John Conteh Appreciation Thread

We recently had a second-string light-heavyweight tournament on the forum, made up of second teir greats from the division and John Conteh won it at a skoosh, basically without dropping a round in the eyes of the forum. He's clearly much admired.

He's also under-posted about. You don't see him in a lot of fantasy match-ups and there's very little history about him.

That's all to end here in the John Conteh Appreciation Thread. This thread is for all matters Conteh, whatever you feel like discussing, little stories from his past and history, scorecards, historical rankings, anything that strikes where Conteh concerns we'll bang it in this thread and see what comes of it.

Conteh was never the lineal champion, denied that chance against Bob Foster, but he was one of the many men who held a claim to the title (sponsored by the WBC) between Foster's reign and that of the great Spinks. In some sense that sums him up nicely. Conteh never really distinguished himself form the likes of Victor Galindez and a couple of his fellow title claimants defeated him, as we shall no doubt see.

Conteh's record of 34-4-1 with 24 kos and 1 loss by ko also is a fair reflection of his great talent although there are many that feel he never fulfilled his potential due to a laxidasicale attitude to training and a dear love of the London and (native) Liverpool nightlife but some of his late rallies make me wonder about this sometimes. Maybe we'll hear something about that in this thread.

Six foot flat with a seventy-six inch reach, he's a LHW of the last generation really and would have been a rather terrifying middle and super-middle in this one although it's interesting to note there is a story that he fancied heavyweight, dropping down to LHW in part of the advice of Muhammad Ali.

So much about so many of these fighters are apocraphyl, but true or partially true or with some sliver of truth in them, those stories are all welcome here.

This one goes out to @My dinner with Conteh, wherever he may be.

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Here's my Mate Parlov scorecard and rundown, mystery included, for anyone who can help!

MATE PARLOV SD15 JOHN CONTEH

The jaw on Parlov he looks like he could hold a shot from a train. He also looks a whole weight class bigger and has a hideous, difficult style as is apparent form the outset. Evil looking fight. I couldn't separate them in the first, probably me just not seeing what i'm looking at early doors tbf it's all a bit freaky. In the second, Parlov pretty clearly out-pecks Conteh for my money, and continues to out-jab and out-move him in the third and fourth. Plus, defensively, that giant forearm takes a lot of steam of Conteh's punches here and there. But Conteh, here in bizarro world, is reduced to out-throwing and out-fighting Parlov. Angelo Dundee made this call very early and fair play to him. No way for Conteh to do a Conteh on Parlov by the looks and I suspect he would have been a pain in the ass for Conteh at any point in his career. 2-1-1 Conteh after four.

The number of left hooks Conteh throws and misses between 5 and 8 is absurd. He must hit Mongov round the back of the head with that punch about ten times. Meanwhile, Parlov is landing his straight left from waaaaaay back yonder. For such a gangaloin he's an absurdly well balanced fighter, he finds a pitch really easily for his punches and Conteh is repeatedly taken by surprise. He looks befuddled, troubled, and is fighting far too fast in order to win these rounds. He adds to his own troubles by being a little too eager to get his head across by the referee's eye and loses a point in round eight. Still capable of the sublime such as the left hand feing, right hand punch he lands in five, he's also being out-generalled here. I have it 4-3-2 after eight, abd because Conteh loses a point in the eighth for heads, he's further behind than that looks.

Conteh turns swarmer to get back on top, which is weird. He tries everything, from glancing the left jab off the top of Parlov's head, to sort of hopping onto him with a pumping jab, but he never really gets that left going. So he's just trying to slip and slide his way inside and lash out hard punches, his bread and butter the left-hook to the body. He's like a crazy scouse-Mexican hybrid and it gets him back into a fight that I feel was slipping away a bit. 6-5-1 113-113 after twelve. Three rounds for all the marbles.

13: Parlov looks to be running away with it as he outlands the wild Conteh at mid-range, but Conteh rallies brilliantly and nearly knocks Parlov's headov with a bizarrely and newly uncorked uppercut. Parlov's mouthpiece gets knocked across the canvas as Conteh makes it three rounds on the spin.

The fourteenth round of the fight is missing on YT, So my card is incomplete. I thought Conteh had a better fifteenth but he had that point taken off, so I have have it 8-5-1 with an additional point off for Conteh...so that means the missing round is really important.

Anyone?


PARLOV:2,5,7,8*,10,
CONTEH:3,4,6,9,11,12,13,15**
EVEN:1.

*Conteh has a point taken away for naughties with the head.
** Conteh has a point taken away for the forearm.

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Tony Bellow sits down with the ageing legend, does his best to ruin it, but actually the warmth Bellow has comes through a little bit here and he eventually brings out some of Conteh. Bellow also gives him his due - the greatest fighter from Liverpool, he could box, he could fight on the inside, quite right.

Very cool hearing them discuss chins. Bellow talks too much but it's great to see Conteh sat down in a modern setting for a chat.

Well worth fifteen minutes of your time. I know his real name is Bellew.

 

He started his career at HW and moved down. He did not weigh in under the LHW limit until 1973 and his EBU title fight with Rudiger Schmidtke. He was 17-1. That is a gorgeous performance actually, and remains one of my favourite Conteh fights despite what he got up to later in life.

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Flea uploaded that one.

 

Of course. Nobody could ever make out he was a "factor" at heavyweight, that's self-evident. But in a thread about John Conteh, the impression that he was considering moving up to heavyweight would not be the right one to foster. He moved down from heavyweight.

 

Very cool, did you ever speak to him?

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This is a photo of him at the Wellington.

 

Here he is with Bunny Johnson and George Francis off for a swim at the Highgate Pond, Hamstead Heath, just round the corner from the Wellington.

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Are you, by any chance, from Liverpool?