Basically the same guy. Couple of one-arm bandits. Winner gets Donny Lalonde, a one-hander from the other side.
John eats Virgil alive. Virgil beat nobody as good as John. Virgil had quicker hands, feet and a longer reach, but that is it. He is getting beaten up
I think Hill would be too cahey and crafty for the Coneth man, probably goes the distance but I could see VH winning by cuts to the face
Hi Buddy. You are correct in your appraisal of Conteh as a one arm bandit, but the moniker certainly did not apply to the fighter pre the Willie Taylor fight, the up and coming Conteh was a vicious, spiteful, two fisted box/puncher, who would unleash hard hurtful right crosses to great effect, it was only the career changing damage he received to his right hand in the Taylor fight, that necessitated a change in tactics, had he not sustained the injury, my belief is that he would have reigned for many a year, as I have said on previous posts, to see him spar up close ( as I have ) is a breathtaking experience, the punches come in salvos, hard and with bad intent, the paid help had to earn their wages, in no uncertain terms, have seen and spoken to Conteh over the years, and he is great company, witty, self deprecating, and full of anecdotes, mind you his right hand still shows the evidence of the Taylor fight. stay safe Saint, always enjoy your knowledgeable insights to our sport , chat soon amigo.
I don't think it's that simple. I do favor Conteh at his peak to win, but it damn sure wouldn't be some blowout. Virgil Hill has many solid wins, he was a class fighter. And historically, Conteh has been overrated as Hell on this forum. People talk about him as if he were Ezzard Charles. He's very overblown, and years ago I too was guilty of overrating him. He wasn't good enough to give Hill a beating. I make Conteh only a slight favorite here. It's essentially a 50-50.
Well he was good enough past prime to give Matthew Saad Muhammad all he could handle in the first fight. If they had not cheated with the cut he would have had WTKO on his resume against an ATG. He’d beaten Yacqui Lopez a fighter much revered on here virtually one handed. I get where you’re coming from though with him being overblown, Conteh was a bit of a could’ve, would’ve, should’ve but his actual talent was huge at his best a beautiful fighter.
I had the pleasure of meeting John last year. Nice and interesting guy. I agree with your assessment about his reign lasting a decent amount of time. I've always thought that John could have turned out one of the greatest 175lb men had circumstances been different. John outpoints Virgil Hill clearly. Hill cute enough to last the distance but that's all he's doing.
You just described every MSM defense pretty much. That was his thing, going life and death and just stealing someone’s soul in the end.
I totally agree. His unwillingness to yield was off the scale no matter what trauma he was going through,
One of the few MSM defenses that didn’t fit this mold was the rematch with Conteh. John absolutely wanted no part of another fight with him. Which says a lot about Saad.
