15 Seconds with Billy Conn
How great was Conn? Let's keep it short. He turned pro at 18. He was 6'1 or so and had a 72 inch reach. That's about the same as Lucian Bute. He actually fought his early fights as a lightweight but pretty quickly grew into a welter. Conn learned as a pro and was 11-7 in his first eighteen fights in his first 14 months as a pro. But man oh man did he learn! Over the next 24 months Conn went 24-0-1 and grew into a middleweight.
Once he arrived at middle he knocked off HOFer Teddy Yarosz twice, HOFer Young Corbett III, #2 Solly Krieger twice, #6 ranked Babe Risko, #7 Oscar Rankins and reigning champ and HOFer Fred Apistoli twice in over the weight fights. Then Conn grew into a light heavy.
At light heavy Conn won the undisputed light heavy crown in a matchup with #2 ranked Melio Bettina after John Henry Lewis retired. Conn beat Bettina again in a rematch, defeated #1 ranked future champ Gus Lesnevich twice and then decided to try the heavies.
At heavy Conn beat #2 Bob Pastor, #8 Lee Savold and then he got his shot with Joe Louis. After that loss he beat HOFer and reigning middle king Tony Zale.
The WWII intervened and Conn serves for four years and is done. He has done all this by the time he is 23!
So let's spend 15 seconds with Billy Conn. This is round 12 of the first fight with Joe Louis. Conn is giving up four inches in reach and 35 pounds in the ring. The core of his strategy to this point has been circling to his left rapidly enough that Louis had to reset over and over again.
Pick it up at 3:37
3:37-Conn is in tight, a position he has sought to obtain occasionally up until now (and he has been forcing rotation even in tight). Conn's chin is tucked, his weight ir on his front foot so Louis can't push him around and his right hand has pinned Louis' left to his chest so he can't punch with it.
3:38-Even giving away 35 pounds Conn forces Louis to take two steps back and as Louis moves Conn lands a swift left and then a right to Louis' body.
3:39-Louis responds with a pair of hooks of his own, but because Conn is in tight and Louis is being pushed backwards Conn is able to smother them.
3:40-Conn lands a rabbit punch while Louis steps to his hight and troes to spin Conn.
3:41-3:45-Louis is now able to use his weight to walk Conn back to the ropes.
3:46-A now squared up Conn takes a left to the belly.
3:47-Louis follows up with a short right and left downstairs. Conn steps back slightly with his right foot and forward with his left so he is once again in a power position and in position to punch.
3:48-3:49-Conn is now able to walk Louis back to the center of the ring because Louis is squared up and Conn isn't. Conn's head is on Louis' left shoulder.
3:50-Conn removes his head from Louis' shoulder, centers it up, shifts his weight onto his left foot and attacks! The first punch is a left hook to the body which Louis largely blocks with his right elbow. At this point Louis makes a rare error. He lifts his right foot first when moving left and Conn makes him pay.
3:51-While all Louis' weight is on his left foot, Conn follows the hook to the body with a drop step with his right foot that has the effect of rotating his body clockwise so he re-optimizes punching position. Immediately a left hook upstairs, then steps with his left foot and rotates his hips and shoulders back to the left and crashes home a short inside right hook. Kind of an odd punch, but a perfect one given this situation. This punch is so hard it lifts Louis' left foot entirely off the canvas.
3:52-Conn finishes the four punch combination with another left hook upstairs that staggers Louis. The two men have rotated 90 degrees in the last two seconds.
This is as close as Billy Conn ever gets to the heavyweight crown. These fifteen seconds demonstrates how exceptional craft, courage, desire and a speed advantage can, for at least brief periods, overcome disadvantages in height, reach and weight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSG-YE9Welc
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
Did not realise Conn started as lightweight amaxing that he acheived all that. He needed up a real good friend of Joe Louis.
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
Nice work, Remembering the past, different breed.
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
Billy Conn held a secure lead on the scorecards leading to round 13. According to many experts and fans who watched the fight, Conn was outmaneuvering Louis up to that point. In a move that Conn would regret for the rest of his life, he tried to go for the knockout in round 13, and instead wound up losing the fight by knockout in that same round himself. Ten minutes after the fight, Conn told reporters, "I lost my head and a million bucks,". When asked by a reporter why he went for the knockout, Conn replied famously: "What's the use of being Irish if you can't be dumb?"
Billy Conn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mars_ax
Billy Conn held a secure lead on the scorecards leading to round 13. According to many experts and fans who watched the fight, Conn was outmaneuvering Louis up to that point. In a move that Conn would regret for the rest of his life, he tried to go for the knockout in round 13, and instead wound up losing the fight by knockout in that same round himself. Ten minutes after the fight, Conn told reporters, "I lost my head and a million bucks,". When asked by a reporter why he went for the knockout, Conn replied famously:
"What's the use of being Irish if you can't be dumb?"
Billy Conn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As a man of Irish decent? All's I can say is "Good on ya Billy!"
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
You left out HOFer Fritzie Zivic- Conn fought him, too.
My father was born in Pittsburgh in 1925, and we are Croatian, so my early boxing education was centered around the Zivic brothers and Billy Conn.
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
There are many quotes which they exchanged, Conn said something a long the line of “why did you not let me win the fight and have the title for at least a couple of months”, Joe said “you could not hold on to it for another 6 minutes, how were you going to hold on to it for a couple months!”.
Re: 15 Seconds with Billy Conn
Quote:
Originally Posted by
greynotsoold
You left out HOFer Fritzie Zivic- Conn fought him, too.
My father was born in Pittsburgh in 1925, and we are Croatian, so my early boxing education was centered around the Zivic brothers and Billy Conn.
Yeah I left out Fritize because he was really a welter.
I still remember reading how scared Ray Robinson's trainer George Gainford was about putting him in with Zivic. He thought Fritz might ruin him.
