47 years ago today: John Anthony Conteh vs. Leonard "Stinger" Hutchins

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Here is the last ever title defense of Conteh's professional incongruously thin-on-hardware career. It was defense number 3 in his one and only reign, with the WBC light heavyweight belt for which he was never bested in the ring.

The challenger, a Motor City amateur hero that served as part of the inspo and model for the Kronk style developed by Emanuel Steward, had tried for a world championship once before. He made it 12 rounds of a scheduled 15 in a grueling war with Argentinian armored tank Víctor Emilio "El Leopardo de Morón" Galíndez before retiring in a bout that some called "the 175 pound Foreman vs. Lyle", FWIW.

Britain has never since produced a more fragile-mitted pugilist save maybe Calzaghe, nor one more rabidly loved by their metropolitan borough save maybe Hatton. On the latter point, I'd say the Manc crowds were perhaps just louder through sheer edge in numbers - p4p the Liverpudlians roaring for their man a few decades prior were right there abreast in their full-throatedness.

Conteh possesses what may be the best jab in an Original Eight division that boasts many fine world class jabbers. Here, though, it's the left hook that both draws first blood (figuratively) and ultimately closes the show.

Conteh clips and hurts Hutchins with a surprise double left hook two minutes into the opening frame. This was both a tactic of terror, showing his true speed in a very sudden & violent manner - as well as upending the scouting report, which said to watch out for that star-crossed right hand. I think once Len ate those left hooks, he was dead in the water - regardless of what happened next.

Now, the head clash. I for one don't think it was an example of my username. Conteh momentum springing up and throwing a counter 1-2 past a ducked Hutchins jab carried him steadily inside, but Hutchins happened to slingshot himself forward again after pulling away from the jab thinking that's all there was. Unfortunate misread and accident, is all.

The next round was a brave bit of delaying the inevitable by Hutchins (as you might also consider his entire struggle with Galíndez to have been, after the fourth round - where, ironically, it was Hutchins that cut Galíndez with a headbutt, only to light a fuego beneath his culo). In with an opponent superior at pretty much everything, behind the proverbial eight ball from the bell to start the second as his team had to scramble to apply "coagulants" after spending the first half of the stool break complaining nonsensically about Conteh having butted him deliberately, and clearly bothered more and more by that laceration - he really had just fate in store.

The big kibosh. It came late in the third, with Hutchins left awkwardly hog-tied at the ankles by Conteh's dagger-steps in and out past his lead foot (seeds that had been subtly planted in the first two rounds).

A sweet finish, as the icing on a legacy that feels like it ought to have contained several more layers of cake (when taking into account the obvious talent of Conteh). Within a few years, both men would be retired from action - before yours truly was even born!

 

Goodness gracious, this NYT article!

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/06/archives/butt-helps-conteh-win-title-bout.html

Author clearly had it out for Conteh and decided his headbutt was intentional based on preconceived biases.

And this:

Grooms said: “Look, the ref warned him. He's supposed to stop the fight if a butt causes a cut and call into the ring two doctors. If the cut is too bad to continue, Hutchins should be awarded the fight.”

What the referee ruled is that after 1:06 of round three, Hutchins was too damaged to continue, and that's where it ended.

To readers that hadn't viewed the fight, this implies that it was stopped because of the cut and not, you know, Conteh drilling him through the canvas with a left hook he couldn't recover from.

Also the assertion of Grooms (that the New York Times' hack doesn't sound to disagree with) that Len Hutchins should have been awarded the contest (rather than going to a NC in the case of a cut from a butt rendering him unable to continue) is wild to me - indicating that Conteh should have been what, disqualified for a butt that saw him move forward behid a 1-2 in a steady and predictable manner while it was Hutchins' own bowshot momentum coming back inside that actually caused the impact?

 

Aye - he was stripped just two months after beating Hutchins for not honoring a WBC mandatory defense obligation. Ironically, the mando they were demanding was that he face Miguel Cuello - the man that Conteh had already been scheduled to meet and for whom Hutchins was a late sub in the first place!

Conteh - rightly, IMO - felt that his stock at that point warranted not taking a second consecutive relatively low payday and rejected the Cuello defense (really can't say it was a duck, as the fight was signed before Hutchins was swapped in!) and voila, vacant. He would spend the remainder of his career fighting to regain that green belt, but went 0-3 against Parlov and twice over with Saad.

He was only 25 here versus Hutchins, and his last ever bout came just a few days after his 29th birthday.

One has to imagine he could have still been an effective and championship-caliber fighter into his thirties if he protected his hands and didn't muck about with John Barleycorn.

Ridiculously short prime for that much talent.

Yeah, there's a sneering quality to it that completely (I think intentionally) glosses over the fact that Stinger, though a decent fighter, was clearly not on a level with JC and makes this out to have been a fluke result.

 

I grew up in a family of Beatlemaniacs so this fact was burned into my brain long before I even started following boxing and learned of John Conteh's in-ring exploits.

I could name all the people on Band on the Run and probably half on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band tableau by 6th grade (while only having any contextual idea who less than a quarter of them were).

 

I am indeed a Yank, but a big appreciator of Conteh's tidy boxing work nonetheless.

 

Looks to be on Netflix.