Louis/Conn I

This has always been one of my all-time favourites, and I think it's on the whole an under-appreciated fight whose relevance sometimes gets dismissed because of Louis having an off night, or because of Conn outboxing him widely and then pissing it away in the last few rounds. Both of these suggestions have been massively blown out of proportion IMO, and I'll deal with them in this post. I think Louis/Conn I ranks as being among the most dramatic, exciting and significant fights that I've ever seen, and so I'm going to stick my thoughts in here.

Conn doesn't do anything too meaningful in the first couple of rounds, starting off looking like a rabbit in the headlights, and is literally falling over himself in the opening session. Louis, cool as ever, is doing a good job of picking off Conn's flicking jabs (one of his foremost defensive abilities) and countering him with heavy shots when Conn does open up (2:20, 2:26). Perhaps the most important thing to observe is that Louis is cutting Conn off and trapping him on the ropes when he gets the chance (2:30), even at the cost of going off balance for a second, something which Louis was apt to avoid when it wasn't appropriate. People often sneer at Louis' footwork, claiming that he was troubled by anybody with movement. Not so. You see him here maintaining poise and punching position as well as applying pressure and forcing the exchanges.

Conn quickly warms up, though, and starts to make an impression at the start of Round 3. At 4:40 he feints a jab and whips a deadly accurate right hand right on button before doing some quick inside work and getting away. Conn at his clever and elusive best, hitting and running. He makes the exact same move at the start of the 4th with success. He's even getting the best of the in-fighting with those flurries.

Louis realises he's got a fight on his hands, and at the start of the 5th starts to make a concerted effort to slow Conn down and go to the body. From about 7:24 he goes through a spell of hammering shots to the body, and his weight advantage begins to tell as Conn tries and fails to tie him up. Conn is still having his moments, though, landing those lighting-fast, Ray Robinson-style springing left hooks, and dictates rounds 7-11 basically with his speed. Louis is starting to look just a little bit lost for ideas in the middle rounds. Conn is also making adjustments, picking his shots more and jabbing more, keeping Louis guessing and avoiding his counters, as well as working harder and paying more attention to defence on the inside, and now the fighting up close is much more competitive.

I think the stylistic defect that does get exposed to an extent here is Louis' tendency to wait too much for opportunities. It happened in the first Godoy fight, where he would focus on defence for too long and let the other guy bang away, hoping to pick off most of his shots and to come back afterwards, by which time it's too late. From 3:15 in the second video onwards, Conn has a major spell of scoring where Louis should probably try and throw back over the top and impose his strength.

At the start of the 12th, he starts to pull it together and force the action, countering Conn's left hooks now with his own right hands, even he's unsure of landing. However, leaving himself open, Conn rallies and clips him with a flush left hook, famously hurting him. It's surprising to me that Conn didn't have more power at 175, since he could really generate a decent bit of whack with the speed behind his shots when he tried. He's also very accurate, even in combination.

Things are looking desperate for Louis at the start of the 13th, and Conn has probably swept rounds 7-12, perhaps with the exception of Round 10, giving him at least a 2 or 3 point working margin. Despite a massive temptation to get despondent, Louis re-focuses and goes back to work. You can see it in his demeanour: he knows he needs something big and he's looking for some heavy stuff. At 7:21-30 you can see him really digging in.

Old Bert Sugar would probably now give you a completely false account of what happened in the final round, suggesting that Conn should have stuck to boxing and ended up trading and getting caught. Actually, Conn's combinations on the inside nearly bail him out, subduing the Louis' comeback attempt. But if you watch closely, at 8:03, it's when Conn actually tries to feint the left and throw the right like he did with success earlier that is his undoing. This time, with a renewed sense of urgency, Louis sees it coming and times him for a straight right. Conn takes it, but this is the beginning of the end. He's hurt, and Louis knows it. Conn tries to smother Louis' power, but he keeps stepping back and picking his shots. His incomparable finishing instincts take over. Despite the excitement that must have swarmed over him, he stays cool and looks for the hard, accurate shots. Conn takes a working over for the next half-minute, and is practically out on his feet when Louis puts him away.

What a fight! We only have the highlights, but there's loads of action, loads of decent exchanges. You see Conn's great speed, movement, combinations and clever feinting and avoidance tactics. You see Louis' timing, accuracy, in-fighting and, above all, the focused mentality of a champion. It's a dramatic fight with an unexpected ending but competitive enough to make it a compelling performance on both their parts. I don't buy the stories about Louis having overtrained or being off-form; nor do I accept that Conn had it won and through it away by getting caught up in needless exchanges. I think two extraordinary fighters near their peaks gave their all in the ring, produced an extraordinary fight, and one great simply pulled it out down the stretch. :good


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPnuKGF15VA[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctdjVr-kRsg[/ame]