Joe Bugner
Joe Bugner ( born March 16, 1950 in Szőreg ( now part of Szeged ), Hungary, József than Kreul Bugner ) is a former English and Australian heavyweight boxer and actor of Hungarian origin.
When he emigrated to Australia, he bought with his wife Marlene a vineyard. In 1989 he gave up on it after he thus lost more than one million Australian dollars. He now lives in Gold Coast, Australia.
Boxing career
His professional debut in 1967 lost the lock Boxer Bugner at age 17 by KO against Paul Brown, a boxer with only one win in four fights. However, he was not during his career as a " glass chin ", he lost to 1987 only one time early. A year later Bugner Paul Brown could knock out in the rematch in the fourth round.
1969 Bugner took place in London against a boxer from Trinidad and Tobago named Ulric Regis and won on points. Regis collapsed after the fight and died of a brain injury three days later.
In the same year Bugner suffered against an American southpaw his second defeat as a professional. In 1970 he defeated Brian London each prematurely in his last fight and Chuck Wepner. In 1971, he hit the age of 21 years, Henry Cooper (then 36 years, 40 wins, 13 defeats) in the battle for championship scarce and controversial on points. Cooper then ended his career. Bugner then defended the title on points against Jurgen Blin scarce.
The very next fight he lost the belt but after a dismal performance at the southpaw Jack Bodell. In 1972 he was able to win the title with a second victory over Blin again.
In 1973, he lost in a non-title fight against Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, but both could not knock him out. Frazier had him on the ground, but Bugner fought resolutely back. Many Brits consider this fight as one of his best performances.
A year later, he beat the ex- middleweight and former WBA champion Jimmy Ellis. This victory enabled him on 30 June 1975 a world championship match against Ali. In the battle taking place in Malaysia he hid mostly behind his double coverage and lost after fifteen rounds on points earned.
Against Richard Dunn 1976 he succeeded in defending his European Champion title, a first-round KO. But when he 1977 Ron Lyle was defeated on points, he withdrew temporarily from boxing back to 1982 and he played only one more fight. Upon his return to the ring, he entered directly against the hard-hitting Earnie Shavers and already defeated in the second round after an interruption due to a laceration.
Despite some notable successes in the following years it went downhill steadily, however, against Frank Bruno in 1987 he had no chance and lost prematurely. After losing to Bruno he resigned. From 1995 to 1998, he completed nine more fights in which Bob Mirovic and also getting on in years James Smith could beat among others.
Acting Career
Besides, Bugner launched a career as an actor. In four productions he starred with Bud Spencer.