When Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno contested the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight title at the Cardiff Arms Park in 1993, they also settled one of the bitterest rivalries the British fight scene has known, reports www.talksport.com.
Bruno, challenging for a world heavyweight title for the third time, was not only Britain’s most popular fighter, but most popular active athlete.
Lewis, owing largely to his Canadian accent and an awareness of the fact that he had represented Canada at the Olympics but was being marketed, like Bruno, as a fighter from London, was still being treated by the British public with suspicion, and in some cases contempt.
Lewis, making the second defence of his title, remained under pressure to fight Riddick Bowe in what remains one of the most appealing heavyweight match-ups that never came to fruition.
He also remained proud of his Jamaican roots and had been known to walk to the ring to the strains of Bob Marley, but was cynically told by Bruno: “I’m going to hit you upside your head so hard you won’t even know if you’re Canadian, Jamaican, Los Angeles, or what. [You’re] not British.”
The champion, said to consider Bruno a sell-out who had betrayed his West Indian heritage, described Bruno, even more cuttingly, as an “Uncle Tom”.
Speaking months after the murder of Stephen Lawrence that had done so much to heighten the racial tension that already existed in Britain, the build-up to their fight had immediately become toxic, and quickly extended beyond both fighters to also include their teams.
Bruno was a committed supporter of the divisive Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher at a time when Lewis’ loyalties were with Labour.
The challenger also had the words “True Brit” on some of his clothing and regularly wore the colours red, white and blue.
It is claimed that he considered Lewis an opportunist who had returned to Britain in the belief that doing so would increase his chances of success.
He was also under a wider pressure to win because of the perception that after defeats by Tim Witherspoon and Mike Tyson a world heavyweight title fight would never come his way again.
Bruno, his trainer George Francis and his then-manager Mickey Duff had wanted to fight indoors at Wembley Arena. Lewis’ promoter Panos Eliades, supported by his outspoken manager Frank Maloney, instead chose to stage the fight in Cardiff at the risk of heavy rain.
“[In Cardiff the fight will be] lost in obscurity,” Duff said. “They know London fans would go ga-ga over Frank. Frank Bruno is really the hometown fighter. That’s why they didn’t want it in London.”
It was reported that even the WBC had recognised the risk of the British weather, and approved a clause being written into the fight’s contract that it would be settled on the scorecards in the event of a heavy downpour after four rounds.
The undercard, featuring the great Joe Calzaghe stopping Paul Hanlon on the occasion of his professional debut, started on September 30, but by the time Bruno and Lewis made their way to the ring it was October 1.
The rain that had fallen during the undercard led to the ring canvas being replaced, and when the covers came off of the new one ahead of the main event it was 12.32am.
A crowd of 25,784 was present to watch Lewis-Bruno, but three weeks before then only 11,000 tickets had been sold – leaving Eliades and Maloney then 4,000 short of the number they needed to sell to break even on an evening when Bruno was paid more than £1million and Lewis a total of £3million.
When Bruno entered the ring that night with plastic bags over his boots it was 12.54am. Lewis, according to Maloney asleep 20 minutes earlier, joined him four minutes later.
There was little question that Lewis was rightly recognised as the more polished of the two fighters, and yet it was Bruno, given a hero’s welcome by the crowd in Wales, who built an early lead.
He hurt Lewis in the second round, forcing the champion – fighting for the knockout for perhaps the only time in his career; years later he said he 'just wanted to take [Bruno’s] head off' – to prioritise his famed jab.
Lewis was cut over his left eye as he continued to struggle – Francis later said “I kept telling [Bruno] to concentrate; to concentrate” – as Bruno’s sense of momentum built.
If it had rained any harder, he may have been awarded victory via the scorecards – he was leading 59-55, 57-57, 57-57 – but in the seventh round the direction of the fight swiftly and dramatically changed.
The champion landed a powerful-and-wild left hook, contributing to Bruno sagging and becoming almost defenceless.
The ruthless streak that defined Lewis at his peak then detected his opportunity, and he threw an extended assault around the hurt Bruno’s face and neck until, after 72 seconds of the seventh, the referee Mickey Vann’s intervention came.
In the ring, post-fight, Maloney was spat at by Bruno’s wife Laura. “There was too much pride up there, and both boys forgot their boxing,” he said afterwards. “That was a real war up there. That was savage.”
“I’m a better fighter than I have ever been given credit for,” said Bruno. He regardless would win the same title two years later, on the most memorable night of his career against Oliver McCall.
Caption: Joshua (right) in action.
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