John Conteh

I was a tad too young to properly enjoy Conteh during his prime, but I'm making up for it now. Very impressive fighter...had beautiful balance akin to Virgil Hill, although Conteh was more complete to me.

What were these distractions exactly? Why didn't he fulfill his real potential?

 

Sadly I am old enough to remember JC in his prime, a magnificent fighter, SHOULD have been an unquestionable atg, he had it all; skill, high ring iq, fitness (& when fit fine durability), speed, power and unlike many British fighters he had an absolutely vicious streak.

He regarded any part of the body above the waist as a weapon; he said (paraphrasing) that the Marquess of Queensbury made the rules, but he didn't have to do the fighting did he?!!

Out of the ring he had it all too; style, the looks, the twinkle in his eye, the personality, the charisma. In terms of star quality he was the boxing equivalent of David Beckham in the 70s, but with considerably more personality & charisma.

My dear old Mum thought he was gorgeous! One night in the early 80S I was at a dinner show at the Café Royal in Piccadilly & JC was there. Such a humble guy, he actually asked who I was boxing that night! We got chatting and I asked for his autograph, John asked who it was for & I said my Mum "as she thinks you're gorgeous"...his eyes lit up (in the nicest possible way!) & he asked her name and signed it to her. A few weeks later I was at another dinner show & he came up to me asked me how my Mum was! A charming fella!

Distractions? Not many... only too much drinking, too many women, too many drugs...that's all...and a bad right hand...of which there is an unsavoury rumour as to how that injury was actually caused.

IF he had lived clean he quite likely could have been champ until the turn of the 80s...by that time I think Qawi would have likely been too much beast for JC, or Spinks young, fresh, awkward powerful enough to outpoint John.

Prime for prime I would have backed Conteh to beat Saad...

 

I'm old enough to remember Conteh he was a real hero of mine, in my opinion he could have been a real ATG.
As it was he was still a very good fighter who In his short prime to me would have been a match for anybody.
All round boxing skills, ring smarts, toughness and a plain dirty fighter who could suddenly up his intensity and be a real handful.
Drugs, booze and women were his downfall plus a broken right hand but he was still good enough to comfortably beat Yaqui Lopez one handed.
His last stand was the first Saad Muhammad fight when despite being well on the slide he gave Matthew all the trouble he could handle.
The 2nd fight he was a mere shell of a fighter.

 

More splintering of titles. After the Foster-Ahaumada draw, Galindez fought Hutchings for the WBA title (stopping him on his stool in the 13th) and Conteh copped a hard fought decision against Ahaumada in London. WBC. The logical thing to do? Galindez-Conteh summer of 75 to cement the title but...NO, not to be. You had to be around at the time to understand how frustrating it was to not see a Conteh-Galindez in mid-75. Sadly both of their reps are tarnished by that. i.e. That Spinks would have had both of them for lunch BS mantra that's so often troweled out.
After they won their 'titles' Victor engaged in wars for the next 2-3 years rendering him a shell of himself by the time he fought the late 70's guys and John kept breaking his right hand and partying.
Again, you had to be there. It was THE fight to be made early 75 with a mixture of outcomes based on your opinion.

 

He had it all or a lot of it didn't he! Like Fasthands said he had that star quality too and my brother and I sure thought a lot of him. He style wise was abit different in this age too as he fought with his weight on the back foot like Jack Johnson did making him an expert on distance, parrying and blocking. I've seen some make note that he couldn't duck or slip very well but that stance isn't for that as it wasn't Jacks forte either. I loved how he could jab a guy silly from that stance and he almost beat Saad in their first go despite being past his best days. One of my fav's all time.

 

Admittedly idolizing cheaters.
Followers like these make it the corrupt sport it is and the world the place that it is.

 

Great stuff. Thanks!

 

Well we can't all be fine upstanding purists like your good self.

 

A pleasure Seamus...I appreciate the compliment!

 

Conteh was a superb boxer technically,physically so gifted.

 

, Aint that the truth.

 

I dunno, I think I liked it better when you wrote in gibberish Frank.

 

John Conteh General Overview laced with a few personal opinions...

I watched John Conteh’s career unfold and in my humble opinion John Conteh was a fabulous fighter. i hesitate to say at his best, because just when he was approaching what should of been his best. And consolidation period on the world stage. He eroded his talent and focus with injuries to the right hand (further aggravated through a car accident after leaving a night club apparently ) Managerial disputes that saw him stripped of his world title for refusing to go through with a defense against a apparent formality opponent in Miguel Cuello at the 11th Hour. Letting family get involved and dabble in the management side, and generally enjoying his Superstar Status (yes, he even won a British TV Superstars Competition) to the detriment of his dedication which would probably, in my opinion, have seen him emerge as the clear successor to Bob Foster, He was that good in his ascendancy.

He looked like a Bronzed Errol Flynn, so with these looks he was an instant hit with the Media, But in the ring he could certainly back it up with class, think of a larger version of Jose Napoles, Conteh was Smooth, Beautiful movement, Cobra-esque Head Movement saw him slip punches beautifully, a Wonderful Jab , which he often doubled up on, a wicked Left Hook and a Crunching right hand, but these shots were rarely displayed in isolation, he did drop Len Hutching with a peach of a left hook, and he flattened Leonarndo Rogers with a stunning right, But generally when “ Letting Rip” Conteh would go from Boxing to attack Mode extremely quickly and with vicious combinations.

He started off trying to be a Heavyweight but could not Beef up to to much more than the 13 stone mark ( i do not think Pharmaceuticals were used in those days !? more Steaks and Cakes Perhaps ? ) but he ran through an assortment of Heavy’s using his speed and skills against these naturally bigger opponents , but some did prove harder to budge due to their size advantage, only Eddie Duncan notched a points win against Conteh, much disputed, Conteh chased him the whole way, and a more stern Ref would certainly of got on Duncan’s case for his Hit(?) and Flit tactics, Good quality trailhorses and circuit names Joe Gholston, Sam McGill, Bill Drover, Johnny Mac were taken care of in fine style, Big Dave Matthews out finessed, Les Stevens outhustled and Terry Daniels impressively hammered in six, not bad for a natural Lightheavy, you could see that they really felt Conteh’s shots, and it was interesting to speculate what would happen if an opponent Contehs own natural size was on the receiving end....we did not have long to wait..

After Hammering Daniels on the Ali-Bugner undercard as i recall, Angelo Dundee and Ali voiced the wise opinion that Conteh would not be able to compete with the top Heavy’s of the day, ( this was the golden Early 70’s !) so a drop to Lt heavy followed, straight away Conteh classily ripped the European title off of the head of Rudi Schmidtke who had taken the title off of Chris Finnegan with a cuts stoppage, the natural match-up then took place with Conteh beating the tough excellent Finnegan on points over 15 rounds in a classy encounter, Conteh often liked to see the whites of the eyes before taking the other person out, so sometimes got criticized , also on his roster , he hammered Vicente Rondon in 9 after it appeared he could of done it several rounds earlier, beat Baby boy rolle and stopped the Durable Dane the crafty Tom Bogs, and of course met up with Chris Finnegan for the inevitable rematch, and Chris was boxing like a dream and with Conteh in cautious mode Finnegan took an early lead over the first third of the fight, however when Conteh’s attack come, in the sixth round it led to Finnegan’s swift and bloody dismissal, one daily newspaper referred to Conteh’s “ Jungle Cat Ferocity” Finnegan was covered in blood and the cut was found to be behind Chris’s ear, in amongst those vicious combinations it seems Conteh’s head had made a nuisance of itself, there were examples of it in the past...and would be in the future of this classy champions ruthless streak...

With Bob Foster accepting the Gift decision against the rugged Argentinean contender Jorge Ahumada and retiring, No1 mandatory contender Conteh and generally perceived ”Should Be” champ Jorge met at Wembley Stadium London England to settle the issue of Fosters successor, John was only 23 and still some way short of what should be his Prime, Ahumada was 28 Bang in his prime and had physical strength and maturity on Conteh, and over 15 rounds many thought that this would tell in the later rounds, but in those days with Task Master George Francis at the training helm, and Conteh eager and fuelled with desire to succeed, He put on a memorable display as he alternately Outboxed, Outpunched, and Outmanoeuvred Ahumada, withstanding Jorge’s expected torrid last third charge to Outlast him in an absolute thriller...