John Conteh v Henry Cooper

I voted cooper by dec, but conteh could easily win on cuts if he's landing early

 

This a really good match up. Conteh just a bit too classy and sharp. Can see him picking Cooper off with the left all night. Conteh ud.

 

got to go with conteh, sharper crisper and more technical aspects. cooper is a danger and could. and might knock him done but i would go for conteh.

 

Four posts above me and three voted for Conteh.
Who did Conteh beat at heavyweight to make you think he can outbox Cooper ?
Conteh's only chance is if he gets that nut in early and ,cuts Cooper ,otherwise he gets stopped.

 

Dunno, i don't think it's as simple as that McVey.

Sure Cooper is vastly more the known quantity at the weight and would be the favourite, but we didn't get to see Conteh's limitations/ceiling against men around the 185-195.As a pre-prime young fighter he dominated journeymen/domestic level opposition from that weight up to the 215's with at least as much ease as Cooper.He also seemed to have the power and chin to trade, hurt and gain respect.

Now don't get me wrong, i don't think he had the size or range(short arms even among light heavies) or real top-end power\durability to have become one of the better top ten heavies of the era had he remained there.

BUT he looked more than physically able and talented enough as a young fighter for me to think he could have been a good 2nd-tier operator at heavy...someone who could pick up wins against other decent contenders when the styles favoured him in the way similarly styled smaller boxer-punchers like Harold Johnson, Machen, Folley or Jimmy Ellis were able to.

In that sense a fight against a Cooper level solid 2nd-tier contender would have told us a lot.As a textbook boxer-puncher with static headmovement and propensity to cut, Cooper was made for Conteh even more than Finnegan was, only he has the extra size(and ability to pressure and impose with it)and power to ask extra questions.especially if Conteh wanted to trade and be a bit devil may care on defencelike he did in a number of his early heavyweight fights.

 

Cooper relied on his left hand to control fights. I think he would have big trouble doing it here. He said he used to put weights in his pockets to appear heavier on the scales, although I think that's an exaggeration by him.

 

The best heavyweight Conteh beat was Billy Aird [cut eye] imo, he is unproven at the weight.
I saw Cooper in his prime ,he stops Conteh imo. Cooper and Joe Erskine below.

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Erskine was stopped 6 times in 54 fights ,by Ingo, by Valdes, by London and,3 times by Cooper.

 

Awesome rebuttal. You sure told him off.

 

Aird, Stevens, Drover, Preacher Lewis, terry Daniels

A nondescript journeyman bunch on their own merits for sure(though embarassingly probably all more than good enough to have the usual lacklustre period in the top ten of this heavy era but that's another story), but good opposition for a young smaller fighter to be impressively beating.aird and Stevens gave a Jimmy Young who was at a similar stage in his career much tougher fights(and conteh didn't fight that well until the late rounds of the stevens bout).

Cooper definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt as betting favourite, but i think this would have been a fascinating fight had it been possible to make.

 

If we look at Henry Coopers Assets that Conteh has to be wary of we see a Big left hook, a very good Jab and double Jab, (which Conteh Matches) and we see a fit fast mover, certainly faster than big Dave Matthews who Conteh had to out finesse, But if we look at Conteh, we see natural style antidotes to these, Conteh is mobile and Adroit in his own right, so shouldnt be outmanauvered, Henry's normally reliable Jab may be nullified to a degree by Conteh's excellant Cobra'esque head movement, and Henry's Left Hook ? well Conteh never showed vunerabilty to this punch, his Right hand was usually up, Conteh's vurnerability, if anything was to a surprise right hand, Ala Drover or Bogs, - but Henry has not really got a right hand to capitalise on this, its often just a counterweight to his left hook, ! And In Conteh Henry would not be facing a retreating feather fisted Joe Bygraves

The Conteh who destroyed Terry Daniels on the Ali-Bugner undercard was very aggressive and hard hitting combined with being stylish, and i do wonder if Henry' eyebrow's would stand up to Conteh, when John getsin that Vicious Careless Headwork Zone?

In te final analysis i cant help thinking, if a small Cutie like Amos Johnson could beat Henry, then i think a small Cutie with attitude and Venom Like Conteh could do Likewise
- Conteh on a late stoppage, cuts are bound to feature i fear, but Conteh ahead on points at time of stppage !

 

conteh is smaller than those smaller heavweights you mentioned. I have met john and he is not the 6 foot as he was always listed. His hands are very small. I know he had the ability to beat heavyweights but to me, having seen him, if there was a supermiddleweight division IMO conteh could have easily made that weight. Carl froch, chris eubank and herol graham (who I have also met) are around the same size.


Cooper was less than 190lb but he trained down - as they all did then. Henry was gaunt at his prefered fighting weight, a weight that would be dangerously low for most simular sized men. cooper could not have made 175lb.

 

i went for conteh by pts decision

 

I don't really disagree he was a notch smaller than most of those fighters(though Ellis is an odd one as could make even middleweight) and was definitely bulked up as far as he could go fighting in the mid 180s.

I'd say there have been quite a few light heavies that could have made a specific super-middle division for a while, had the option been there.Fourie the most obvious of the 70s bunch.