THE NEW YORK TIMES – 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 on 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 sportswriters 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 widely 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 …
