Joe Bugner

József Kreul Bugner (born 13 March 1950) is a former heavyweight professional boxer and actor.

He holds triple nationality, being a citizen of Hungary and a naturalised citizen of both Australia and the United Kingdom.

Bugner and his family fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1950s because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary in 1956 after the Hungarian Uprising of that year.

Initially, he was one of about 80 refugees housed in the students' Hostel at Smedley's factory in Wisbech.

They settled in the Huntingdonshire town of St Ives near the Fens.

So, as local custom dictated, he was known as a Fen Tiger.

Born in Szőreg, a southeastern suburb of Szeged in southern Hungary, Bugner and his family fled after the 1956 Soviet invasion and settled in Britain.

Standing at 6 ft with a prime weight of around 220 lb, Bugner twice held the British and British Commonwealth heavyweight titles and was a three-time European heavyweight champion.

He bounced back and rounded off the 1960s with three further stoppage victories.

Bugner excelled in sports at school and was the national junior discus champion in 1964.

He lived and trained in Bedford during his early boxing years; he was a regular at Bedford Boys Club under the training of Paul King and attended Goldington Road School in Bedford.

Throughout his brief amateur career, Bugner competed sixteen times, winning thirteen matches.

On the recommendation of his then-trainer and buddy, Andy Smith, he became a professional in 1967 (at the very young age of 17).

Smith was unhappy with the choice of Bugner's opponents and believed that he could better control the quality of his opponents if Bugner turned professional.

He had a losing debut against Paul Brown on 20 December 1967 at the London Hilton, where he suffered a TKO in the third round.

Showing gritty determination after his debut, the teenage Bugner went on to win a remarkable 18 consecutive fights in under two years during 1968 and 1969 (including 13 stoppage victories) before narrowly losing to the older and vastly more experienced Dick Hall.

He was ranked among the world's top ten heavyweights of the 1970s, fighting such opponents as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ron Lyle, Jimmy Ellis, Manuel Ramos, Chuck Wepner, Earnie Shavers, Henry Cooper, Brian London, Mac Foster, Rudie Lubbers, Eduardo Corletti, Jurgen Blin and George Johnson.

The Telegraph also ranked him among the top ten British heavyweight boxers of all time.

In 1970 Bugner emerged internationally as an outstanding young prospect and was world-rated by the end of the year.

He won nine consecutive bouts that year, including victories over well-known boxers such as Chuck Wepner, Manuel Ramos, Johnny Prescott, Brian London, Eduardo Corletti, Charley Polite, and George Johnson.

Bugner was now positioned to challenge world-rated Englishman Henry Cooper, who had nearly knocked out Muhammad Ali a few years previously, for Cooper's British, British Commonwealth and European titles.

However, because Bugner was still too young to fight for the British Commonwealth title (the minimum age was twenty-one years old at the time), this much-anticipated bout had to be postponed until the following year.

While waiting to come of age, in 1971, he defeated Carl Gizzi and drew with Bill Drover just weeks later and weeks before facing Cooper.

Bugner earned a reputation early in his professional years as a tough, durable but often exceptionally defensive and cautious boxer; he retained that image for the rest of his career.

He was often criticised for lacking natural aggression in the ring.

Some observers argued that Bugner's heart was never in boxing after an early opponent, Ulric Regis, died from brain injuries soon after being outpointed by Bugner at London's Shoreditch Town Hall.

Many said that Bugner never punched his full weight after that.

In March 1971, Bugner met veteran Cooper and won a fifteen-round decision.

Bugner won the bout by the slimmest of margins, 1/4 point, on the card of the lone official, Harry Gibbs.

The British sporting public and press were deeply divided about the verdict.

Many felt that Cooper deserved the decision due to his steady aggression.

But Bugner fought effectively on the defense and often scored with his left jab, and in the opinion of many, was the rightful winner of the bout.

The Times, among others, scored the fight in favor of Bugner.

Still, the outcome of the bout is regarded as one of the most controversial in British boxing history.

He unsuccessfully challenged Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship in 1975, losing by a unanimous decision.

Bugner retired from boxing in 1976 but made sporadic comebacks over the next two decades with varying success.

He moved to Australia in 1986, adopting the nickname "Aussie Joe," beating fighters such as Greg Page, David Bey, Anders Eklund and James Tillis before retiring again after a TKO loss to Frank Bruno in 1987.

He made a final comeback during the 1990s, winning the Australian heavyweight title in 1995 and the lightly regarded World Boxing Federation (WBF) heavyweight championship in 1998 at the age of 48 against James "Bonecrusher" Smith.

As an actor, he is best known for his role in the 1994 action film Street Fighter alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia.

He retired for the last time in 1999 with a final record of 69–13–1, including 43 wins by knockout.