The Man Who Fought Them All
speak English and adjusted to his new country’s traditions. By his teens, Bugner had grown to 6 feet 2 inches, and his athleticism was such that he was a three-time national schoolboy discus champion. He was first exposed to boxing at age 13, and by 16, he was selected to compete internationally as a member of England’s under-18 team. After returning home and passing an entry test to secure an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner on nuclear submarines, a co-worker who recognized his boxing talent advised him to bypass this “real job” and become a full-time boxer. Bugner entered the pro ring in December 1967 following a 13-3 amateur career, and the overconfident 17-year-old was stopped in three rounds by the 1-3 Paul Brown. Bugner rebounded six weeks later with a two-round TKO of Paul Cassidy, the first entry in what would become an 18-fight winning streak that included two KOs over Brown. An eight-round referee’s decision loss to 41-fight veteran Dick Hall stalled his progress, but the following 13-0-1 stretch that included wins over Manuel Ramos, Ray Patterson (Floyd Patterson’s younger brother), Brian London and Chuck Wepner earned Bugner an opportunity to fight Henry Cooper, who held the British, Commonwealth and European championships. At 36, “Our ’Enry” was a godlike figure to the British public and press, and both factions turned heavily against the 21-year-old Bugner after referee Harry Gibbs, the lone scoring official, declared him the winner by the narrowest of margins under England’s fractional scoring system: 73¾ to 73½. Worse yet for Bugner, Cooper never fought again, and though Bugner said in his book he offered Cooper a rematch on three occasions, Cooper stuck by his decision. The two men publicly resolved their differences in 2008, three years before
Cooper’s death at age 76. “It would have been terrible for either of us to pass away without letting bygones be bygones,” Bugner said upon Cooper’s passing. “Life is too short. And hell, we certainly did give people their money’s worth.” Bugner lost the trifecta of titles to veteran southpaw Jack Bodell two fights later, but a subsequent nine-fight winning streak between March 1972 and January 1973 earned Bugner a fight against former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, who had assembled his own string of nine victories after his legendary loss to Joe Frazier. The two originally met in 1969, when Bugner helped Ali prepare for his return from exile, and while the pair formed a friendship, those feelings were put aside during their February 1973 match in Las Vegas. It was only Bugner’s second fight on U.S. soil (he won a 10-round decision over Mike Boswell in Houston on the Ali-Buster Mathis undercard), and he acquitted himself so well in losing the 12-round decision that he even won over the often-critical Howard Cosell. Bugner met the freshly-dethroned Joe Frazier in London less than five months later, and “Smokin’ Joe’s” 10th-round knockdown helped him earn the 59¼- 58½ nod from referee Gibbs. In a 2013 interview with The Ring, Bugner called Frazier “the most vicious fighter of that era,” saying the punishment he suffered was “the closest thing to dying I had ever experienced,” something Ali would also say of Frazier after “The Thrilla in Manila.” Bugner bounced back by winning his next eight fights, including triumphs over Mac Foster, Jose Luis Garcia and former titleholder Jimmy Ellis. That success earned him what would be his only crack at a widely recognized heavyweight championship: On June 30, 1975, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he met Ali for the second time, and Bugner’s unsensational effort in losing a unanimous decision, which he blamed on the torrid heat and humidity as well as the pressure of the moment, drew heavy rebuke from British media. “Any fighter given the rare
opportunity to bear the most prized crown in sport should be prepared to die in the attempt,” wrote The Sun’s Colin Hart. “Going out with a flourish is better than finishing a flop.” The scorn so deeply hurt Bugner’s then-wife, Melody, that she wanted to move to America. In 1977, he left England for good and, after a few detours, settled in Australia. While he continued to fight in the U.K., he billed himself as “Aussie Joe,” a chasm that was heavily exploited when he faced British hero Frank Bruno in October 1987. Bugner, now 37, was stopped in the eighth, a result that prompted an eight- year retirement. He returned in 1995 at 45 and won the Australian heavyweight title against Vince Cervi, then competed for nearly four more years, winning the lightly-regarded WBF belt in his next- to-last fight when 45-year-old James “Bonecrusher” Smith withdrew after Round 1 due to a shoulder injury. Bugner retired in June 1999 with a 69-13-1 (41 KOs) record following a ninth-round disqualification win over Levi Billups. The depth and breadth of Bugner’s record was extraordinary. In addition to those already named, Bugner faced Greg Page, David Bey, James Tillis, Steffen Tangstad, Anders Eklund, Marvis Frazier, Earnie Shavers, Ron Lyle, Richard Dunn, Rudi Lubbers and Jurgen Blin (twice). In addition to England, Malaysia, Australia and the U.S., he fought in Germany, Denmark, Italy and Ireland. Bugner’s verbal skills and charisma were such that he starred in movies, TV series and reality shows, including The Contender: Australia, but he will be best remembered for his role in arguably the deepest heavyweight era in boxing history. Lee Groves is a boxing writer and historian based in Friendly, West Virginia. He is the author of Tales from the Vault: A Celebration of 100 Boxing Closet Classics and the co-author of Muhammad Ali: By the Numbers. You can contact him via email at l.groves@ frontier.com or send him a message via Facebook and X (@leegrovesboxing).
“I came from Hungary as a six-year-old peasant with nothing, but became world champion. And that little boy who walked out of Hungary is still within me. I don’t take anything for granted, and when I think of all I have seen and done, I feel I am a lucky man.” These words graced the inside cover of Joe Bugner’s 2013 book, Joe Bugner: My Story , and on September 1, the man who fought 83 times over a 31-year career died at 75 at an assisted living facility in Brisbane, Australia, where he’d resided since being diagnosed with dementia. He was born Jozsef Kreul Bugner in Szoreg, Hungary, on March 13, 1950, but a significant portion of his youth was spent displaced. He and his family fled his Soviet- occupied birth nation to Yugoslavia when he was a child and spent approximately 18 months in a refugee camp. They then migrated to England and eventually settled into a three-story house in Bedford. His mother, who was abandoned by Joe’s birth father, remarried and life appeared to stabilize, especially after Bugner learned to
OFTEN UNDER- APPRECIATED, JOE
BUGNER MADE HIS MARK DURING A HEAVYWEIGHT
GOLDEN ERA By Lee Groves
Bugner cleaned up domestically before targeting the world’s best.
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