Whos more beloved in Britain, Anthony Joshua or Frank Bruno?

[Mujeriego]

I heard Bruno's well liked there and he's similar to AJ in that they are overly muscular guys who do the same time of Big Oafish waddle when they're stunned.
Who's more beloved over there?

 

[BangBang]

Hauh Huah Huah Huah - I'm Frank BROoNO! Know wot I mean, Arrry,?

 

[650lb Sumo]

 

[Athenry04]

Spot on, dodgy as fuck this.

To answer the question, I think most people had a soft spot for Bruno, even people with no knowledge of boxing, he also did panto and the like. AJ is far more polarizing, great fighter but I've never personally took to him.

 

[RichardHarrow]

Bruno by far !

I won’t say a national treasure but Bruno had the love of the English working class which is dominantly UK boxings audience. He spoke like them, shared similar humor and made common appearances on their tv shows. In short he was relatable because he was true to himself.

AJ is none of those things - albeit he is a sweetheart he suffers from identity issues pandering for the woke left on Graham Norton , urban London, Muslims then has a beer. Since all of that conflicts he ends up with a select few fans of each rather than having a dominant base like Bruno did.

 

[Simple Southerner]

What a weird comparison pussy boi carñito

 

[mozfonky]

Never been to England but as long as I've been a boxing fan, the Brits were said to rather have a lovable loser than a real winner. It was true for Henry Cooper and it was true for Bruno and it was true for Lennox Lewis who struggled to gain acceptance over there even though he was truly great. Before Joe Bugner sank into dementia, he was still bitter at how he was treated by the brits and thought he deserved better because he beat Cooper.

 

[mozfonky]

the brit tabloids have been the nastiest I've seen and I've never liked the majority of british journalists I've seen. don't even know the names of most of them but they are plain nasty. Martin Bashir is a great example, he pretty much ended MJ's life and career for a scoop only to come out later after MJ died and say, "i din't see anything".

 

[burningspear]

Bruno was more beloved, AJ has the obnoxious mouthpiece. Also Bruno lost to a better quality of opponent.

 

[Boxiana]

For people over 45 years old (like me) Bruno is a (flawed) hero and national treasure. Everyone knows who he is.

I doubt younger generations know who Bruno is, and whilst they may know who Joshua is there is no real love for him outside of a sycophantic media.

 

[Boxiana]

CTE and a coke habit is a bad combination.

Saville was everywhere back then. You can find a photo of him with anyone famous.

 

[LEWIS540]

Yeah, we tend to gravitate to the flawed, “characters”, than the more robotic personalities.

Same reason Ricky Hatton was more popular than Joe Calzaghe.

Then you got someone like Naseem Hamed who was a lot more polarizing (ahem, probably for more than one reason).


+boxing used to be largely on free TV back in the 80s/90s in Britain so likes of Bruno, Eubank and Benn were seen by far more people. Think Lennox was the first to be largely a PPV fighter over here.

For comparison our biggest wrestling draw was:

 

[RustyHerb]

Everybody loved Frank Bruno, except for Lennox. At a time when there was no access to fans through social media, he really was a national treasure and him finally winning the belt was the biggest feelgood moment in British boxing. AJ is a very well marketed, successful sportsman but in terms of national affection, it's not even remotely close.

AJ's been promoted in a very American style (media trained, clean cut, untouchable superathlete) whereas Frank was the plucky, working class underdog with self-deprecating humour. Being able to have a laugh at yourself is pretty much an instant win in British culture. It's also easy to forget that he was the first serious British heavyweight contender in generations.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

A lot of people turned on Joshua over time with the losses, him getting more unhinged and people picking sides between him and returning Fury, but before that I dont think there was much in it. Everyone will say Bruno though because nostalgia.

Dubois has a lot of that dopey underdog teddy bear vibe that Bruno had.

 

[Noveltymortar]

I’m a half Brit and grew up there. Bruno hands down in my opinion. Bruno was actually likable and as far as I know never spewed anti-white racist verbal diarrhea the way Joshua has.

 

[mozfonky]

I’m a half Brit and grew up there. Bruno hands down in my opinion. Bruno was actually likable and as far as I know never spewed anti-white racist verbal diarrhea the way Joshua has.

the accents from that part of the world had me and my buddies talking shit at that time. Barry McGuigan and his daddy singing Danny's Boy was some funny shit to a teenage me. And Bruno saying, "no, din't have the kryponite" to Larry Merchant after getting kayoed by tyson the first time was funny. The second Bruno fight me and my buddies were watching the prefight stuff, one of them said "this is him after the fight (pinched an eye closed) 'irish eyes are crying". Back in those days no one really took brit fighters seriously, not the media and definitely not the fans.

 

[Noveltymortar]

the accents from that part of the world had me and my buddies talking shit at that time. Barry McGuigan and his daddy singing Danny's Boy was some funny shit to a teenage me. And Bruno saying, "no, din't have the kryponite" to Larry Merchant after getting kayoed by tyson the first time was funny. The second Bruno fight me and my buddies were watching the prefight stuff, one of them said "this is him after the fight (pinched an eye closed) 'irish eyes are crying". Back in those days no one really took brit fighters seriously, not the media and definitely not the fans.

That's true that people didn't take British heavyweights seriously back then. I remember the term "horizontal heavyweights" being used to describe them. Bruno getting the decision over McCall was a big deal at the time.

 

[mozfonky]

That's true that people didn't take British heavyweights seriously back then. I remember the term "horizontal heavyweights" being used to describe them. Bruno getting the decision over McCall was a big deal at the time.

ya, and even that was funny, he was crying and shit but it was touching at the same time after seeing Bruno come close to beating top heavyweights only to fall apart. He really was a good fighter but chinny and poor stamina which was what got him against Bonecrusher,Witherspoon and Tyson. He was winning 2 of those and he was thrilling for one round with Tyson the first time round.

 

[Mujeriego]

That's true that people didn't take British heavyweights seriously back then. I remember the term "horizontal heavyweights" being used to describe them. Bruno getting the decision over McCall was a big deal at the time.

He was the third British Born fighter to win a Heavyweight title and the first to win it on British soil.
I didn't know that.
That makes more sense on why it was a big deal, and it was his 4th attempt at a title.

 

[mozfonky]

He was the third British Born fighter to win a Heavyweight title and the first to win it on British soil.
I didn't know that.
That makes more sense on why it was a big deal, and it was his 4th attempt at a title.

The irony of that was always pointed out in earlier year, the fact that modern boxing started in England.