fights and, at the age of 33, was undoubtedly coming towards the end of his career.
Nevertheless, his title reign may have been extended, even if just by a couple of defences, if not for his rematch with Tyson in 1996.
Their first encounter, around seven years prior, had seen ‘Iron Mike’ put on a truly destructive display to halt a brave but battered Bruno inside five rounds.
The trajectory of Bruno’s story, therefore, was largely up and down, but when reflecting on his career as a whole, the former world champion suspects that he may have been at an unfair disadvantage on more than one occasion.
Speaking with Clubhouse, Bruno insists that several of his opponents were likely on PEDs, with one man, in particular, being known for his extraordinary strength.
“I know some people who I’ve fought – I’m not going to say their names – but yes, I do know some people that have definitely [taken performance-enhancing drugs].”
“You know the strength of a human being when you go in the ring, and when someone comes in there like a baboon – I’ve now seen a baboon but this guy was very, very, very scary … I didn’t know [before I got in the ring] but I had a feeling. He’s a nice guy, but he’s not right. He was strong. If a gorilla came in the room, it was like that sort of feeling. It’s dangerous. And he got away with it.”
