John Conteh Appreciation Thread

No fourteenth round in that one either. Much sadness. I tend to think that Conteh would win it given how well he performed in the last third, but you just never know.

 

Can you expand on that a little?

 

Yaqui was a good guy.

 

MATTHEW SAAD MUHAMMAD UD15 JOHN CONTEH

1: Damn, when you don't see Conteh for a while you forget how glorious his left hand was. It was almost unique the way he "stuck" the punch to the opponent's face. It's not a thumper of a punch but it just sticks right where he wants it, that is accuracy married to range right there, he doesn't waste many, it looks the same whenever he throws it from that distance, but he goes up and down with enough exquisite timing that that doesn't matter. You know when he shortens it up (he does so once in this round) it's going to be a sick puppy of a punch. Muhammad lands the harder stuff here but a lot of his work isn't getting through. He does land a beast of a right hand behind Conteh's elbow though. You can tell that Conteh's defensive habit of ducking, covering, and leaning in is going to cost him as the fight progesses. CONTEH round.

2: Conteh is parrying very well, Muhammad wants to prod with this blinding jab and then use it to cover the right hand, which he is winging in, but he's telegraphing it and Conteh makes him miss by feet on one occasion. Muhammad might land a meaty right to the body, hard to see with the camera angle, but Conteh is happy to peck away with a double-jab to the torso, although he does trouble himself to land a single right-hand. CONTEH round.

3: Conteh is boxing very safety first considering how dominant he is, he's not dialling in on Muhammad's head at all, still pecking for the body, although he does land two cuffing power-punches in this round. Muhammad just misses and misses and misses. At the end of the round Muhammad menacingly closes to three-quarters for a spell and throws a lot of rough-house punches in a warning for what is to come. CONTEH ROUND.

4: That little surge was like the champion flipping a switch and he fights with new urgency in the fourth. Suddenly he's closed the range a bit and he lands two thudding right hands, one on Conteh's ear with the thumb part of the glove, one legitimate body shot which sounded rather horrible. Conteh sort of ups the urgency himself, but it's like he's urgently looking rather than doing. He does land a decent left and a smooth counter right but it's a MUHAMMAD round.

5: Now the champ sets out to mug Conteh, he's not looking any more, rather he's booming in the right hand. Conteh is still making him miss with almost every jab but he's also looking a tiny bit fragile in front of Muhammad's aggressive surges which usually contain a hard right hand gift for the scouser before they are over. Conteh even looks momentarily hurt on the ropes at the end of the round, but also seems reluctant to move. Nasty clash of heads at the end of the round. Tiring in the fifth spells a long night. MUHAMMAD round.

6: Sizzling reply from Conteh in this round, he seems to want to be more aggressive which basically means firing the right hand and he does this, but it's the left that bring him the round, two beautiful punches, one up, one down, both of them making Muhammad think again. He seems pensive and doesn't perform any meaningful rushes in this round which belongs to CONTEH.

7: Muhammad is bleeding above his left eye now and Conteh looks happy to risk targeting it. His right hand looks as beautiful as his left at times and this is one of those times as he gets close and then shoots it across his own upper body no distance at all, a hurtful punch, the type you see on Joe Louis highlights. Muhammad doesn't look hurt by these punches to me, but he looks legitimately inconvenienced, like he's not sure what to do with Conteh when he's cracking him like that. CONTEH now has a handy lead on my card, 5-2.

8: The fight has sort of flipped a bit, with Conteh aggressively stalking and blasting home his right while Muhammad rams him with a couple of really nice jabs. At the end of the round his throwing combinations of that jab, but I still feel that CONTEH shaded this close round...

9: Conteh fought the ninth with absurd caution but Muhammad does nothing either. Muhammad is now not throwing his right hand at all. He's just throwing the jab and he's short with most of them. Conteh throws almost nothing and when he does he's shoe-shining a bit with his left, the snap seems to have gone out of it a bit, but when he lands a cracking overhand right with seconds left in the round he nicks it. CONTEH round.

10: Finally Muhammad start to fight again and I thought he had Conteh hurt twice in this round, once with a hook, once with a right hand. Conteh gambled a couple of times with his own hard punches but he's not making it in this frame. I think Conteh tries a straight-up headbutt at the end of the round The whole fight is being decided on the outside, they've thrown one uppercut between them. MUHAMMAD round.

11: Eleventh feels like a very big round, although knowing what we know about fourteen, it's tempered a bit. Conteh seems to sense that same urgency and he starts brightly, staving Muhammad off with that shorter jab, pushing home a very decent right hand and once again snapping jabs at the mid-section. In the final minute though, Muhammad appears to buzz Conteh with a stinging left and Conteh's organisation departs for the remainder of the round; MUHAMMAD gets home with several left hooks to shade a close, crucial round.

12: Conteh starts the twelfth brightly, landing good jabs, but after about 80 seconds, Muhammad lands a booming right. He seems to be telegraphing less now by virtue of the fact that he is trying to land the left jab rather than paw/measure with it and it's crucial because this one-two is the difference maker. You can't outjab Conteh. Because he's the puncher, Muhammad takes the lead in the round with such a blow, although Conteh looks sprightly enough one moment later, dumping a second one-two attempt by Muhammad. When he lands two left hooks as the round winds down, Conteh's response is aggression and he forces his man back to the ropes with hooks of his own, evening up a tough tough round on the ropes with some half-blocked but crisp work. Muhammad comes lurching off the ropes and stumbles as he misses, he looks tired. The final twenty-five seconds are spent in a pair of meaningless tussles. I think i'll give the round to CONTEH based upon the work he did on the ropes, but it's as close as a round can be. So i have it 8-4 for Conteh after twelve.

13: Conteh misses countering opportunities as a tired Muhammad falls in with some of his punches and it costs him, as MUHAMMAD gets home some untidy right hands to take the round.

14: The last round really underlined how gruelling this fight is, lots of movement, swapping hurful punches, Muhammad winging his, Conteh throwing more. You do wonder what a bleeding cut on Muhammad might have done for Conteh, at least on my card. Anyway, this is the round in which he was dropped twice. The first one was hurtful, a left-right-left, Conteh's brain just didn't know it was hurt straight away, he just seemed to fall over when his legs failed to respond. Muhammad in the corner with his hands raised, turning to see Conteh somehow getting up is very like the same scene from the same round of Balboa-Creed I he looks so ****ed off when Conteh makes it. His big mangled illegally tended face looks a mess. Conteh bites down on his gumshield after Muhammad lands a left, he comes battling back when he should spoil, almost falling over as he tries to grab. Muhammad inevitably finds him again, with a double jab, and it's a 10-7 round for Muhammad and the fight is all square on my card. Conteh takes until nine, the referee looks for a second like he's going to call it, bell.

15: MUHAMMAD outfights an incredibly game Conteh in a shockingly tough round. They both look hellish at the end.



MUHAMMAD:4,5,10,11,13, 14*,15
CONTEH:1,2,3,6,7,8,9,12,

*Conteh down twice.

142-141 MUHAMMAD


Closer than I remember it (without having scored it), Conteh really impressive performance considering he's past prime, and more impressive overall by my reckoning. Still, Muhammad pulls it out with some good aggressive firing in the run in, it's significant that he won the 13th, 14th and 15th. Especially impressive because it's the first time he went 15. The only time. That for your first title defence and your first fifteen rounder, **** that.

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