Joe Bugner, British boxing champ who slugged it out with Ali, dies at 75

Joe Bugner gained wider appreciation for his grit in the ring when he fought Muhammad Ali twice and Joe Frazier once between 1973 and 1975, avoiding a knockout in each fight. (wbcboxing.com)

By Jeré Longman

Joe Bugner, a Cold War refugee from Hungary who became the British and European heavyweight boxing champion and who went the distance in two defeats to Muhammad Ali and another to Joe Frazier, has died in Brisbane, Australia. He was 75.

His death, at an assisted living facility, was announced Monday by the British Boxing Board of Control. No other details were given.

Bugner had relocated to Australia in the mid-1980s, becoming known there as “Aussie Joe,” and spent his final years living in a care home after being diagnosed with dementia, The Associated Press reported.

A sculpted 6 feet 4 inches and 230 pounds, Bugner had a complicated relationship with both the public and sports writers in Britain during a 32-year boxing career that lasted into his late 40s. He was sometimes criticized for a perceived caution and lack of ruthlessness in the ring, at one point being labeled in the press “The Harmless Hercules.”

But Bugner suggested that his hesitancy sprung from an early professional fight, in 1969, in which he defeated Ulric Regis of Trinidad and Tobago. Four days later, Regis died of a brain injury.

“When a tragedy like that happens, it does change you,” Bugner later acknowledged, as quoted by the British newspaper The Telegraph. “I would often think about whether the same thing could happen again, and it did make me a bit more cautious when throwing punches.”

In 1971, he won a controversial victory on points over his countryman Henry Cooper, a popular figure, gaining the British, the British Commonwealth and the European heavyweight titles. Cooper went into retirement afterward, and Bugner was left to deal with a less than adoring British public.

Bugner gained wider appreciation for his grit in the ring when he fought Ali twice and Frazier once between 1973 and 1975, avoiding a knockout in each fight.

On Feb. 14, 1973, in a 12-rounder against Ali in Las Vegas, Bugner sustained a cut over his left eye in the opening round. But he remained on his feet while losing a unanimous decision. There were no knockdowns. Bugner left with respect from the crowd and from Ali.

The New York Times reported that Ali, who had predicted a seventh-round knockout, said afterward of Bugner, a former sparring partner: “He’s a little better than I thought. I didn’t know his legs were so good. He’s three times better than when I sparred with him through the years.”

Less than five months later, on July 2, Bugner fought Frazier in a 12-round bout in London. It was Frazier’s first fight since losing his heavyweight title to George Foreman in January 1973. Charging ahead in the 10th round, Frazier knocked Bugner down for a nine count, but Bugner recovered and staggered Frazier before the bell, closing his left eye.

Frazier won on points, but the Times said the decision “may have done more for his opponent’s reputation than for his.”

Afterward, Foreman, who was in attendance, visited Bugner’s dressing room, according to The Associated Press, and told him: “The fight could have gone either way. You’ve got a lot of heart. It’s the best fight I’ve seen in years.”

Bugner met Ali again on July 1, 1975, this time for a 15-round championship fight in the wilting morning heat of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Both fighters survived the conditions, but Ali won convincingly “with the ease of assaulting a statue,” Dave Anderson of the Times reported.

Bugner acknowledged that he had lacked energy in the heat and humidity. Afterward, he grew irritated with journalists’ probing questions and, according to The Telegraph, declared: “Get me Jesus Christ! I’ll fight him tomorrow!”

To which Hugh McIlvanney, a veteran British boxing reporter, replied, “Ah Joe, you’re only saying that ’cause you know he’s got bad hands.”

Jozsef Kreul Bugner was born in Szeged, Hungary, on March 13, 1950, one of six children of a single mother who walked her family through forests to Yugoslavia after Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest in 1956 and put down Hungary’s national uprising.

They spent 18 months in a refugee camp before settling in St. Ives, England, a medieval market town near Cambridge.

Bugner made several comebacks in his long career, taking the Australian heavyweight title in 1995 and, at 48, the World Boxing Federation’s version of the heavyweight championship, defeating James “Bonecrusher” Smith. Bugner retired a year later with a record of 69-13-1. Information on his survivors was not immediately available.

Bugner appeared in films, including as a villain in a 1994 action movie, “Street Fighter,” with Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was reportedly hired as an adviser for Russell Crowe’s 2005 boxing film, “Cinderella Man,” but the job did not work out. Other celebrity relationships were said to be more cordial: golf with Dean Martin and a friendship with Welsh singer Tom Jones.

Bugner considered Ali the greatest fighter he had ever encountered.

“In the first fight,” he told The Guardian, “I caught him with a beautiful right hand, and he said: ‘Damn, good punch, white boy, do it again!’ Now, I was only 22 years old, which meant I was stupid enough to try it, and he caught me with four solid punches to the jaw. The reactions, the speed, the timing were brilliant.”