Hard Hitting Honesty (Frank: Fighting Back - Frank Bruno)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Frank: Fighting Back - Frank Bruno
Date:	17/08/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's Frank, it's charming, it's honest, it contends with both Franks boxing and Franks health

Disadvantages: Could be a bit on the short side, RRP is daylight robbery

As a child of the late 1980's (I was born on Christmas eve '87) who had gotten into boxing through the names that were around in the 1990's Bruno's was one of the most recognisable. You had the Tyson mega show where for a few years in the late 1980's he was the man that was seen as Mr Boxing. The Tyson name had filled into the void left by Sugar Ray Leonard (who in turn had filled in for Ali) as the sports beacon on controversy and chaos. In Britain we had "Prince" Naseem Hamed and Frank Bruno as our two of our biggest names of the time, Hamed's flamboyance and general cockiness had brought him to being a well known. Whilst on the other end of it Frank Bruno was well known for being boxing's Mr Nice, a jovial sort of man, that didn't seem the brightest crayon in the jar but seemed very personable and a decent fellow.
Of in the mid 1990's we also had our own Fab 4 (Collins-Watson-Benn-Eubank) whilst American Olympic stars like Roy Jones Jr and Evander Holyfield we're taking the sport by storm over in the states.

Your now asking why you're being given a history lesson for a book aren't you?
Well my first boxing memory is a discussion at primary school in the mid 1990's, it was a couple of days before the Tyson-Bruno rematch. Bruno was to make the first defence of his WBC Heavyweight crown that he'd taken from Oliver McCall around 6 months earlier. On one side of the discussion there was a kid who's dad was really into boxing, giving us the whole "Bruno's a bum, he's got no chin, no stamina and looks like a body builder" on the other wise their was the English kid through and through. He was adamant that not only was Bruno going to win, but he was going to be the second man to stop Tyson, and swiftly too.

As it turns out it was Franks last fight in the right in 1996, an eye injury had almost cost him this fight, and there was no way he was going to get another one. Time to call it a day in the ring which he did and went into Panto (which he's almost as well know for as his boxing), though he was never the brightest he was one of the nicest guys in the boxing fraternity. To his credit he never seemed like a crazy man out of the ring, his family appeared to come first. There was no Johnny Tapia style self destruction, there was no known drug problem or drink problem like their had been with many of the 1980's heavyweights. Frank seemed like a normal person, who could punch hard and take a decent shot.

So it was with great sadness that boxing fans learned of his biggest fight, not one of those fought against the likes of Lennox Lewis or Tyson, but the demons in his own head, triggered by a combination of causes Frank was a damaged man. The Sun newspaper running with the rather disgusting "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" headline as Frank was on the ropes, mental health problems had caused him to be detained under the mental health act in 2003. Caused likely by a combination of boxing (and missing boxing, many former pros have said they don't know what to do when their in ring career has gone), a cocaine problem that had been hidden well from the media and the suicide of trainer and long term friend George Francis in 2002.
Francis had taken his own life after the deaths of his son and wife, his life in boxing having been all but over, he too was lost and took the greatest price one can pay.

Again your asking what has all this got to do with the book?
Well the book was released soon after Bruno had started to take the fight back to the Bi-Polar (otherwise known as Manic Depression) that he was suffering from. The opening two chapters are about being taken away to Goodmayes Psychiatric Hospital and the 28 days he spent detained there, as thoughts of him losing control to a darker extent got stronger. The starting of the book here lays down a strong and heart wrenching foundation to the tale of Frank's life which is told with an honest and open emotional grounding.

Despite the starts of it the book doesn't just stay with the mental health aspects of Frank's life. It swiftly explores much of his early life growing up in London and the death of his father as well as his time in a correction centre for youths where he tuned his boxing to such an extent that by age 18 he was the ABA (Amateur Boxing Association) champion. The ABA is the amateur version of the British title, he was the best British heavyweight amateur and on the verge of turning professional when an eye problem almost thwarted his career before it's gotten of to any sort of a start, the surgery for the eye was under taken in Colombia and the rest as they say is history.

Unlike many sporting autobiographies where the writer tries to make themselves sound super human. Frank maintains an honest approach throughout that gives the book a near unrivalled heart, that many others wish they could have. Having read "Pocket Rocket" by Wayne McCullough a few months prior to reading this, I was worried this would go the same way as that. That featured a very simple language that appeared to be the level of a 9 year old and had Wayne either claiming his losses shouldn't have been loses, he had some under lying problem or excuses as well repeatedly calling everyone his mate an being such a nice guy. Not offence to Wayne here, but nice guys don't need to point out their a nice guy. Frank's charm and charisma shows this through out, he doesn't try to excuse every time he was beat, or any thing else.

The book goes through his boxing career, with varying amounts of time spent on each fight depending on their importance to his career. The 2 fights with Tyson for example both have their own chapters whilst fights against folk like Stuart Lithgow are, like many of the earlier fights, thrown in to one or two chapters together. The book mentions the loss to James "Bonecrusher" Smith and Franks fights back to the top after each of his losses, in a startlingly honest way that Kevin Mitchell (the co-author) has strung together in word based combinations.

The book is fascinating whether your a boxing fan or just a fan of human story's, as far as modern British boxing goes, Bruno's had one of the strangest. Potential drug smuggling in South America, a mental break down, and sparring with Tyson in the Catskills. He goes on, in depth about Mike and how he feels their similar in many ways, also most calling him a brother, not of the noble art, but as social people with similar problems and similar feelings towards the world. Of course they were both young when they got into the sport, but had long KO runs and power, their fathers weren't in their life for much of it and they both spent time in centres for delinquents bur Franks goes further in trying to make his adversary seem human and giving Tyson credit where others have been unwilling.

The book at (depending on the version) around 270 pages long is a good, enjoyable read, with a useful career record section at the back that more boxing books should have (most namely the brilliant "Unforgivable Blackness" by Geoffrey C Ward) which lists the fights, locations and results. The books is touching throughout and heart warming, it has Franks familiar charm to it and looks into mental health and how it strikes some of the strongest of us. Franks long term role as "the laughing fool" has been exposed as a slightly over egged idea as he is full of knowledge most of us don't have and his own ideas. Admittedly his boxing brain wasn't the cleverest the criticisms labelled at his chin seem rather unfair as if he'd had a soft chin he'd have been knocked down more than he was.

Having recently appeared on The Weakest Link it's fair to say he's now back to his brilliant, loveable self that he was when he partnered up with Harry Carpenter in post fight interviews. The chemistry with both Carpenter and Anne Robinson show that Frank isn't one of those fighters so full of themselves that they believe their gods gift, this has shown through again in book. A brilliantly easy to read and completely honest book on a fighter that's still fighting one of the hardest fights.

Although the price (RRP £18.99) is steep, the book can be found regularly in charity shops for a few quid (the one I have was £3.00) with is much better value for money. Frank: Fighting Back by Frank Bruno and Kevin Mitchell shows the blue print for all biographical books. Hopefully more will follow it.

Summary: Buy it! You'll love it if you have any interest in boxing