Straight off the back of a White Hart Lane win against Joe Bugner, Frank Bruno stepped onto the world stage against a ferocious Mike Tyson at the Las Vegas Hilton, Hilton Center, Las Vegas. Tyson was, at the time, undefeated and prizing the WBC, WBA and IBF belts from his grip, was never going to be an easy talk. That said, Bruno was entering the fight in prime condition (weighing in at 228 lbs vs Tysons 218lbs), putting himself the best position possible going into the fight. Tyson not so much after breaking his hand in a street fight against boxer Mitch Green in August the year prior.
What followed was five rounds of memorable action, with underdog Bruno certainly having his moments and giving it his best. Live on HBO with Tyson’s earning $7 million, and Bruno a healthy $3.6 million. Bruno went down early, receiving s standing 8 count, and later in the round had a point taken away for hitting Tyson on the back of the head. However Bruno then caught Tyson with a right hand, followed by a left hook and clearly rocked the champion (something that was a rarity in Tyson’s world). Unfortunately Bruno’s skillset was geared more towards power than speed and he couldn’t capitalise on his moment. Bruno took the best Tyson had to offer with the fight being called off in the fifth round after he had received four or five powerful blows to the head. Tyson remained undefeated, but the first left many wondering whether still the unstoppable force that he was viewed by many to be.
Read about the fight here
On September 18, 1999, unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya faced similarly unbeaten IBF welterweight champion Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad in a unification bout, billed as the ‘Fight of the Millenium’, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. Arguably the most anticipated welterweight contest since Leonard versus Hearns in 1981, it would be fair to say that the fight failed to live up to the hype, but did produce a result that was, and is, shrouded in controversy.
De La Hoya, who was, at the time, the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, according to the ‘The Ring’ magazine, dominated the early rounds, using his superior hand speed and footwork to keep his opponent at bay. After nine rounds, De La Hoya was ahead, albeit not by far, on two judges’ scorecards. However, in the final three rounds, while he threw more punches per round than Trinidad, De La Hoya landed far fewer forceful blows than his dogged rival. Believing he had the fight ‘in the bag’, De La Hoya attempted to ‘cruise’ the last three rounds, while Trinidad stuck to his game plan and kept banging away.
In pursuit of a knockout, which he seemingly needed to win the fight, Trinidad became the more aggressive and effective of the pair, so much so that just one judge awarded De La Hoya just one of rounds ten, eleven and twelve. However, when the scorecards were tallied, Trinidad had won, by a shock majority decision, 115-114, 115-13, 114-114.