Frank Bruno refuses to respond to Piers Morgan's question on whether he would fight Muhammad Ali: 'The man is dead'

The boxer managed to dodge Morgan's line of questioning

Frank Bruno refused to answer Piers Morgan’s questioning about whether he would fight Muhammad Ali and instead shut the controversial presenter down.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the 54-year-old heavyweight boxer said he saw the late boxing legend as a “fatherly figure”.

Morgan, who is the US editor-at-large for MailOnline and a presenter on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, then asked whether Bruno would have liked to have got in the ring with him.

“The man is dead,” Bruno said and cut Morgan off. “I'm just glad I met him. He's my hero.”

Morgan then continued to probe Bruno but he refused to respond to his quizzing.

“Piers, he's a man I class nearer to God. It would be difficult and cheap for me to say that I would like to fight him,” he continued.

“The man is dead, he's brown bread so I would like to leave it as me being a supporter rather than comment on that Piers, if you don't mind.“

It was only after this that Morgan stopped asking him and his co-host Susanna Reid continued with the interview.

Morgan told The Independent he and Bruno had been friends for 30 years and Bruno had not been irritated by the question.

"I asked Frank during the interview if he would have ever liked to have had the chance to fight Muhammad Ali in the ring and he said he'd rather not answer that question," Morgan said. "I said I understood and we moved on. I've known Frank 30 years and he was certainly not annoyed by the question as some seem to be suggesting. If you watch the whole interview this is very obvious."

Morgan prompted controversy this weekend for saying Ali said “far more inflammatory/racist things” than Donald Trump.

Morgan claimed the presumptive Republican nominee's remarks about Muslims after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks were less racist than Ali’s own views about white people.

“Muhammad Ali said far more inflammatory/racist things about white people than Donald Trump ever has about Muslims #fact,” Morgan wrote on Twitter on Sunday morning.

A representative for Bruno did not immediately respond to request for comment.