give me ur thoughts. this guy's the smoothest (along with eubank) british boxer i've ever seen along with a complex skillset.
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give me ur thoughts. this guy's the smoothest (along with eubank) british boxer i've ever seen along with a complex skillset.
Along with Eubank ????? are you mad , John Conteh was a wonderful tactical fighter , EUBANK was cruder than an Irish navvy at dinner with the vicar!! They are not even close to being alike , Eubank used to knock the ring lights down his right hand was so telegraphed.Quote:
Originally Posted by sumkalambay
As for Conteh , he was top draw , but like so many , he suffered from brittle hands.
Eubank had an amazing chin , but was not a smooth boxer.
Although I respect Eubank greatly, Mr Conteh was a diffrent level.
I agree with Dark Lord Al somewhat, never really considered Chris Eubank a really good boxer. He had amazing mental toughness, a great chin, and underrated power.Quote:
Originally Posted by sumkalambay
At times Chris Eubank would look very awkward and sloppy, he did show some good boxing skills against Henry Whaton, Carl Thompson 1, but overall i don't consider him to be on John Conteh's level regarding boxing skills.
John Conteh before he become a one handed fighter because of hand troubles, was a great boxer that seemed to have it all. Good footwork, smooth skills, combinations, great left jab, good left hook.
What amazed me though is when he was past his prime, he beat Yaqui Lopez handily just using his left jab alone. And basically beat up on Matthew Saad Muhammad with one hand aswell, despite getting floored a few times. He probably did still deserve the nod, and lets not forget the controversy regarding the stuff they put on Matthew Saad Muhammad's swelling, which was banned i believe.
Overall John Conteh was a great fighter, and one of the most talented British fighters of all time.
Other British fighters who i feel were talented.
Kirkland Laing
Herol Graham
Michael Watson
Paul Jones
Yeh Graham had it all apart from a chin. Laing was a huge waste! Watson I would say was more heart and application than natural talent. Silky Jones is a name you don't hear often I remember him winning the WBO strap against Verno Philips years ago lolQuote:
Originally Posted by ICBI agree with Dark Lord Al somewhat, never really considered Chris Eubank a really good boxer. He had amazing mental toughness, a great chin, and underrated power.Quote:
Originally Posted by sumkalambay
At times Chris Eubank would look very awkward and sloppy, he did show some good boxing skills against Henry Whaton, Carl Thompson 1, but overall i don't consider him to be on John Conteh's level regarding boxing skills.
John Conteh before he become a one handed fighter because of hand troubles, was a great boxer that seemed to have it all. Good footwork, smooth skills, combinations, great left jab, good left hook.
What amazed me though is when he was past his prime, he beat Yaqui Lopez handily just using his left jab alone. And basically beat up on Matthew Saad Muhammad with one hand aswell, despite getting floored a few times. He probably did still deserve the nod, and lets not forget the controversy regarding the stuff they put on Matthew Saad Muhammad's swelling, which was banned i believe.
Overall John Conteh was a great fighter, and one of the most talented British fighters of all time.
Other British fighters who i feel were talented.
Kirkland Laing
Herol Graham
Michael Watson
Paul Jones
Another huge talent imo was Paul Hodkinson, his 2 fights with Villisana were awesome, but he was too prone to bruising. Loved watching that guy
Back to the question - Conteh was ace, but ruined by his hands (as everybody has said) Not the most talented British fighter imo though, but he's up there
Well I know when I first read the title to this thread the first man that came into my head was Randy Turpin, but really, he produced the greatest upset over SRR, and then beat some very good fighters like Don Cockel. But reall for me that does not warrant the most talented british fighter.
As for John Conteh yes he was good but to me fell short of my vote by a long way and to be honest I think there are a few brits between them including Hamed, Lewis and that annoying little shit Jim Watt.
My vote though goes to Joe Calzaghe. I don't always perhaps give him the credit he deserves but he is IMO the greatest Brit of them all, I just wish he'd have taken Jones in 2002 when he was offered the fight. He would not have retired undefeated then, but if he could have come back from defeat and then have the same career with the wins against Lacy, Kessler and an old Hopkins it would have shown him to be even more of a great than he is regarded as now.
Nobody has mentioned Ken Buchanan yet :-\
I was thinking of Buchanan when I said there were a few between my choice and Conteh.Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG H
Haven't seen much of him there isn't much footage of him is there ? but yes for certain a great boxer and he slipped my mind totally.Quote:
Originally Posted by BIG H
I was always a fan of Dave McAuley his battles with Fidel Bassa ,his win over Duke McKenzie and his easy win over Jake Matlala proved he was a very good fighter. Both Duke and Jake went on to win some important fights .
Not a great by any means but a very good fighter.
ken buchanan
john conteh-when he wasnt gargling and riding other peoples wives
howard winstone
barry mc guigan
jimmy wilde
benny lynch
chris eubank a crude fighter?? are you kidding?? he had some of the smoothest upper body movement i've seen at SMW(none of which you see from current fighters) and against the right kind of opponent he'd look like an extremely smooth technician. he sucked being the aggressor and looked sloppy at times, but otherwise he was a smooth technician.
btw i meant conteh was the most skilled boxer i've seen from britain and one of the better technicians to have fought in the LHW division.
Joe Galzaghe has natural boxing skill and also suffered from bad hands. Turpin was skilled if he beat SRR.
Tommy Farr went to points with Joe Louis.
Lennox was very talented.
Errol Christie was talented and skill full.
In terms of "talent" I'd say Naseem Hamed. He had the most "talent" he just lacked everywhere else. But talent-wise he had it all, fast hands, devastating power, great reflexes, flashy style, charisma whether loved or hated. So in terms of "talent" id say Hamed is in the top and above John Conteh.
Also Eubank you have to list, Turpin, a lot of British, Herol Graham, all rank above John Conteh.
So to me, Hamed, Eubank, Buchanan and Herol Graham and Lennox Lewis are above John in terms of talent natural talent. Some of them took great advantage over their talent(Eubank, Lewis, Graham to an extent) while others didn't achieve as high as they could (Hamed). However the level of 'talent" is unquestionable.
ur talking about athleticism there... hamed was certainly explosive, graham prolly the slickest to come out of britain and buchanan with his quick feet.. but none of them had conteh's technical skills, buchanan comes close but he had some serious issues with his technique.Quote:
Originally Posted by Majesty
Buchanan over Conteh
Duran never gave him a rematch after winning on a foul
Thats how good he was;D
Are you seriously going to put Hamed over conteh??? You must not have watched too much of conteh if you came to that conclusion. Hamed was better when it came to jumping over ropes, flying carpets and harley davidsons, but when it came to fighting he was found out by the first good fighter he fought. Its ok all this posing and shit when you have a 3rd rate fighter who would have to take a flying leap to reach you. Boxing-wise conteh was far better i feel and proved it by mixing with the best. Believe it or not, theres a rumour thats been flying about for years that Ronnie Corbett paid heavies to break Contehs hands for lashing his bit on the side. Ha ha ha! find it hard to believe myself but you dont let the facts get in the way of a story like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Majesty
Colin Hart goes for Kirkland Laing.
I've not seen anyone from this island in the last half-century who possessed as much natural talent as Laing.
Many of his fellow pros from the 1970s and 80s agree. Dave "Boy" Green said unequivocally: "He is as close to Sugar Ray Leonard as anyone in this country has ever been."
Trying to land a punch on him was like trying to catch smoke in a bottle.
Charlie Magri, Maurice Hope and the other world champions who trained at the Royal Oak gym, Canning Town, couldn't lay a glove on him.
So why didn't he make it to the top of the mountain?
The answer can be found in The Gifted One, published this month by Oliver Jarrett of the British Boxing Board of Control.
Jarrett reveals that nearly every time Laing climbed through the ropes he was STONED.
Kirkland arrived in Nottingham from Jamaica when he was nine and, as a Rastafarian, smoked cannabis every day.
Magri once stopped him leaving the changing room for a gym session because he'd forgotten he still had a spliff behind his ear.
Unbelievably, hours before he went into the ring, even before some of the most important fights of his 20-year career, he was puffing on pot.
:)
Stone me! Kirkland Laing was a dope | The Sun |Sport|Boxing
There's a new book out about him if anybody is interested :
Oliver Jarratt
The mind boggles as to just how good Laing could've been :-\
Did Kirkland Laing train at the Royal Oak?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing
Canning Town is my patch.
That's the Terry Lawless gym, right? Terry was Kirk's manager before he signed with Mickey Duff so almost certainly he was training there for the early part of his career.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimboogieDid Kirkland Laing train at the Royal Oak?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing
Canning Town is my patch.