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Joe Bugner, a former heavyweight boxer who fought against Muhammad Ali twice in his career, died.
Bugner was 75 years old.
“It is with great sadness that the former British heavyweight champion of the Commonwealth Commonwealth of the Commonwealth, Joe Bugner, died in his home in Brisbane, Australia,” confirmed the British boxing control board on Monday.
“The British Boxing Control Board passes its condolences to Joe’s family.”
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The American boxer Muhammad Ali (L) and the British boxer Joe Bugner fight in a match. Ali won the 12 round fight in 1975. (Getty)
Bugner was a talented boxer, but he was not in the good thanks of his Natal Britain after sending Henry Cooper, a boxing legend in the Commonwealth, to retire after beating him in 1971. Victory gave him the British heavyweight titles, of the Commonwealth and Europeans. Bugner did not hold on to those belts after losing them later in 1971.
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Then he faced Ali for the first time in 1973 when they entered the ring in a fightless fight in Las Vegas. Bugner could go distance against the boxing icon, although Ali would get the points victory.
Only five months later, Bugner was in the ring against the legendary Joe Frazier, this time in his homeland in Earl’s Court in London. Like the fight against Ali, Bugner could go to the distance, but fell short when Frazier won by points.
The American boxer Muhammad Ali appears in the ring to talk to the British boxer Joe Bugner (left) after Bugner’s fight with Santiago Alberto Lovell at the Royal Albert Hall in London in December 1974. Bugner had defeated Lovell. (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
However, the most exciting fight came between Bugner and Ali in Kuala Lumpur in 1975, his second time fighting each other. In front of a full crowd, Bugner and Ali were 15 complete rounds on the canvas, although the first one came out as the loser by points once again.
Bugner fought for 32 years, ending his career in 1999 before moving to Australia. He spent the last years of his life in an assisted life home after being diagnosed with dementia.
Bugner was 69-14 in his 83 fights, 41 of which ended inside the distance.
The British-Australian boxer of Hungarian Origin Joe Bugner rests his mushroom hands against the ring’s rope, November 21, 1972. (Terry Disney/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Bugner was a boxer born in Hungary who moved to Great Britain when he was a child refugee amid the 1956 Soviet invasion.
