Bruno's decline a harsh lesson

Such as Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist with enough problems to keep a whole team of psychiatrists employed for a lifetime.

Or Oliver McCall, who lost the world championship to Bruno at Wembley eight years ago and who then suffered a breakdown in the ring when he faced the menacing figure of Lennox Lewis.

Frank Maloney, who guided Lewis to the undisputed title, believes boxing cannot be blamed.

He insisted: "Anyone who says this is a boxing problem is barking up the wrong tree. You could pick out any sport and they all have similar pressures. Look at football and what happened to George Best and Paul Gascoigne.

"I would definitely say this has nothing to do with boxing at all. It is probably more to do with outside stuff in Frank's life, like the breakdown of his marriage.

"It is more of a personal problem and it can happen to anyone.

"I've got friends who are money brokers in the city who have broken down. They've had to give up their jobs because they can't take the pressures. How you deal with pressure depends on how strong a person you are."

Support for Maloney's view might be found in the way that Lewis and Olympic gold medallist Audley Harrison are going about the heavyweight business.

These men are strong of build - and strong of character too. They have both taken firm control of their careers and every facet of their lives in a manner that may offend boxing traditionalists but which should ensure that retirement, when it comes, is not a void in which depression settles and festers.

Lewis has more money in his bank account than he can ever spend and is as comfortable partying in the company of fellow AList celebrities as he is chilling in his Jamaica retreat.

Harrison likes to think he's following Lewis's route to the stars. Whether he has the stamina and talent to make it remains open to conjecture. Yet he is so confident and is brimming with such arrogance that you can imagine he'll be a lasting success in some venture even if it's not in the ring.

As for Bruno, we now realise there was something fragile hidden behind that facade of witty one-liners and hee-hee chuckle.

Maybe Maloney is right. It was not boxing but life that did for him.