WELTERWEIGHT Fritzie Zivic: #5 ranked welterweight. Future world WW champion. IBHOF member MIDDLEWEIGHT Tony Zale: World MW Champ. Non-title bout. IBHOF member. Teddy Yarosz: #4 middleweight. Former world MW champion. IBHOF member Young Corbett III: #6 middleweight. Former world WW champion. IBHOF member. Solly Krieger (x2): NBA MW champ; non-title bouts against Conn (5 months apart) Fred Apostoli (x2): NYSAC MW champ; non-title bouts against Conn (1 month apart). IBHOF member. Babe Risko: #7 middleweight. Former NYSAC MW champ. LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT Melio Bettina (x2): NYSAC LHW Champ (#1 LHW). Rematch 2 months later. Gus Lesnevich (x2): #1 LHW contender (both fights). Future world LHW champ. HEAVYWEIGHT Bob Pastor: #1 Heavyweight contender. Lee Savold: #8 Heavyweight contender. Billy Conn was only 24 when he was called to serve during WWII. All of his major wins came before he turned 23 except one- Tony Zale. Conn is considered an all-time great middleweight & light-heavyweight. He could've been an ATG heavyweight if he wasn't Irish.
As you say it is very impressive, especially given the young age at which he won some of those fights. It is a tragedy that the second world war cut him off in his prime, or he might have been another Ezzard Charles!
It would be very interesting to see what Conn might have done, had his prime not been cut short. I don't think that he would have won a rematch against Louis, because Louis would have seen him for the threat that he was. He could have gone back to light heavyweight and reigned for a while. If he stayed at heavyweight he would have been on a collision course with Bivins and Mauriello, both of who he would most likely have beaten. He might have been the top contender in the division until Elmer Ray hit his stride, and that might have ended in a trilogy!
One of the newspaper articles posted here recently, said pre-fight that Louis had trained for the Conn 1 fight, the hardest Louis had trained since the Schmeling 2 "revenge fight (Louis k.o. in one round)".
He trained for it, but there were other issues. Some evidence suggests that he had a hand injury, and he agreed to the stipulation that he come in under 200lbs, which basically left him weight drained. He also failed to pursue his advantage a couple of times. Whatever the case, for an immediate rematch, you would have seen the Louis of the second Schmeling fight!
I read that Jack Blackburn said that the first Conn fight is the only time "Joe crossed me" Blackburn didn't want Louis to change anything and train to get into the best possible condition. Joe had it in his mind that he needed to be lighter to gain speed.
Criticized reguarly for being a slow starter and for lacking a punch. Looked better vs bigger men than smaller men. Lost a lot of rounds on low blows (and should have lost more). Some questionable decisions or outright robberies (Jan 6 and Feb 10, 1939 bouts vs Apostoli; Jun 30 and Sep 30, 1937 bouts vs Yarosz; May 27, 1937 vs Rankins; Dec 28, 1936 vs Zivic; Sep 8, 1936 vs Jones).
I saw articles in a couple different Pittsburgh papers from writers who felt that Conn lost the Oscar Rankins fight.
Tough and game as they come. Deserves a standing ovation for his first performance against Louis alone, beating Louis to the punch and hurting him badly. Quite a resume. Too tough and Irish for his own good haha. Imagine him as a supermiddle today. I think he'd clean up.
It deserves mention that Conn had no amateur fights ala Joey Giardello. Like Giardello, his actual fights were his "classroom" so to speak.
That goes for almost every great fighter. Even Ray Robinson has some controversial wins on his resume.
