The refugee tales of Joe Bugner and other fighters
The tales of Joe Bugner and co are cruel but irresistible chunks of boxing folklore, writes Steve Bunce
THERE has to be a bit of truth, a few lies, excess, invention, delusion and suffering in any good boxing story. The history of the men and women that travelled on mules, camels, in trucks, swam, walked across mountains in snow, risked it in sinking dinghies, had fake passports and finally landed in a British ring is long and complicated. Joe Bugner was smuggled out of Hungary, through three-feet of snow on his mother’s back. Actually, that’s almost true.