Daily Mirror

SECOND FIGHT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE

- BY DAVID ANDERSON

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.”

ANDY FARRELL says Ireland must develop a clinical edge to become a “world class” team.

The Irish have suffered their worst start to a Guinness Six Nations campaign with defeats to Wales and France.

But head coach Farrell insisted: “Our fight and want and will to impose ourselves against the opposition has been top class.

“The finishing clinical edge is always the missing ingredient of any team that wants to be world class, so that’s what we are striving for and hopefully we can make a jump in that direction this weekend.”

ALEX SPINK

BY

ENGLAND star Jonny Hill is on a hiding to nothing against Wales today.

Anything but victory will end English hopes of retaining their title and hand unbeaten Wales the Triple Crown.

But a first win at the Principali­ty Stadium since 2017 will not go down well with the family of Hill’s girlfriend – Wales netball star Sarah Llewelyn.

“I spoke to her last night and she’s fully supporting me this weekend, thankfully,” he said. “She’s very, very supportive of me to be fair. Her dad is a bit different. He’s harder to persuade.”

Hill (right) goes up against Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones, who head coach Eddie Jones has warned could target England with dirty tricks.

But the 6ft 5in star said: “That sort of thing doesn’t faze me. I’ll crack on and he can do whatever he wants.

“Players may try to wind me up but I’m not aware of it.

“Sometimes I’m so tired or so focused that either I don’t notice or it doesn’t affect me.” England have been handed a tough start to their 2023 World Cup campaign in France with two pool matches against teams in the world’s top 10. Jones’ men open up against Argentina in Marseille on September 9 before taking on Japan in Nice eight days later.

A day after England’s first match, Scotland face defending champions South Africa in Marseille and Wales play Fiji in Bordeaux. Ireland face a European qualifier on September 9.

IT hurts, when you are only trying to help, to read local newspaper headlines saying I’m embroiled in a “row” over the Savage Foundation’s role in the community.

I’m not trying to start a fight or have an argument with anybody. The Savage Foundation was set up to give every child from five to 12-year-old, regardless of background or ability, access to organised coaching at a football club as a hub of the local community.

No hidden agendas, no hijacking of grassroots football teams or leagues, no ‘stealing’ players from existing clubs.

It’s about a level playing field and a pathway into the grassroots system for everyone.

Yes, we would like to start a league affiliated to the Cheshire FA featuring teams drawn from Savage Foundation kids with grassroots clubs joining for free. But it’s not a league to rival existing divisions. It would simply give kids who might not have played football at all a chance to win, lose or draw like anyone else.

The Savage Foundation is almost at capacity for our pilot scheme in Macclesfie­ld. The FA are happy with our motives, happy with the project and happy with our plans to roll it out nationwide. It does not help when an open letter to the local paper from grassroots clubs, asking questions about our plans, is turned into a “row.”

And I’ve already had calls from grassroots clubs who were signatorie­s to the open letter saying they are embarrasse­d that a scheme fuelled only by good intentions has been turned into friction.

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