Bruno fighting the toughest opponent of all
Former world heavyweight champion Frank Bruno was in Thailand last week, with meetand-greet sessions in Bangkok and Pattaya. Bruno was hawking his new book, Let Me Be Frank, and while his boxing story is well known, his latest release focuses on the issue of mental illness – his own, to be precise.
Bruno has famously struggled with mental health issues since his retirement from boxing. He has been sectioned three times under Britain’s Mental Health Act, and diagnosed with both depression and bipolar disorder.
In fact, Bruno wrote on the same topic before, in 2006’s Frank: Fighting Back. According to the coverline, that book charts his “descent into mental illness and his slow and painful journey back to health”.
That Bruno subsequently relapsed, in 2012 and 2015, despite the cathartic nature of his previous book, shows what an ongoing struggle it is to conquer or even merely manage mental illness.
Bruno, for his part, believes it is in the nature of men to hide their feelings, thus making matters worse. He has set up a charity, the Frank Bruno Foundation, to tackle mental health issues and especially to encourage men to talk.
“A lot of men don’t like to talk about their problems,” he told the guests at the Bangkok dinner. “It’s ego, you know. It’s like they feel weak if they admit something is wrong. But they should know there are people to talk to, and if you keep things bottled up, they can explode.”
People may look at Bruno and wonder what exactly it is he has to be depressed about. He has achieved success at the highest level of his sport and remains one of his country’s most famous and beloved celebrities.
But of course it is not as simple as that. Why some people are affected by mental ill-health, and others not, is largely a mystery.
Bruno says his first breakdown came after his wife divorced him in 2001. Already struggling to adapt to life after boxing, Bruno said it was exactly the trappings of his fame that brought home to him the enormity of his personal loss.
“Before, I’d go home, and [ex-wife] Laura would have fixed up some nice dinner, the kids would be there, we had staff to take care of everything. But now there was nothing; just me alone in this massive house. I didn’t know what to do with myself and that’s when I had my first nervous breakdown.”
All the sporting success in the world can’t provide solace for heartbreak, though naturally Bruno thought boxing would help him get over it. After all, it was what took him from the working class streets of inner London to wealth and superstardom.
He sought a comeback in 2003, but was advised by the British Boxing Board of Control not to apply for a licence. Denied an opportunity to fight, and his marital bed empty, Bruno started sleeping in the boxing ring at his home gym. This was when he was sectioned for the first time.
It is no coincidence that more comeback talk followed Bruno’s last relapse. In 2016, at the age of 54, he announced that he intended to fight again.
Apparently offended by suggestions that current heavyweight darling Anthony Joshua would have beaten him if they fought in their respective primes, Bruno told British TV he had “no choice” but to box again, and that it was only through physical competition that he would be able to stay out of mental hospital.
He was again advised by the British board not to apply for a licence and thankfully the comeback talk died down.
Bruno instead busied himself with writing Let Me Be Frank and has accepted that, while he remains a magnificent athletic specimen, his fighting days are over.
At least Bruno knows he has a special place in the heart of his nation and his sport. Even here in Thailand, some 10,000km away from home, compatriots and boxing fans queued in their hundreds to shake the hand that shook the likes of Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Oliver McCall and more.
Whether that’s enough, only time will tell, but Bruno is fighting his toughest opponent with the trademark bravery that made him famous in the first place.