Brian Brunette

Brunette is a member of the Brunette family of boxers, three brothers who are co-proprietors of Brunette's Boxing Gym in Saint Paul. Brian Brunette is the business manager for the gym.[1]

Brunette made his professional debut on July 7, 1980 with a second round knockout of Wayne Grant on the undercard of the Larry Holmes-Scott LeDoux match at Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. Brunette won his first 23 fights, 17 of them by knockout, including bouts with 63-43-3 Bruce Strauss and a majority decision win against 22-4 Gary Holmgren to take the Minnesota junior middleweight title before a crowd of 2,629.[2]

On September 6, 1986, Brunette squared off against undefeated champion (46-0)[3] Patrizio Oliva in Campania, Italy for Oliva's WBA light welterweight title; Brunette lost by a TKO in the third round of a scheduled fifteen round bout, when, "Brunette’s manager--his brother, Tom--stepped into the fray to protect Brunette (23-1) from a hail of lefts and rights by Oliva (47-0)."[4][5]

Three months later Brunette returned to the ring for one last fight, defeating middleweight Billy Travers by fifth-round TKO. It was his final professional fight, as he retired at the age of 28. At the end of his career, Brunette had compiled a record of 24-1 with 18 wins coming by knockout.[6]