Return to the ring cannot be allowed for ‘Our Frank’, writes Steve Bunce

Bruno last fought when he was stopped by Tyson in Las Vegas in 1996, losing his heavyweight titles in a vicious contest

Frank Bruno after his last fight against Mike Tyson in 1996 (Getty Images)

It was horribly inevitable that Frank Bruno, the former world heavyweight champion, pantomime dame and mental health patient with the damaged retinas, would end his retirement and announce a return to the ring.

Bruno has been in talks with the British Boxing Board of Control and has submitted a dossier, which outlines his fitness levels, but has not yet applied for a boxing licence.

Bruno is now 54, a veteran of 45 fights in the professional ring and hours under the surgeon’s knife repairing his damaged eyes, including the first invasive piece of surgery before he had even fought for the first time as a professional. He has also had several stays at mental health units during the last decade, most as a result of being sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983.

The first time “Our Frank” was sectioned was in 2003 and it took nine hours to get him into the ambulance. Bruno had been sleeping in an outdoor boxing ring at his Essex home and was failing miserably to deal with the end of his career and the nasty collapse of his marriage. There was, at the time, some sickening headlines about “Bonkers Bruno” but he emerged from the unit, shaking, happier and often in a stupor but even more of a national idol. He was sick, diagnosed as bipolar and the tricky road to yesterday’s decision to fight again had started.

“I have had conversations with Frank,” confirmed Robert Smith, secretary of the BBBofC. “I have received some documents but he has not yet applied for a licence. I have known Frank since our Young England days and I was disappointed when he gave me the documents.”

Bruno last fought when he was stopped by Mike Tyson in Las Vegas in March 1996, losing his heavyweight titles in a vicious contest. He was told that he could never fight again and if he did he would risk losing his sight.

He has been in and out of gyms during the last decade, often popping up and putting in the hours on the bag and posing for pictures with kids too young to remember the heartfelt mania surrounding his career. During the last two months Bruno has shown up at gyms in Kent and last month he was filmed in Ricky Hatton’s gym in Manchester. He looks in great shape but looks in the brutal boxing business are deceptive and, anyway, Bruno always looked in terrific shape.

However, he now insists that there was a reason for getting fighting-fit. He has complained that “so-called promoters” are “mugging him off” by talking about what modern heavyweights – meaning the ones they promote – would do if they had been active during Bruno’s fighting peak. He was always a much better fighter than he gets credit for and Bruno’s five defeats, all inside the distance, all came against world heavyweight champions.

His grudge fight with Lennox Lewis for the WBC heavyweight title in 1993 was truly savage, the type of contest Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and all the rest, should pray they never have to be a part of. Not one of the modern heavyweights would have gone seven rounds with Lewis that night.

There are boxing backwaters where Bruno, even at 54 with his tainted medical history, would be welcomed and there are disgraceful fixers who will talk about Bruno’s right to earn a living. A man facing blindness, recovering from mental health issues and trading on memories has no right to be in the professional boxing ring. He was, it has to be said, serious, in the comfort zone of a TV studio, when he talked about fighting again. It might be true, I’m sure he means it, but let’s make sure it never becomes reality.