THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Sep 3, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
Jeré Longman


NextImg:Joe Bugner, 75, British Boxing Champ Who Slugged It Out With Ali, Dies

Joe Bugner, a Cold War refugee from Hungary who became the British and European heavyweight boxing champion and who went the distance in two defeats to Muhammad Ali and another to Joe Frazier, has died in Brisbane, Australia. He was 75.

His death, at an assisted living facility, was announced on Monday by the British Boxing Board of Control. No other details were given.

Bugner had relocated to Australia in the mid-1980s, becoming known there as “Aussie Joe,” and spent his final years living in a care home after being diagnosed with dementia, The Associated Press reported.

A sculpted 6 feet 4 inches and 230 pounds, Bugner had a complicated relationship with both the public and sportswriters in Britain during a 32-year boxing career that lasted into his late 40s. He was sometimes criticized for a perceived caution and lack of ruthlessness in the ring, at one point being labeled in the press “The Harmless Hercules.”

But Bugner suggested that his hesitancy sprung from an early professional fight, in 1969, in which he defeated Ulric Regis of Trinidad and Tobago. Four days later, Regis died of a brain injury.

“When a tragedy like that happens, it does change you,” Bugner later acknowledged, as quoted by the British newspaper The Telegraph. “I would often think about whether the same thing could happen again, and it did make me a bit more cautious when throwing punches.”


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.