John Conteh v Dwight Muhammad Qawi.

He has that rep because he basically quit v.s. Foreman but let's get real, he was fighting a much, much larger man ...

Qwai showed huge heart against M. Spinks, fighting gamely till the very end and of course in the first Holyfield fight so there you have it, going balls to the wall against tow all time greats ... the only limiting constraint was that his career was short at 175 which was his best weight ..

 

Height obviously didn't bother Duran at middleweight ....certainly such an experienced boxer as yourself must be aware of this ...BTW, ever hear of the original Joe Walcott ? :smoke

 

It's very hard to overcome height/reach disadvantages if they are used properly, you need to be very good at slipping punches while moving forward. Qawi was good at that but lateral movement and a jab will still give him nightmares like anyone giving up so much height.

Duran was 5'7 and Hagler only 5'8, hence he didn't have too many reach issues. Barkley gave up his height. Duran was also a master of slipping punches while coming forward, but again his nemesis was tall rangy jabbers with lateral movement, ie Benitez. Same thing with Tyson-Douglas

 

Hagler was a shade over 5'9' and had about eight inches in reach on Duran .. Tyson had huge height and reach disadvantages against boxers such as Thomas, Tucker, Briggs and Tubbs .. he was able to overcome it because he brought his A game ...

DIfferent fights, different nights ... at the end of the day these guys are all the sum of their parts ...

 

Qawi used his size to his advantage pretty well though it might not work well against fighters with styles like Conteh's

 

He didn't show huge heart against Spinks imo, he played it quite safe for large chunks of the fight once he felt Spinks power, just slowly marching forward getting turned all night.Maybe it was a technical\stylistic weakness as much as heart, but he couldn't get out of the division quick enough after the fight despite being a fat midget above 175.

He was class the first time against Holy, but tanked it badly in the rematch.That fight was as bad as Conteh's second against Saad, but Qawi while not at his peak anymore had a lot more left imo.He just didn't fancy it.

Now don't get me wrong i'm not saying the guy was a consistent quitter or a frontrunner to the extent of someone like Judah, but the effort he put forth was inconsistent and sometimes dubious.He wasn't this Armstrong\Frazier'esque tank that just walked through fighters, it was usually his technique and strong slip and counter game that won things for him.

As for Conteh not being a puncher, he's an underrated puncher because of his hand issues imo.He was heavy handed and two-fisted as a puncher. but didn't throw full force all the time.Watch some of his early fights against Heavies or against the near granite chinned Finnegan in their rematch.Nearly all of the better 70s light heavies were hard punchers and not fighters easy to walk through.

 

Tua-Lewis situation?

Same here.

Looking at his earlier pre-injury bouts Conteh's power looks pretty convincing to me.

In fact I'd say Conteh hit harder than Qawi.

 

Look against Spinks he was fighting an all time great in his prime with a very bad stylistic match up ... no doubt Spinks won the fight in the first round where Dwight felt his power but the man did try to win ... unlike Frazier or Armstrong he had more skills and was not always a balls to the wall sort of fighter ... by the Holyfield rematch he was simply done ... he left it in the ring in their first bout ...

AS far as Conteh goes, I always like him and found him to be a charming guy .. he showed tremendous guts in the first Saad fight .. I just think he was simply a step below ..

 

I really liked Conteh but his weight on the back foot style didn't allow him to put much zip on his punches, something he would need to keep the buzzsaw from blitzing him for fifteen rounds.