Joe Bugner sadly passed away earlier this week with tributes having poured in for the iconic boxer but some would argue that despite his status he didn’t achieve what he should have done
When I look back at my youth the late Joe Bugner was as big a star as any, a huge character in Seventies Britain and Ireland and better known than some of the world champions we had.
He was on all the talk shows and with his impressive dimensions and striking, blue-eyed looks, he was all box office. Bugner could not have had a better platform to rule the world. Things came easy to him because he was so naturally talented, big and strong.
Yet the one thing you need to succeed he did not possess. Without fire in your belly it is not going to work. Bugner was a prime example of that.
Yes he moved to Australia and had some success fighting as Aussie Joe but it’s about levels and despite taking some great fighters the distance at his peak, the greatness on offer proved beyond him.
At 6ft 4ins Bugner was enormous. Nature gave him everything; size, power and skill, but that elemental something was missing.
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That fabled sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney described him as having “the physique of a Greek statue but with fewer moves”. He was a huge boxing figure nonetheless.
He lost to peak Muhammad Ali twice on points, went the distance with peak Joe Frazier, hurt him at one stage, but did not take the opportunity to empty the tank and get him out of there.
He just seemed happy to be in the ring with those guys. No. Joe. In that position you want to rip their heads off and if you go down, as you did against Frazier, get up and fight ferociously.
The Henry Cooper fight in 1971 was a defining moment for him. I shared the majority view that Cooper won, but Bugner got the nod by a quarter point and people hated him for it.
Though he lost his pro debut by stoppage, and later fell to veteran Jack Bodell, he was good enough to beat Jimmy Ellis and push the great Ron Lyle all the way, losing only by split decision, an incredible performance.
When he fought Frank Bruno in 1987 he was an old man, losing by TKO. That should have been it, but like so many, he didn’t know when to stop and in 1998, aged 48, claimed the scalp of an equally ancient Bonecrusher Smith for something called the WBF title.
But for boxing fans of a certain vintage, who grew up watching Bugner with their fathers on ‘Sportsnight with Coleman’, Harry Carpenter on the mic, Bugner was an unforgettable sight, if not quite the sum of his parts. RIP big man.
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