RingSide Report

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Ringside Report Looks Back at WBC Light Heavyweight Champion John Conteh

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Liverpool. Home of some of the best fighters that Britain has produced and has the likes of Tony Bellew, Tony Dodson, the Smith Brothers, Rocky Fielding and one man who I remember in a ring and on a stage – in fact his theatrical performance is the only time I saw him in the flesh – John Conteh.

Growing up in 1970’s Britain, Conteh was a superstar. He was the good-looking face of a multi ethnic community that we were still trying to come to terms with. The amount of press that the USA gets about how ethnic discrimination blighted their South could be unhappily placed alongside the way in which the UK struggled to come to terms with the influx of immigrants to the UK during the 1950’s onwards.

It led to fascist organizations taking to the streets and demonstrating in ways that are as, if not more so, embarrassing as a burning cross on your lawn.

Conteh challenged the stereotype that was being promoted by the bigot as he cut a suave and dashing figure whilst being a brutal exponent of the pugilistic science.

At the start of the 1970’s he came to the attention of the public when he went to Edinburgh as a middleweight and won Commonwealth Gold. The following year he was to turn professional and from that point onwards went on a career that brought 39 fights, 34 wins, 4 losses and a draw.
His professional highlights were when he became the WBC light heavyweight champion 3 years after turning professional in 1974 with British, Commonwealth and European titles before that.

His beginnings, though humble were highly important. Conteh was a proud Liverpudlian, training out of Kirby, who started in the ring at the tender age of 10 years old. By the time he got to the less tender age of 19, he was the Commonwealth Champion. He was also finding himself drinking, though not to excess, at regular intervals.

What the public saw and love though was a fighter. From the early days his trademark jab, incredibly astute tactics, head bobbing as he launched waves of attack, his supreme conditioning and insatiable desire to win marked him out; the only negative was a right hand that was prone to injury.

Before turning professional, and perhaps lured by the glamour of that weight division, Conteh was convinced that he should fight at heavyweight. He was dissuaded he claims, by the legendary Muhammad Ali who was to persuade him that he was too small and he should fight at light heavyweight. He went into the professional realms at that weight and it was to be a massive success for him. His domestic run through included an impressive win against another giant of the British boxing scene – Chris Finnegan.

Once he had won the British, the Commonwealth and European titles, world honors beckoned.

His light heavyweight title came in a win against Jorge Ahumada in 1974. He held the title up until 1974 when he was stripped of it because of a failure to go through a mandatory defense; a salutary lesson for those boxers who may chase the big cash fight rather than the glory.

It was his lessons at the hands of a highly charged and political time within boxing that could have soured him forever. Despite an amiable personality, cheeky grin and quick wit, Conteh was nobody’s fool. He managed only 3 defenses of his title in 3 years with wins against Lonnie Bennett, Yaqui Lopez and Len Hutchins and in 1977 when he refused to fight Miguel Cuello he was stripped.

Conteh tried three times to regain his title. On the first occasion, he lost a contentious 15-round split decision to Mate Parlov. The other twice it he came up against Matthew Saad Muhammad. With the first fight declared void because Muhammad’s corner used an illegal substance on a cut, hopes were high for the rematch. Unfortunately, Muhammad won the second encounter. Conteh fought once more and retired in 1980 at just 30 years old.

Conteh went on to concentrate on his acting career, but it was not quite the smooth transition he might have imagined. As well as the honor of appearing before me he also had role in 1970 and 1980’s films like The Stud and Tank Malling as well as a TV appearance, ironically as a washed-up boxer in highly popular British TV show, Boon. It was the type of role he was to return to in the TV show Justice in 2011.

When I saw Conteh it was when he was playing the Narrator in the play, Blood Brothers in Manchester. It was a highly popular play now boasting a highly popular entertainer at its heart.

Conteh had won the hearts of the nation through his career and also in 1974 being the Superstars champion which was a multi-sport television event bringing the best of British sporting competitors together in an adult version of the types of school sports some of us used to avoid as teenagers.

His biggest fight, like many former boxers, was not in the ring but outside of it. His lifestyle, once he retired, as well as long before that, lent itself to being able to reach for one too many bottles at a time. All that retirement did for him was to lift the shackles off his excesses. To be a boxer at the level he reached, you needed discipline. Alcoholism has its own discipline and it does not always let itself up to allow you a successfully sporting career. As long as Conteh needed to train, wanted to be successful and had to entertain in the ring he could drink but keep the lid on it. Take away the desire and then alcohol filled that void.

It led to him being news on the front pages of newspapers that used to laud him on the back. He once took his white Rolls Royce on one boozy night out and ran into, literally, a number of other vehicles.

Conteh, though, who retired when he was 30, realized that this was a battle that took more than his mental toughness and sought help. That help gave him the mantra, one day at a time and for nearly 30 years it has served him well.

As well as an acting career that has given him some opportunities to relive his life as a boxer, he is much sought after as an after-dinner speaker. His stories are legendary already but now he gets to relive repeat and retell them whilst continuing to get paid for them. His ability to engage in the ring was captivating and so now his ability to engage outside of it matches that ability and now that he is 66 years old, this Scouser who never forgot his past, can be applauded once again for his bravery and ability to beat whatever was put in front of him.

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