Although born in Hungary in 1950, Joe's family settled in St Ives in the late 1950's after evacuating during the communist uprising.

He began boxing in his early teens and was a frequent contender in amateur matches and had a stab at the A.B.A. Championship in London in 1967 where he came up against Billy Wells, clearly out gunned he nether-the-less gave his best.

In order to prevent Bugner being pitted against the random choice of opponent of the amateur circuit, his trainer and friend Andy Smith decided it would be to Bugner's advantage if he turned professional and on the 20th December 1967 he challenged Paul Brown at the London Hilton and lost. Lying on his back in the ring after being knocked out cold in the third round appeared to be the end of a very short career.

However no one could have guessed that he would win his next 19 fights in a row and a few short years later Bugner would be tackling some of the greats of World Heavyweight Boxing, in the form of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.