Frank: Fighting Back - Frank Bruno

There’s no doubt Frank Bruno is our Rocky Balboa, the loveable lug that united all races and fight fans by never giving up, in and out of the ring, his granite head that was pounded by the greats, sharp enough to instruct a bigger physical punch line to come back at the other fellow if they rattled the giant from South London too much. Most people loved him but one or two found his weakness and trash talked him in the lead up to big fights as an Uncle Tom figure for sucking up to the white media and marrying a Caucasian girl, whereas Frank was simply Frank and understood the game and played the hype like the best of them, ‘to earn some serious corn’, as he put it, one of many catchphrases big Frank would chuckle to Harry Carpenter in that wonderful deep voice that could boom as hard as his punches. These warriors put their life on the line to entertain stadia full of white working-class men and Frank earned their respect, the Suns ‘Bonkers Bruno’ headline cruel as it was unfair. The big fight is 100% showbiz, making you believe the narrative, why the farcical Haye-Chisora mismatch has sold out. Like American wrestlers, boxers create a character and become it.

The heart of this painfully honest autobiography is Franks decent into depression and near madness, the opening chapter quite harrowing, Frank too in love with boxing to blame the sport for his current bipolar. His later life woes is another symptom of being punch drunk and clearly being retired caused the depression in the end. This book is not only a cuddle by Frank for his fans but a verbal reply to his critics over the years with some big right handers of his own about his life and an explanation to his fans and skeptics alike for his post fight depression. He needs that love of the people to keep getting up every morning, going to sleep at night with a smile to the reassuring echoes of ‘Bruooooooooooooo’ in the escape of the dreams to come.

The early days for Bruno in South London were - and still are for some - the young black boy cliché, a choice between a life of crime or a life of sport and music, a boisterous little Bruno soon getting in trouble as a nipper and finally ending up in a school for teenage delinquents in the rural Sussex countryside, an absent black father and God-fearing Caribbean mother unable to keep him on the straight and narrow. He wasn’t a knife pulling type or a thief but just a big guy for his age that felt the need to use his fist with his piers to earn his status and place in life. But boxing was getting a hold to channel that discipline by his 16th birthday and was a very promising amateur after just two fights. He had already had his eliminators on London’s tough streets.

After earning a cheeky fiver for sparing with a visiting champion in the East London gym of Terry Lawless the potential was obvious to those who knew, and so Frank began to train with the man who would eventually take him to that promised world title fight.

His first pro fights were over very quickly, only one guy managing to make the seventh round in Frank’s first twenty fights, which included eight first round dismissals. Franks career record still remains very impressive with 40 wins in his 45 professional fights with 38 K/Os, finally beating Oliver McCall to become world champion in 1996, the sport finding away for Bruno to achieve his dream. Those five defeats were twice to Mike Tyson and once to world champions Lennox Lewis and Tim Witherspoon and the humbling by James ‘Bone Crusher’ Smith, only top North American fighters beating our Frank. Rather ironically Frank would never fight for the British heavyweight title after beating up all the best Brits for thirteen years, an honorary belt surely a fitting reward for a great entertainer ad seriously good fighter. If only he was as Nigel Benn he would have been unbeatable.

There is no doubt those around Frank in the early days milked him for a few quid with Bruno having to fight nobodies to capitalize his promoters and trainers other fighters, later promoters like Frank Warren and Barry Hearn also going through his pockets for lose change. That gullibility really comes across in the book even though Frank doesn’t see it. If he reads his book back he will see it. I remember at the time just how bad some of the bums were he was knocking out right up until he faced Witherspoon, perhaps fighting too many losers for far too long and so why he never won that fight.

Franks career stalled a couple of times through eye injuries, one very serious and having to be dispatched on his own to Columbia for experimental surgery to fix it, proving the book most amusing anecdote when Frank gets mixed up with some international drug dealers. He also admits to marijuana use here through out his life, also linked to depression but drug use surprisingly not picked up on by his many mandatory drug tests, the way Agassi wasn’t with his now confessed crystal meth use. But you have to ask why trainer Terry Lawless let him fight with the second damaged retina injury if they claim they had his welfare at heart. If you look at Frank’s last fight on YouTube you can see his eye fluttering and blinking rapidly, the eyeball in a mess at that point. How did the boxing doctors miss that?

He talks about his family a lot in the book and also his need to be loved, presumably by black and white folks alike. There’s no doubt that Uncle Tom comment really hurt him but its also fair to say some black sportsman and celebrities have their hang ups about race and most date or marry white trophy girls, they say because black girls are ‘hard work’ whereas some would say it helps black sporting stars and the like to feel accepted in the celebrity class they end up in. I do feel this contradiction was part of Bruno’s turmoil…trying to please both parties. You are sixteen times more likely to end up in a metal health facility if you are black in Britain, such is the everyday unsettling conflict they face from being born black in what is essentially still a racist society, be it that bigotry more subtle these days.

He became his pantomime character by the end of his boxing career and if he could rub his lamp he would go back to the gym as an 18-year-old and do it all again, regardless of his later struggle. Like Paul Gascoigne you fear the worse for Frank as you did Amy Winehouse as they can’t be that person they were ever again and get that critical buzz. Frank was recently in Northampton for a stay at St Andrews hospital and you would be surprised just how many famous people are, and have been, in that mental hospital. He is clearly a troubled middle-aged man and we can only hope he can let go of the past and so recover. As with Gaza, writing books about his experiences has helped to get things out and enjoyable insights into their lives. After reading this you feel you can go up to the big guy ad give him a hug as you have shared his pain, such is his candor. He also writes of Frank of old as he feels most secure as that character.

Like the most loved and respected British immigrants he has accepted he has to be humble to win over the majority unsophisticated white population. Monty Panesar did it brilliantly and so did Lenny Henry. The banter in the pubs and workplace is our culture and that means people get stereotyped. Frank tapped into that quickly and won the nations heart. We want positive likeable black role models to admire and respect so to kill the negative stereotypes. If Frank was an Uncle Tom he is a very rich one.

I will leave the last words to Amy Winehouse as they seem how feel right for Frank…

‘They tried to make me go to rehab but I said 'no, no, no'
Yes I've been black but when I come back you'll know know know
I ain't got the time and if my mummy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab but I won't go go go…’