15 Seconds with Billy Conn

[marbleheadmaui]

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!"

[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.

[Master]

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!”.

[marbleheadmaui]

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.