Footage of a primed Billy Conn fighting at LHW!

Thanks mcGrain for this film....This is the first time i saw a film of Billy Conn, aside from the two Joe Louis fights..Conn at 170 lbs was really a big middleweight, who put on weight for this fight in 1939,two years before he fought Joe Louis....Billy certainly had a good set of wheels...
Melio was a tough strong southpaw who licked amongst others such toughies as Tiger Jack Fox, Bivens,Apostoli. Curtis Sheppard, Harry Bobo, etc...I saw Bettina draw with Jimmy Bivens MSG in the 1940s...
Thanks again for showing my favorite lightheavyweight, Billy Cawn...
P.P. thats how they pronounced Billy in Pittsburgh [CAWN]...

 

There's no :delightedsqueal: emoticon, but that's my response.

 

Amazing. Thanks for posting this. Always wondered what Conn looked like at his best weight.

On the plus side: He's astonishingly quick. Only got glimpses of it, but I'm not sure I've ever seen quicker feet on a fighter above Welterweight. He can dive in with leads as fast as any fighter I've seen. Admittedly the cagey southpaw didn't flatter him. Knows how to counter, seemed to be able to get inside the jab and counter with the left hook at the same time against a southpaw (classic Roy Jones move). He looks like he has the makings of a nice jab, although he also seems wary of throwing it against a lefty.

On the minus side: Circles the wrong way regularly and ended up walking into left hands. He didn't ****ing do much, either - how did he win that fight? It looked like he was getting outworked most of the time to me. Maybe they only showed the pro-champion rounds. It certainly didn't show off his output or punch variety - most of the time he looked lost for ideas. Looked a bit timid and scared to engage on the inside with this wee bloke, yet he wasn't with Joe Louis? Weird.

Overall I'm a little disappointed, honestly. Perhaps the footage has caught him at bad moments; perhaps he didn't like the southpaw. How sure are we he was at his peak here? I didn't see enough there to enrich any knowledge of H2H ability, particularly.

Thanks again for posting, though.

 

This was their first fight..In their second fight Conn won going away...I saw Bettina fight Jimmy Bivens to a draw...Bettina made EVERYONE look BAD...A very strong and AWKWARD southpaw was Melio...

 

I've seen other footage of Conn dancing gracefully on his toes, moving in and out on Bettina. Out jabbing a southpaw of that caliber was a neat trick. I agree he probably circled right entirely too much, but we weren't in the ring with him, and he may have found Melio's right to be more of a threat. (It was interesting that he boxed as a southpaw because that felt more natural to him. Anybody else notice that he switched a bit in the closing seconds?)

 

True. Of course we're not seeing the complete match here, but I find it notable that Billy's not leading with his right or hooking to the body as much as might be expected. (Even Ali was occasionally hooking a light diversionary left to Mildenberger's body. The next time he faced a southpaw though, he went directly to his right lead, and bounced Dunn like Foreman did Frazier.) Conn's primary weapon in the footage you've provided is the jab, something only an extraordinary boxer could utilize successfully in a situation like this. Yes, he has some difficulty, but he gets the job done.

 

Round by round:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=3996,5841725&dq=conn+bettina&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAIBAJ&pg=2195,5820196&dq=conn+bettina&hl=en

Keep in mind that it's Conn's hometown newspaper.

Associated Press had it even:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAAIBAJ&pg=1717,497342&dq=conn+bettina&hl=en

His jab was looking good, but he wasn't letting his hands go. Perhaps Bettina's southpaw style confused him. The rematch was a clear win.

 

Conn goes right hand "crazy" in the rematch:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AAAAIBAJ&pg=2461,233703&dq=conn+bettina&hl=en