Muhammad KO4 Mwale. Some of the most horrible leads to the body I ever did see.

I didn't see the fight, but I remember reading that it was a very close decision. Many people said Johnson deserved the decision. Mwale did score a knockdown of Johnson, and that may have made the difference on the scorecards. Interesting also is that the bout was only scheduled for eight rounds. Anyway you look at it, the fight was an amazing performance for Mwale considering it was only his fifth or sixth pro fight. Johnson won the WBC title just a few months later.

 

I'm not sure I agree. In the first fight, Conteh survived most of the bout without taking any truly brutal head shots (at least not until the final rounds). The difference in the second fight is that Saad found a way to land his big bombs on Conteh's chin. I think Saad learned new punching angles for the rematch. Remember, anyone Saad hit cleanly was in danger of being kayoed.

 

Well, Mwale was a world champion as an amateur, so he must have been known by Sibson's managers for that reason. However Mwale was an amateur champion at middleweight or junior middleweight. When Sibson's manager signed him to fight Mwale in the pros, as I recall, the manager didn't realize that Mwale had beefed up to lightheavyweight. I remember reading about this fight in the boxing magazines. There was definitely a difference in size between the two boxers.

 

You are probably correct. Mwale might have been too much for Rossman, Cuello, Kates, Parlov and certain other leading lightheavies of the time. What is interesting, though, is that Mwale's weaknesses were exposed in his 1979 decision victory over Jesse Burnett. Burnett floored Mwale, and gave him a great deal of trouble.

 

I consider peak Saad to be the version that did battle with Yacqui Lopez on two occasions, particularly the first, and what a fight that was (as well as the rematch).

 

I don't think many, if any of the punches he put Conteh down with in either fight could be considered brutal.Most of them were incidental to decent shots by Saad standards(though obviusly still heavy),on a guy who seemed to lose his punch resistance pretty rapidly when he declined.

remember before the first fight conteh had been floored heavily twice by Burnett, one from a feeble glancing shot that had him out on his feet for about three rounds .he went down again against Brown.His chin was probably the key issue in being able to beat saad at that time.

Anyway the real point is i think Conteh was maybe a bit too poor an opponent in the rematch to be a greatest performance kind of thing for Saad.marvin Johnson, Lopez, bull martin and co. would have wrecked him just the same at that point.

 

Round 8 must be THE best round ever where neither fighter suffered a knockdown. It's a rollercoaster role-reversal riot!

 

I agree with you...you seem to know your late '70s lightheavyweights. Curiously, what did you think of Lopez KO6 Mike Rossman? It happened just a few months before Saad stopped Lopez in October 1978. I thought Lopez-Rossman was one hell of an action fight. Rossman put on a great fight despite ultimately being beaten down and kayoed.

 

Haven't seen it actually. I figure that would be quite a matchup though. Saad always seemed able to make a FOTY candidate with any opponent, and Rossman would seem the perfect type to stay within range and oblige with that type of fight. He was also a pretty underrated fighter, nothing stand out, but very fundamentally sound in every aspect, inside and out.

I'll have to get my hands on that one, it sounds like a doozy.

 

Man, that was a beautiful punch!!