John Conteh

John Conteh
Data
Birth Name	John Conteh
Weight class	Light heavyweight
nationality	British
birthday	May 27, 1951
place of birth	Liverpool
size	1.83 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	34
Knockout victories	23
Defeats	4th
draw	1

John Anthony Conteh MBE (born May 27, 1951 in Liverpool ) is a retired British boxer and professional light heavyweight. His mother is from Ireland , his father from Sierra Leone , he has nine siblings.

Beginnings and amateur

He started boxing at the Kirkby Club in his hometown of Liverpool when he was ten . At the age of 19 he won the British Commonwealth Games in 1970 in Edinburgh . He won the British championship in 1970 middleweight and 1971 light heavyweight. In 1971 he also took part in the European Championships in Madrid , but lost in the first fight on points against Richard Koleritsch from Austria .

professional

Conteh became a professional light heavyweight in 1971 and won, with the exception of a point defeat to the American Eddie Duncan in September 1972, all development fights before he won the European championship against the German Rüdiger Schmidtke on March 13, 1973 with characteristic counter-boxing . He defended the title three times: in two encounters with Olympic champion Christopher Finnegan , a southpaw, and against the respected Dane Tom Bogs .

On October 1, 1974, he won the vacant WBC title against Jorge Ahumada from Argentina, who had previously boxed against the legendary but old Bob Foster . Since Foster had then refused a rematch, he was stripped of the title. Conteh then defeated the powerful Lonnie Bennett from the USA with a demolition victory due to lacerations. He often used his head unfairly, so that his opponents often got into such problems. In a non-title fight against Willie Taylor, he struggled with a broken hand and was badly battered, which also showed his well-known training laziness. He beat the American Yaqui Lopez in a title defense just on points. However, a discussed fight against the Argentine Víctor Galíndez never materialized.

In 1977 he lost his title at the green table when he refused to play against Miguel Cuello in Monte Carlo . When this lost the title against the Croatian southpaw Mate Parlov , the first boxer of a socialist country to win a professional world championship, Conteh traveled to Belgrade on June 17, 1978 for a fight, but was also defeated by Parlov.

After Matthew Saad Muhammad won the title, Conteh traveled to the United States to challenge him. He lost the first duel tightly and controversially in August 1979, then went KO in the rematch in the fourth round and was on the ground five times. A little later he ended his career at the age of 29.

Web links

• John Conteh in the BoxRec database
• Official website