You know the drill. Pick your favorite fight of either at 175. 12 rounds. Modern rules set Mills Lane as ref. Flip Homansky as ringside doc.
Conn was brilliant. One of my favourite fighters. But its hard to see him outboxing the faster harder hitting man. Conn's fundementals will help him win some rounds but ultimately i favour RJJ to win a decision. Competitive.
Fundamentals? There's a hundred things he's doing wrong here. Nice footwork though. This content is protected
Bettina was a very tricky customer. A crouching awkward fighter who happened to be a southpaw at a time when southpaws were rare. I think Conn was good fundamentally even if he made some mistakes here and there.
Conn’s feet were fast, you can tell he’s naturally athletic. His jab looks extremely weak here, almost as if he doesn’t even want to really use it, sort of like Roy Jones. The gifted athletes sometimes break the conventional methods, Many of the older fighters, held their hands low, maybe because of lesser padding in the gloves the high guard was eschewed, for more of an open eyed anticipation of blows. Plus 15-20 round bouts led to more endurance and some more static posturing. I think Roy Jones fighting in the modern era - of shorter rounds with his speed would probably catch the low guarded Conn with a tremendous hook, hurting him and maybe finishing him in an exchange. But Jones was a juice head and Conn was naturally a bigger guy. You give Conn modern training methods and Jones can’t use the gear Conn could win he’s every bit the talent Jones was
Jones by KO some where between rounds 10-12 imo. Jones speed and power eventually breaks through. The only way Billy wins is if he boxes perfectly for all 12 rounds and avoid s big shots entirely
Would be somewhat in tune with a William detloff article thar pitted Roy against past lightheavy weight greats, and have a Billy at that short window when he was at his peak, doing just enough to get the decision win. Conn was only 23 by the time of tge epic Louis tussle, but had taken his lumps against a vast array fistic thugs.
