As if defending the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship and "flying the flag for England" weren't enough, Frank Bruno has found something else to fire him up for his fight Saturday against Mike Tyson.
It is something Tyson said earlier in the day Monday: that he felt Bruno "in his heart" did not believe he could knock Tyson out."He's on a different planet," Bruno said angrily at a news conference after a public workout in preparation for his scheduled 12-round WBC title defense. "Who does Tyson think he is?"
Bruno got in a few shots of his own.
"Deep, deep down, I don't think Tyson's ready, and he has nowhere to run," said Bruno.
"Tyson's been in prison for three years and has only had 10 minutes in the ring. It can't be beneficial for him. It can be beneficial for me.
"I don't know about his preparation for this fight, but in prison you have time to be positive. He seems to have got worse, and that's good for me."
As for his own preparedness, Bruno said: "I feel nice. I'm ready to rumble. Though I may have embarrassed myself in the past, this time I'm flying the flag for England."
The 34-year-old from Brentwood, Essex, has a record of 40-4 with 38 knockouts.
However, all four losses were inside the distance and three came in world title bouts, including one on Feb. 25, 1989, in Las Vegas when he was stopped in the fifth round by Tyson, then the undisputed world heavyweight champion.
In the past 21/2 years Bruno has won all four of his fights including his last one on September 2 in London when he took a 12-round decision over Oliver McCall to capture the WBC title.
Bruno says he is less reclusive in the weeks leading up to a bout.
"I don't isolate myself like I did years ago," he said. "I'm walking around a bit more. I don't want to hide from the fans. As you get older, you get wiser and relax a little bit."
Bruno will have plenty of fans here to relax with. Some 4,000 to 5,000 fans from England are expected to fly over to attend the fight. In addition, nearby southern California is home to hundreds of thousands of English expatriates and some 30,000 live in Las Vegas.
Despite that support, Bruno remains an 8 1/2 to 1 underdog, a fact that doesn't bother the champion. "I've dismissed the odds," he said, invoking the example of the only man to beat Tyson: "Look at Buster Douglas at 42 to 1."
Tyson for his part was not impressed by the strength of Bruno's likely support. "Yeah, 5,000 will be coming to root for him," Tyson said, "and 5,000 will be taking that long, depressing trip back to England with him."