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Aussie Joe Bugner
Joe
Bugner born (March 13, 1950 in Szoreg, Hungary)
is a former British/Australian heavyweight boxer.
His
family emigrated to the United Kingdom in the late
1950s and settled in the Cambridgeshire town of St
Ives.
He
turned professional in 1967 on the advice of his then
trainer and friend Andy Smith. He had a losing debut
against Paul Brown on the 20th December 1967 at the
London Hilton, where he was knocked out in the third
round. After his debut he went on to stop 12 of his
next 13 opponents. This included four one-round wins.
He
alienated the majority of British boxing fans by his
defensive boxing style and also by winning the British,
Empire and European titles from the national favourite,
Henry Cooper in a controversial victory in 1971. There
were no judges and the fight was scored by the referee,
Harry Gibbs. Bugner won by a 1/4 point. This result
prompted the well respected boxing commentator Harry
Carpenter to state, "I find that [the result]
amazing!".
His
critics argue that his heart was never in boxing after
an early opponent, Ulric Regis, died from brain injuries
soon after being outpointed by Bugner at London’s
Shoreditch town hall.
Bugner
went the distance with two of the most gifted boxers
of his generation Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, each
time he lost on points. He also lost to Joe Frazier's
son Marvis Frazier 13 years later, also on points.
The
fights with Ali were widely regarded as dull affairs,
although after the first fight in 1973, Ali declared
that Bugner was capable of being world champion.
In
1986 he moved to Australia, where he acquired the
name Aussie Joe Bugner.
He
won the Australian heavyweight title by a points victory
over Vince Cervi.
He
won the lightly regarded 'WBF' version of the heavyweight
crown in 1998, by defeating James "Bonecrusher"
Smith
His
record for 83 professional fights is 69 wins (41 on
knockouts), 13 Loses and 1 Draw. He last fought in
June 1999 beating Levi Billups, who was disqualified
for low blows.
In
an interview in 2004, Bugner said that the hardest
puncher he had ever faced was Ernie Shavers and the
biggest beating he took was from Ron Lyle.
On
his move to Australia, Bugner and his wife Marlene
opened a vineyard. It failed in 1989, and he estimated
to having lost some one and a half million Australian
dollars.
He
now lives on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
More
recently Bugner has started to carve a career in the
movie industry. He was the expert adviser on the recent
Russell Crowe film, Cinderella Man, which was a film
about the heavyweight boxer James J. Braddock. Bugner
was dropped part way through the project, which prompted
him to call Crowe, “a gutless worm and [sic]
f*****g girl”
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