Billy Conn

Billy Conn
Data
Birth Name	William David Conn
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	October 8, 1917
place of birth	Pittsburgh
Date of death	May 29, 1993
Place of death	Pittsburgh
style	Left delivery
size	1.87 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	76
Victories	64
Knockout victories	15th
Defeats	11
draw	1

Billy Conn (born October 8, 1917 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania as William David Conn , † May 29, 1993 ibid) was an American boxer .

Career

Billy Conn street sign

Irish-born Conn, a counter-boxer from Pittsburgh, turned pro in 1934 but lost seven of his first fifteen fights. He started in the lightweight and rose in the world class and middleweight by victories over Fritzie Zivic , Vince Dundee and Teddy Yarosz in the world class. He defeated the middleweight Fred Apostoli twice in 1939.

In July 1939 he won the light heavyweight division by winning points over Melio Bettina for the vacant world title and then defended it in the rematch against Bettina and in two fights against Gus Lesnevich. In 1940 he defeated Bob Pastor and Lee Savold. Then he switched to the heavyweight division.

On June 18, 1941, it finally came to a clash with the heavyweight world champion Joe Louis , Conn's most famous fight. At the beginning of the thirteenth round he was ahead on points, but then became too cocky and lost the fight by knockout .

He defeated middleweight Tony Zale in 1942 and was inactive for four years. In 1946 he returned to the ring for a rematch against Louis, but offered a poor performance and was knocked out in the eighth round. In 1948 he played two more fights and then finally ended his career.

In 1990 Conn was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame .

Web links

• Billy Conn in the BoxRec database