Lennox Lewis vs. Frank Bruno, billed as "The Battle of Britain" was a professional boxing match contested on 1 October 1993 at

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British ...

in Wales. It was between WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, who was making the second defence of his title and

Frank Bruno Franklin Roy Bruno, (born 16 November 1961) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1996. He had a highly publicised and eventful career, both in and out of the ring. The pinnacle of Bruno's boxing career was winning ...

, who was fighting in his third world title bout, his two previous title fights having been unsuccessful. Lewis beat Bruno by a

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

in the seventh round.

Background

Lennox Lewis had won the WBC heavyweight title when Riddick Bowe refused to fight him, so the WBC gave Lewis the title on 14 January 1993. Lewis had previously been the WBC's number one contender by defeating Razor Ruddock. Lewis then became the first British world heavyweight champion since

Bob Fitzsimmons Robert James Fitzsimmons (26 May 1863 – 22 October 1917) was a British professional boxer who was the sport's first three-division world champion. He also achieved fame for beating Gentleman Jim Corbett (the man who beat John L. Sullivan), ...

lost the title on 9 June 1899. Lewis went on to defend his title by defeating

Tony Tucker Tony Craig Tucker (born December 27, 1958) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1998. He won the IBF heavyweight title in 1987, and was the shortest-reigning world heavyweight champion at just 64 days. In an inte ...

. Frank Bruno had previously lost to

Tim Witherspoon Tim Witherspoon (born December 27, 1957) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 2003. He was a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the WBC title in 1984, and the WBA title in 1986. Witherspoon also wo ...

on 19 July 1986 for the WBA heavyweight title at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

and to Mike Tyson on 25 February 1989 for the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles at the

Las Vegas Hilton The Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino is a hotel, casino, and timeshare resort in Winchester, Nevada. Located near the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, it is owned by Westgate Resorts. It opened in 1969 as the International Hotel, and wa ...

. The fight was the first time that two British-born boxers had fought for the world heavyweight title, although Bruno had questioned how British Lewis really was, as he had won a gold medal for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at the 1988 Olympic Games as an amateur. Bruno described Lewis as "...not British", but said "It's about boxing. I'm sick and tired of his pretenses. He calls himself champion. He acts like he's a

Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professional ...

or a

Willie Pep Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scre ...

or a Joe Louis", and that "Nobody cares about Lennox Lewis in Britain." To counter the Bruno claim that he was "not British", Lewis said, "What was I supposed to do? Not follow my mother to Canada?", "Look, I've fought more British fighters than that guy has. He makes a fool of himself, dressing up in girls' clothing on television". Lewis called Bruno an "

Uncle Tom Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, '' Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life to prot ...

". Bruno weighed in at , and Lewis at . The fight was promoted by Frank Maloney Panix Promotions and by Main Events. It was a pay-per-view event with HBO in the United States and on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in the United Kingdom.

The fight

The National Stadium The Arms Park Cardiff

The fight was staged at the now-demolished National Stadium,

, which was used primarily as a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

stadium by the Welsh Rugby Union. In total 25,784 spectators watched the fight. The referee for the fight was

Mickey Vann Michael Van Norman better known as Mickey Vann (born 29 December 1943 in London, England) is a former professional boxing, boxer and United Kingdom, British Referee (boxing), boxing referee. Vann was a 'Class A Star' referee and boxing judge.

, from Britain, and the judges were Tony Castellano and Jerry Roth, both from the United States, and Adrian Morgan from Britain. Bruno took the fight to Lewis, but Lewis won the first round. Bruno then went on the offensive and took the second round, with Lewis trying to use his left jab to win points. Bruno hit Lewis on the right of his head in the third round, which shook him. Lewis later said that "It didn't hurt me", but the punch concentrated Lewis's efforts on the job in hand. At the end of the sixth round, both Castellano and Roth had the fight level at 57–57, with Morgan scoring the fight 59–55 in favour of Bruno. At the start of the seventh round, Bruno hit Lewis with a left jab and continued with a series of short punches. Lewis said "He thought he had me... but actually I just lost my footing. I saw every punch coming". Lewis then hit Bruno with a looping left hook which staggered him, and continued with a series of head punches. Lewis said "I saw him drop his right hand and just came out with my left hook". In a momentary break during the onslaught, Lewis was warned by Vann for stiff-arming with his left hand. Upon resuming, Lewis finished off Bruno, who was by then on unsteady legs and completely unable to defend himself. Vann stopped the fight one minute and twelve seconds into the seventh round.

Aftermath

Lewis said after the fight "Bruno did his homework and kept me from throwing my right hand early... but he must have forgotten I have a terrific left hook. I said to myself, 'I'm going to let him see my hook'". Bruno's manager, Mickey Duff, said "Frank (Bruno) has no chin... once he gets hit clean on the button, he goes".

Undercard

The undercard featured

Joe Calzaghe Joseph William Calzaghe ( ; born 23 March 1972) is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, '' Ring'' magazin ...

, who made his first professional appearance in front of barely 300 spectators. Calzaghe would later become an undefeated world champion in two

weight classes Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...

, and, along with Lewis, a member of the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

. * Neil Haddock (

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

) beat John T Williams (

) by points in a 10-round contest * Neil Swain (

) beat

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

(England) by points in a 6-round contest *

(

) beat Paul Hanlon (England) by a technical knockout in round 1 of a 4-round contest * Ross Hale (England) beat Carlos Chase (England) by a technical knockout in round 8

Broadcasting

References

External links

Colour photo of the fight on www.life.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Bruno

Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...

World Boxing Council heavyweight championship matches 1993 in boxing Sports competitions in Cardiff Sport in Cardiff 1993 in Welsh sport 1990s in Cardiff October 1993 sports events in the United Kingdom Boxing on HBO