Fighting Frank’s Corner

‘IF Frank Bruno had any doubts that he still retains a special place in the heart of the British public, today’s front pages would surely have been enough to dispel them.

‘And they wonder why I’m delusional!’

Fresh from yesterday’s amazing volte face, in which its front page headline changed from ‘Bonkers Bruno Locked Up’ to ‘Sad Bruno In Mental Home’ in a matter of minutes, the newly sympathetic Sun this morning launches a campaign to help people with health problems, like the former heavyweight boxing champ.

It’s been a funny week so far for the country’s biggest selling paper – on Monday, it published a special domestic violence ‘shock issue’, promising to expose wife beaters; on Wednesday, it is collecting money in the name of a man who was accused two years ago of knocking his missus around.

And the paper’s discomfort is not lost on any of its rivals, with the Star claiming that it ‘was facing its biggest backlash since the Hillsborough football disaster’.

However, the main focus of the coverage is the 41-year-old boxer himself, with the Mirror painting a pathetic picture of a man who shared the same ring as Mike Tyson and the same stage as Sooty.

‘It was so sad,’ a friend said. ‘Frank was a wreck. He was crying out ‘Laura, Laura, Laura’, sounding like a wounded animal.’

For the Mail, Bruno’s fall from grace is a very modern morality play, with his divorce from wife Laura and his fondness for dope the evils that fed his despair.

‘As far as I’m concerned,’ boxing promoter Frank Warren tells the paper, ‘it’s no secret that Frank has been smoking a lot of dope.

‘In my opinion, this has made him very paranoid and has probably contributed to what has happened to him. It’s well known that drugs can mess up your mind, so there is a good chance this is what has happened to Frank.’

Expert medical advice from a man whose job it is to pay grown men to hit each other as hard as they can in the head.

But most of all there is just sadness, with the Express bizarrely claiming an ‘exclusive’ with its story entitled ‘We All Love You, Frank’.

And it speaks to British boxing great Sir Henry Cooper, who offers his own thoughts on Frank’s condition.

‘You can’t say to people like that, ‘Pull yourself together’,’ he laments. ‘They can’t, they need help and thank God he is going to get help.’

All he needs to do is rub the magic lamp hard…’

Posted: 24th, September 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink