Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CLOCK THESE GEMS
BRIT HEAVYWEIGHT HERO AND HIS NEMESIS IRON MIKE GAVE EACH OTHER STRENGTH IN MENTAL HEALTH BATTLES
RUSSIA HOUR Kremlin Clock, Moscow
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower has been chiming above the main gates to Red Square since 1706, though it was restored in 1851 and 1913, and it replaced one installed in the late 16th century. It has suffered damage by fire and by a shell during the Russian Revolution.
Over the years it’s played several tunes, ranging from a Viennese melody and the Tsarist March of the Preobrazhensky Regiment to the Internationale and the national anthems of the USSR and modern Russia.
FRANK BRUNO did not understand the warning at the time.
He had just retired after his second loss to Mike Tyson in 1996 and trainer George Francis told him he was now facing his hardest fight.
Yet within a few years
Bruno knew exactly what his old cornerman was trying to tell him. Francis was tragically prophetic.
He hanged himself at home in 2002 when he lost his battle with depression after cancer claimed his wife and son.
Meanwhile Bruno’s once-idyllic life disintegrated, as did his marriage. A low point came in 2003 when his family had him sectioned because of his struggles with his bipolar condition. Now he is fighting back.
Meeting his nemesis Mike Tyson and seeing how he is winning his battle with mental health issues has given him renewed strength.
The old rivals met in Miami last year for the Sky documentary ‘Bruno v Tyson’, which charts their rivalry. “My trainer George Francis (below, with Bruno) said, ‘Your hardest fight is going to be when you retire’,” the former WBC heavyweight champ told Tyson. “I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. But blimey, when I retired, I definitely knew what he was on about. “You put on weight, you get lazy, your aggression starts to pile in, the mental health kicks in and it’s drama. “You’ve been through what you’ve been through and I’ve been through it myself. Unfortunately mine’s been slapped all over the papers – cuckoo, madness and whatever. If you can handle it, I can handle it.”
The three-times married Tyson, who has blown over £250million during his chaotic life, is finally in a good place. Tyson, 54, loved returning to the ring after 15 years out for his exhibition bout with Roy Jones Junior in November and told Bruno he has his demons in check.
“We’re all crazy,” said the former undisputed world heavyweight king. “You went to one mental health facility. I’ve been to 10 of them.
“I don’t feel sorry for myself, this is just the journey we have to go on.
“I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me.
“I got the title of the Baddest Man in the World, I’m the scariest fighter that ever lived. I come across as ferocious and it’s like fire. You can use it to warm you up, but if you let it get out of control it can kill you and everyone around you.
“My mind is a torture chamber. It’s not my friend, so I have to control it to have any kind of stability in my life. That’s my biggest problem today, staying in control.” Bruno was battered by Tyson in their world heavyweight title fights in 1989 and 1996 and he was lifted by his more gentle encounter.
There were flashes of the old Bruno, who is still adored by the British public, and his shoulders shook to his trademark belly laughs.
After meeting Tyson, Bruno, 59, reflected: “I’ve had my run-ins, he’s had his run-ins, good days, bad days, feeling down, can’t motivate yourself. He’s been in prison, crashing his car before he was supposed to fight me the first time.
“He’s been down a rocky road. I’m glad I’ve met him again because it’s taken a lot of pressure off me mentally. I’ve been through a hard time, I look at him and he’s been though a hard time, and he’s happy. “I feel like a close brother to him. “Meeting Mike Tyson again has put it all in perspective. I thought I had problems. I’m going back to England a trillion times happier man.”
FIGHTING Mike Tyson for a second time is one of the biggest regrets in Frank Bruno’s boxing career.
Tyson, who had been released from prison a year earlier for raping Desiree Washington, stopped Bruno in three rounds in 1996 to claim his WBC heavyweight world title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Bruno (right) was forced to retire because he suffered permanent damage to his retina and admits he should not have faced Iron
Mike again.
“When I fought you for the second time I shouldn’t have been there, but I had a family I had to provide for,” he told Tyson in the Sky documentary ‘Bruno v
Tyson.’ You don’t want to go and rob a bank so I had to go in there.
“One of the American doctors nearly stopped the fight. He was looking at me kind of strange, like my eye was flickering.
“But that was no excuse, that’s boxing. If you break your hand, you have your other hand.”
Tyson claims Bruno was at his best in their first fight in 1989 and says his shots felt like bolts of electricity.
“I went out in the first round and tried to knock him out,” he said. “He came back with a couple of shots and was fighting really good.
“As a matter of fact, he hit me with a good shot. It was like electricity, I saw the white lights. I thought he was down and then boom! I just walked into a bomb. He was at his best at that time, that was a tough fight for me.
“He had more fight, more vigour in the first fight than the second. Before I even got out of prison, the contract was signed.
“Being champion again was the only thing in my mind. I wanted to know if I could do it again.”
If the ban was in, I’d have been a rugby player..
IF Beggy’s decision to quit rugby earned him two All-ireland medals in the 80s, taking it up again arguably cost him another couple in the 90s.
At the turn of the decade, work took him to Scotland and, to keep himself in shape, he started training with Currie RFC. He soon made their first team and found himself playing against the likes of Gavin and Scott Hastings, Gary Armstrong and Tony Stanger, all heroes of
Scotland’s 1990 Gram Slam side.
He was capped by Leinster and, when he returned home a couple of years later, joined Wanderers and then Blackrock in the All-ireland League and was on the outer fringes of the Ireland squad.
His rugby commitments didn’t do much for his Meath career but it was a cruciate injury in 1995 that ended his Royal days.
He got back to play club football and won a cherished
Towns Cup with Navan in 1999 but, at 33, was still young enough to have been playing for Meath and winning a possible fourth All-ireland that same year. Playing rugby and football non-stop from his mid 20s had taken a heavy toll, however.
“Without a doubt. It certainly cost me one All-ireland and I would say two because I was always kind of fit, I kept myself in really good shape.”
Still, on balance, Beggy (right)
Rule 27: Any member of the association who plays or encourages in any way rugby, football, hockey or any imported game which is calculated or injuriously affect our national pastimes, is suspended from the association.
Rule 27 of the GAA, also known as “the Ban”, was in force from 1905 to 1971. As well as the sitting president of Ireland Douglas Hyde in 1938, there were some other high profile victims of the ‘ban’ and the ‘vigilance committee’.
LIAM BRADY won two Serie A titles with
Juventus, an FA Cup and PFA Players’ Player of the Year with Arsenal and more than 70 caps for Ireland. In 1971, at the age of 15, he was selected to play for Ireland as captain and for a challenge match with his school St Aidan’s CBS in Whitehall on the same day. Brady chose the Irish side and was expelled from the school.
CON MARTIN won a Leinster title with Dublin in 1941. However he was later prevented from playing in the All-ireland final when it was discovered he played football with Drumcondra.
With the GAA withholding his Leinster medal as a result of this, Martin decided to concentrate solely on football and starred for both Irish national teams. Con’s GAA talent did not go to waste however as 27 of his 200 appearances for Aston Villa were as a stand-in goalkeeper. He also made his International debut in goal.
MICK MACKEY is still regarded as the greatest Limerick hurler of all time. He regularly attended rugby matches at
Thomond Park, ignoring several warnings.
A lesser player would have long since incurred a ban. The GAA had a vigilance committee with members attending rugby and football matches to identify fellow GAA members.
In the end Limerick GAA made Mackey a member of the vigilance committee, an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
is satisfied his sporting choices worked out for the better.
A world of possibilities would have been closed to him had the ban not been lifted by the time he was coming of age.
“My life would have been very different. I would have been a fulltime rugby player from a very young age and see where that would have brought me, and I’d have missed out on
some phenomenal achievements with Meath.
“And, let’s be honest, Irish teams during the 90s, they were pretty dreadful.
“If the ban was in, I would have been a rugby player.” If the GAA lost anything for the decision of 50 years ago, it was miniscule in comparison to the dividends it yielded.