Billy Conn v. 80s heavyweights

He'd have his hands full.

I think Weaver and Coetzee suit him the most.

 

Michael Spinks was about the same size as Conn, perhaps a bit smaller even, and he got the lineal title without meeting any of these men!

 

Spinks was a lot bigger than Conn. Spinks was 6′ 2½, Conn was 6′ 1½. Spinks had a 76" reach, Conn had a 72½" reach. Spinks weighed 200 in the first Holmes fight, Conn weighed 174 against Louis.

 

And Spinks weighed 170lbs a few months before the Holmes fight!

The only thing between Spink's and Conn, was that Spinks had the option of bulking up!

I would add that Conn had a much better case for fighting Louis, than Spinks had for fighting Holmes!

 

Conn beats everyone, but Thomas, Douglas, Tucker, and Witherspoon, since I think all four in top form would take Conn out late in the fight, but if they showed up in anything less than top form Conn could take a decision off them.

 

Spinks must've been cutting weight at light heavyweight. Early in his career, Spinks weighed 180 when he fought Marc Hans. This was 6 years before he fought Holmes. I think, just by looking at the two, Spinks looks bigger. That's just my opinion. This is what Michael's strength and conditioning coach (Mackie Shilstone) said before his heavyweight debut- ''Michael's normal walking-around weight is between 187 and 192 pounds. His fighting weight was 175 pounds. But we feel that now he is a naturally trained heavyweight.'' Also, the difference between Spinks and Conn is that Spinks did bulk up. We don't know how he would have done if he weighed the same as Conn (175-180). And we saw that Spinks wasn't affected negatively by the excess weight he carried at heavyweight. We don't know how Conn would perform if he were to bulk up to 200. Conn started at a much lower weight than Spinks.

I agree, Conn had a much better case for fighting Louis. But that's also because he was fighting the undisputed heavyweight champion. Holmes was the IBF/Lineal champion. Pinklon Thomas was the WBC champ and Tony Tubbs was the WBA champ. IBF wasn't exactly a prestigious title at the time. I don't think Spinks had to do much to fight Holmes. Holmes was defending his titles against fighters like Bey and Williams. Spinks was one of the best fighters in the world. Another thing. Spinks is one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time. He was a highly dominant champion. Conn didn't clean out the division like Spinks did. Maybe Conn was testing the waters and wanted to fight some contenders before he fought Louis. This is just speculation on my part. Idk much about Conn's career.

Tony Tubbs weighed around 230 in his prime. Tim Witherspoon, Tony Tucker, Michael Dokes and Pinklon Thomas weighed ~220. Greg Page weighed 225-230 at his best. These are big heavyweights. A lot bigger than the ones Conn had to face. The ranked heavyweight contenders Conn beat weren't that big. Savold weighed 187 and Pastor weighed 181. Louis was 199.5 in the first fight. Conn would be too small to compete against the best heavyweights of the 80s. He had the frame to bulk up so maybe he can bulk up to around 200. If we're talking about Conn from Louis I, he'd be at a massive size disadvantage here. Not even a fair matchup imo.

 

I wouldn’t favour Conn against any of them. If he fights smart, do a bit of hit and run and keep off the ropes, he can get some rounds in but it would not surprise me if he gets stopped by all of them, whether early or late.

 

Conn might have a shot against Weaver and Bruno, but the rest he loses to. And Dokes, Page, Tubbs, and Tucker would show him what real speed was about at heavyweight, would be pretty embarrassing.

 

If he was coming in at 170 lbs, in fights where 174.9 would have been OK, then he obviously wasn't having any difficulty making the light heavyweight limit.

Do you think that the weight that Spinks gained was a decisive factor in his success?

The only major benefit that it would have brought him, is being stronger in the clinches.

The point is that Holmes might just have handed Conn the title shot, without him beating any of the top contenders.

I think that Conn could have had considerable success against men of similar height and reach to Louis, even if they were somewhat heavier.

If you match him against somebody who is a couple of inches taller than Louis, with four inches more in reach, then that might be a problem.

 

Another one of these silly threads putting a 160 to 170 pound guy against modern sized heavyweights. Each of these guys would destroy Conn.

 

Thinking about this one more time, he´d have his hands full with Spinks and Qawi...

The bicycle was spinning!