Jack Sharkey the title against Ingemar Johansson, having lost it to the Swede in their first fight. Oliver McCall then became the third such Heavyweight champion when beating Lennox Lewis for the WBC title in 1994, before losing it to Lewis' countryman, Frank Bruno the following year. In recent years, with the proliferation of European Heavyweight champions, fighters such as Chris Byrd and Hasim Rahman have also won and lost their championships against European opposition. Sharkey's distinction is noteworthy, however, as Schmeling and Carnera were, respectively, only the third and fourth Europeans to win the World Heavyweight championship. Later in life, Sharkey
Frank Bruno later give a strong account of himself in the big matches. Bruno won his next six bouts against respected opposition. He won the European heavyweight title with a KO over Sweden's Anders Eklund, KO'd former European champion and world title contender Lucien Rodriguez in one round, was taken the distance for the first time by the useful world rated Phil Brown, and beat fringe fighters Larry Frazier and Jeff Jordan. Bruno got back into title contention with an impressive one-round KO win over former WBA champion Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa, and, in July 1986, he challenged Tim Witherspoon for