John Conteh, an overrated or underrated champion?

I would say that John gets given his just dues on this site. One of my favourite boxers of all time. Sublime skills,controlled aggression and a vicious puncher. I find myself always saying that had Conteh not had any "Out of the ring" distractions and he'd remained injury free,we'd be talking about him as one of the greatest 175 lb men of all time. Alongside your Fosters,Spinks',Conns and Moores. His potential was that good.

 

In the boxing world over all he is highly regarded.He maybe underrated on this forum but for me John was an excellent fighter who unfortunately suffered with fragile hands.Should and could have achieved so much more

 

I guess it's a matter of how you rate him ... if it's as a great fighter , I disagree ... if it's as a very good fighter, for sure ..

 

Reading that list. What a murders row of excellent fighters! Bob Foster and RJJ would have earnt at least once loss facing that line up.

 

I'm also one of the many who thought that John was short changed by the judges in the Mate Parlov fight. Even though it was n't John at his best,he'd done enough to win in my book.

Conteh was going slowly downhill by this time but a year later he looked the best he had for ages in the first Saad Muhammad bout. Shame he ran out of gas in the last few rounds. The rematch displayed that Conteh had nothing left. John's chin also started to fail him in his last few bouts unfortunately.

 

I think Jones loses to Spinks, Qwai and Mustafa for sure ... that was thew best age of light heavyweights I watched in real time ..

 

I too felt Conteh deserved the Parlov decision. My card and what I wrote below.

Round 1: 10-9 Conteh
Round 2: 10-9 Parlov
Round 3: 10-9 Conteh
Round 4: 10-9 Parlov
Round 5: 10-9 Parlov
Round 6: 10-9 Conteh
Round 7: 10-10 Even
Round 8: 9-9 Even (I felt Conteh's round but he lost a point for use of the head)
Round 9: 10-9 Parlov
Round 10:10-9 Conteh
Round 11:10-9 Conteh
Round 12:10-9 Conteh
Round 13:10-9 Conteh
Round 14: ?? Round missing
Round 15: 9-9 Even (Conteh's round but lost a point for use of the elbow)

With the missing round my tally was 134-131 for Conteh. Even if I gave the 14th to Parlov we would be looking at 143-141 for Conteh. Parlov's style is a slapping open-handed right jab but he used it liberally, so you have to separate those point-getters from the power shots of Conteh. Tough loss for Conteh.

 

Conteh held his own in an era thats arguably in the top 2 or 3 for lightheavies. I think hes a cracking fighter but just didnt live the life of one.

 

I think he was certainly a skilled boxer but he gets overrated on more what could have been then what he actually achieved.

 

I don’t think he’s overrated he was a very good and stylish all round fighter who had a relatively short prime. In that prime though I believe he was a problem for anyone.
Even past prime he gave Saad all the trouble he could handle in their 1st fight and if they hadn’t cheated by basically using cement to close the cut he would have had a stoppage win over Saad on his resume.

 

In his prime a brilliant textbook boxer but his out of the ring lifestyle made for a very short prime

 

What do you feel was his best performance?

 

ask bruce forsyths wife