John Conteh vs. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad

Draw.

 

In all seriousness I pick Eddie Mustafa, but both are overrated. Conteh moreso.

 

I think we've established at this point these guys aren't on Conteh's level.

You have to match him with a prime Holmes to get an even fight.

 

So, the battle of the could’ve, should’ve, would’ves?

 

They might have a chance if the Liverpudlian God goes in injured.

 

A couple rounds with Sir Boston McMoustache before hand might do a number on him. The other two may get a SD that way.

 

I'm still laughing. I see what you did there

 

Conteh isn't overrated...

 

He absolutely is. People favoured him over Jones for ****'s sake.

 

That depends - who is he fighting in these hypotheticals which he apparently never loses? From what I saw the other day in the Conteh versus Jones thread, the overwhelming majority cast their vote with Jones. I don't remember more than one, maybe two people going with Conteh. Not particularly overrated there as far as I can see, unless you want absolute unanimity. He probably couldn't beat any of the absolute elite 175 pounders if they were on top of their game, but I don't ever recall him being picked by a majority to do so. From what I've seen, if he does end up being the majority pick (or even close to 50:50) it's against guys like Qawi, Galindez, Hill etc., so I don't necessarily see anything so crazy about that.

I understand a lot of people have misgivings about Conteh's comparatively sparse CV, but a record on paper doesn't always tell the whole story of a hypothetical head-to-head. I think there's a large consensus which agrees that Conteh was an underachiever, and while there's a lot that he didn't do, there's enough to suggest in the fights he did win and performances he did put on during his peak that he could have conceivably competed with and beaten fighters who did accomplish more. History is filled with those kind of cases. Mike Tyson is forever being picked to beat Heavyweights whose records on paper blow his out of the water.

I've only just started commenting here again recently after a long break, but from my experience I don't think Conteh gets particularly overrated. You can't label someone as overrated just because one or two people buck the trend and pick him to win a fight.