meh...I would never give up on you my friend. Slightly busy with work, trying to entertain my quarantined family...plus there has not been much of interest on this forum for a few months+. I am sure I will be back, but right now have not been in much of a posting mood. Hope all is well with you and yours!
Saad Muhammad v Conteh 1 Bit of a frustrating watch - 3 rounds missing and some overzealous video editing means my scorecard is incomplete. But I had this pretty wide for Saad. Assuming Conteh picked up all the missing rounds, it would have been 7-6 Saad going into the 14th so with the knockdowns I would always have had Saad winning. Conteh showed some nice moves but Saad just outworked him in my view. The knockdowns just cemented the victory. 1 10-9 2 10-9 (close) 3 round missing 4 10-9 (Conteh showed some nice defense but needs to up his workrate) 5 10-9 6 9-10 (first round on my card for Conteh and a big one - landing overhand rights that seemed to stun Saad and also cut him) 7 9-10 8 10-9 (close) 9 round missing 10 10-9 11 10-9 12 9-10 13 another round missing FFS! 14 10-7 (big round for Saad - 2 knockdowns and Conte does well to survive) 15 10-9 Saad 117-109 Conteh
Jel, there are obviously some different versions out there because I saw it in its entirety about a year or so ago. Here is what I wrote: Here is the first Saad Muhammad - John Conteh encounter. I was a huge Conteh fan back in the day and may have leaned a little towards him back then. Watching it now more impartial I can say that although John's defense was brilliant, he relied too heavily on it and needed to be busier offensively. There were times that were screaming out for a Conteh counter when he seemed to be more content with ducking away and resuming jabbing. Anyways here we go. 10 point must system. Round 1: 10-9 Saad Round 2: 10-10 Even Round 3: 10-10 Even Round 4: 10-9 Saad Round 5: 10-9 Saad Round 6: 10-9 Conteh Round 7: 10-9 Conteh Round 8: 10-9 Conteh Round 9: 10-9 Saad Round 10: 10-9 Saad Round 11: 10-9 Conteh Round 12: 10-9 Conteh Round 13: 10-10 Even Round 14: 10-7 Saad (2 knockdowns) Round 15: 10-9 Saad 145-141 Saad Muhammad Of course, the fan in me will always say that the Conteh from '74 would have taken Saad. But regardless, two great warriors.
This content is protected On the subject of Conteh, I don't know if anyone has seen this film of his Euro title-winning bout with Rudi Schmidtke. It's not in its entirety - its more of a really extensive highlight reel - but really good showing of a young Conteh.
Here’s a few good light heavyweight scraps in that time frame: James Scott vs. Yaqui Lopez This content is protected Marvin Johnson vs. Victor Galindez This content is protected Michael Spinks vs. Ramon Ronquillo (right after Ramon upset Mike Rossman) This content is protected
I scored Scott and Lopez. I gave Scott 2,3,4,5,9,10, Lopez 6,7,8,, and scored round 1 EVEN. Good fight, lots of punches. Scott was too strong and didn't give Lopez any room. I was impressed with Scott's short punches, Lopez put up a good fight, he just didn't have quite enough power to keep Scott off of him. A lot of rounds looked close on video, but it might have looked different at ringside, Norton was giving most rounds to Scott and Norton was a good commentator.
I liked Norton as color commentator and also found him to be a pretty competent judge as I recall. Scott was a murderous body puncher. He was trying to chop you down, not score points. And if he got to his range he could really work someone over. Yaqui is one of my favorites and one of the best ever to not win a world title, and I thought James made fairly easy work of him ... which is saying something.
Jose Napoles v Curtis Cokes 1 What can I say? A master at work. I could provide a scorecard but it'd be pretty redundant. The judges had it 11-1 x2 and 10-2 but I don't think Napoles lost a round - maybe Cokes could have taken a share of the first and at a push the third, but other than that...nada. And this was Napoles facing a very good champion. On this form, I could count on one hand the number of welterweights who I'd give more than a 50% chance against this version of Mantequilla - and I might still be left with a couple of fingers left. One of the great title-winning performances.
The three I was thinking of were Robinson, Leonard (my dream WW fight) and Hearns. Those guys I would make favourite over Napoles because they held obvious physical advantages over him. Sure, Walker and Duran would be tough fights for anyone in WW history but would I make them more than 50/50 over this version of Napoles? No, I don't think I would.
Juan Manuel Marquez v Orlando Salido Good, clear win for Marquez against a guy who we know a lot better know than we did back then. With hindsight, this is a very good win. Marquez was just that bit too good for Salido, who came forward but couldn't consistently find a way past Marquez's defense. Salido had his moments and it was a good, competitive bout but Marquez was just a level or two too much for him. 1 10-9 2 10-9 3 10-10 4 10-9 5 10-9 6 10-9 (good round from both fighters, Salido started pressing Marquez and some good exchanges but Marquez took it. Fight is more competitive than my scorecard shows) 7 9-10 (close) 8 9-10 (close) 9 10-9 (good countering from Marquez) 10 10-9 (Marquez in full control, Salido still coming forward but not too effectively) 11 10-9 12 9-10 (excellent finale!) Marquez 117-112 Salido
This content is protected 1979-08-18, This content is protected LHW Title Carlos Padilla 146-142 Harry Gibbs 144-143 Charlie Spina 146-141 _______________________ Round 1: Franklin 10-9, swing. Round 2: Conteh 10-9, close. Round 3: Even 10-10, missing. Round 4: Franklin 10-9, close. Round 5: Franklin 10-9, clear. Round 6: Conteh 10-9, clear. Round 7: Conteh 10-9, clear. Round 8: Conteh 10-9, close Round 9: Even 10-10, missing. Round 10: Franklin 10-9, close. Round 11: Franklin 10-9, clear. Round 12: Conteh 10-9, close. Round 13: Even 10-10, missing. Round 14: Franklin 10-7, clear. Round 15: Franklin 10-9, close. This content is protected _______________________ Can never go wrong with Matt, obviously every fight is a tear up. Fun fight, but more of a chess match than a slugfest. For simplicity's sake, and because I'd like a full scorecard, I marked the missing rounds even. I ****ing hate missing rounds. It ruins the feel of the fight imo. Especially this one, as the whole tension that surrounded his one was by Matt's bad cut, but that was in a round I couldn't watch! Speaking of the missing rounds, they could've affected my card a little. From what the commentators were saying, it sounds like Conteh win the 3rd and 13th, whereas Franklin won the 9th, which would change my card to 143-141. Conteh, a Dundee trained fighter, fought more like someone trained by Futch. He was an excellent tall-man fighter. He boxed beautifully and worked really hard in the mid rounds but that power took this one from him. That, and age. Matt roughed this one out and took a close decision. Can you imagine the uproar that would come about today if Canelo had used an illegal substance to stop a cut? Jesus.
