After a couple of hours in the company of Frank Bruno, I have convinced myself he wants to fulfil an incredible ambition of returning to the ring. Unthinkable perhaps until his old adversary Mike Tyson, just five years younger, came out of retirement and fought in November.

While Bruno has been drinking orange squash during lunch, there have been a glass or two of wine consumed by fellow diners, so it would only be right to check. Had we really heard what he just said about his rivalry with Tim Witherspoon and Lennox Lewis? Yes.

“He was a nasty bit of work before he got into the ring. I don’t know where he got his information from, people would tell him this and that. He beat me fair and square but I’d love to fight him again,” said Bruno of Witherspoon.

And Lennox? “If he wants the money, I’m sure.”

I have been sitting next to Bruno for Sunday lunch and it is clear at the age of 63 that he lives and breathes boxing. At his home in Bedfordshire he trains every day, running with weights around his waist. He also swims. The fighter inside never dies and he is in great shape. Perhaps former heavyweight champions will always think like a boxer, even in their sixties.

“We only have one time on this earth so while on it, look after yourself the best you can,” he says, before being asked about what comes next. “Happiness. Find a nice young lady. That’s about it. I’m not asking too much… she’d not have to bring no money at all, I’d take care of things. I’m quite happy and contented. But everyone has a ducker or diver in them, to put food on their table for the missus, family or themselves.

“I like getting up in the morning, punching the bag, going for a run, having a steamer or a ‘tacuzzi’ – I can’t pronounce it the right way. Just getting on with life.”

The road to lunching with Frank started before Christmas with a friend’s invite to a black-tie ball that had nothing to do with my day job. Having our first night out without the kids in years, my wife and I were on a high when I put in a speculative silent bid at an auction to have lunch with a national treasure. Feeling slightly groggy the next day, the text message came through – get ready to meet Frank.

It was not until I arrived for lunch that I was told I would be sitting next to the sportsman who was hero-worshipped in the playground while I was growing up. It would only be right to tell him I am a football journalist and this unusual lunch may be recorded in the Daily Telegraph.

“Just don’t beat me up!” was the reply. Then comes that deep, belly laugh known around the world. He is later asked about the laugh. “It came from the heart. It’s better than someone chucking tomatoes or eggs at you.”

Almost 29 years since his final fight, against Tyson, Bruno can relive his career punch by punch. He is happy to talk West Ham United, his football team, but it is boxing that makes his eyes light up. He has a view on the current heavyweight rivalries and, like his lunch companions, would welcome a bout between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua. He has been out to Saudi Arabia as a guest and will be seen at future fights, although surely not in the ring itself.

It is during a Q&A with fans where it is pointed out the boxers of today fight less than during his own era. Bruno fought 10 times in 1982 and nine times the following year.

“That is a lot but I had to pay the bills. I had a wife and two kids so I had to get in the ring and keep it going, keep it real,” he said. “I think they would have it. I had to go through it, I had to pay the money back and would rather fight rather than owing people money.

“If I was boxing now I would like to keep it going. They are not lazy but they get more money and don’t have to do too much.”

Brutal upbringing and borstal

His brutal upbringing and going into a borstal in the 1970s is well-documented but no less shocking when he tells the story himself, of how he needed to toughen up to survive and how boxing saved him.

“I went there for five or six years and it was the best thing my mum could have done for me. I learnt how to box, how to duck and dive in big ways as there were a lot of bullies at that school,” he said. “It toughened me up very much because I don’t like bullies coming in my bedroom at night-time with a sock and a snooker ball coming to do some damage to me. You have to learn very quickly how to defend yourself.”

Some of the minute details are lost to memory, yet the feeling has never left him. Like when he first tried on a pair of boxing gloves. “I started twitching as I had so much nerves in my arms and legs. As soon as I got punched in the mouth, the twitching went,” he said.

Bruno’s life and the characters within captivate the boxing aficionados and the casual fan alike. He talks about the late Terry Lawless, his manager and trainer, and the “cartel”, as his associates became known. “They didn’t like to be called the cartel as that leads to gangster. Let alone lift up a gun, they couldn’t lift a cup of tea.

“Terry was a character but very strict. He was a good guy, he had a good heart. I was getting £38 a week, I had a car and driving around like I was in a Bentley. It was only a Chrysler Avenger.”

His memory of his fights with Tyson are vivid – “I rocked him like Elvis” – as are his recollections of the boxing circus that followed the fighters out to their Las Vegas mega-bouts. “I went into the fight with the intention of beating him. I went in and tried my best, so I ain’t got no shame,” he adds.

Almost as fascinating are his views on performing in pantomime. Not the image of a heavyweight boxer? For Bruno, he got more out of it than his salary for treading the boards.

“Where can you get paid £100,000 and laugh all night? People criticise but it was a lovely experience that gave me confidence and helped me,” he said. “Being dyslexic is a different type of pressure. You think you’re mugging off yourself. But I learnt lines and footsteps. It’s good for your heart.”

He occasionally has a Guinness these days but it is mainly orange cordial and after his final pint of it, he bids farewell and heads back home. Watering plants and housework, he jokes. Whatever he does, boxing will never be far from his thoughts.