CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Joe Bugner, a heavyweight who took boxing greats Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier the distance in fights in the 1970s, has died. He was 75.
The death of the Hungary-born Bugner, who was also a British citizen, was announced Monday by the British Boxing Board of Control, which said he died at his care home in Brisbane, Australia.
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FILE - Former British heavyweight champion Joe Bugner holds up a George Foreman tee shirt after confirming his comeback to boxing at a gym in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Friday Aug. 25, 1995. (AP Photo/Steve Holland, file)
FILE - American Heavyweight Champion Muhammed Ali, right, launches an attack on Joe Bugner, British and European Heavyweight Champion, during their 12 round Heavyweight fight in Los Vegas, Nevada, on Feb. 14, 1973. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - Joe Bugner, British heavyweight boxing champion, right, is pictured with American boxer Joe Frazier at a news conference at the Sportsman Club in London, June 1973, prior to their bout. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - British Heavyweight boxer Joe Bugner winks towards the camera, after completing his daily training session at the British Boxing Board of Control's gymnasium at Chalk Farm, London, on Oct. 5, 1972. (AP Photo/Bob Dear, file)
FILE - British heavyweight champion Joe Bugner, left, is pictured with U.S. heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali, at a press conference in New York, May 27, 1975. T (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff, file)
Bugner struggled to gain affection in Britain after sending national treasure Henry Cooper into retirement with a contentious points win in 1971 to capture the British, Commonwealth and European titles.
He lost those belts later in the year but was European champion again by the time he fought Ali for the first time, in 1973, in a non-title fight in Las Vegas. Ali won on points and Frazier did the same five months later in a fight at Earl's Court in London.
Bugner met Ali for a second time in 1975, on that occasion a world-title fight in Kuala Lumpur, and the American again won on points in a bout over 15 rounds.
A boxing career spanning 32 years ended in 1999, by which time he had relocated to Australia — where he spent the final years of his life in a care home after being diagnosed with dementia. Bugner was affectionately known as "Aussie Joe" in his last few years as a boxer.
Bugner, who was a child refugee when he moved to Britain after his family fled Hungary amid the 1956 Soviet invasion, won 69 of his 83 fights, 41 inside the distance.
“The British Boxing Board of Control passes on its condolences to Joe’s family,” the BBBofC said in a short statement.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
FILE - Former British heavyweight champion Joe Bugner holds up a George Foreman tee shirt after confirming his comeback to boxing at a gym in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Friday Aug. 25, 1995. (AP Photo/Steve Holland, file)
FILE - American Heavyweight Champion Muhammed Ali, right, launches an attack on Joe Bugner, British and European Heavyweight Champion, during their 12 round Heavyweight fight in Los Vegas, Nevada, on Feb. 14, 1973. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - Joe Bugner, British heavyweight boxing champion, right, is pictured with American boxer Joe Frazier at a news conference at the Sportsman Club in London, June 1973, prior to their bout. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - British Heavyweight boxer Joe Bugner winks towards the camera, after completing his daily training session at the British Boxing Board of Control's gymnasium at Chalk Farm, London, on Oct. 5, 1972. (AP Photo/Bob Dear, file)
FILE - British heavyweight champion Joe Bugner, left, is pictured with U.S. heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali, at a press conference in New York, May 27, 1975. T (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff, file)
HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.
Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.
The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.
In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.
Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.
Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.
“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.
Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.
Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."
Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.
The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.
“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.
The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.
Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.
The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.
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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.
Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
