Ground Breaking Boxers

John Conteh

Toxteth born John Conteh MBE is a four-time World Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. He is one of Liverpool’s greatest sporting sons which included outstanding achievements in both the amateur and professional boxing worlds. Born to an Irish mother and a Sierra Leone merchant seaman father. He was one of ten children. He began his boxing career when his father took him and his brothers to Kirkby Athletic Club, where he taught them to box. Having progressed through the amateur ranks to senior level, he knuckled down and trained hard and won the 1970 ABA middleweight title, the 1971 light heavyweight title and the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games middleweight gold. He turned professional in October of 1971 and went onto to have a glittering career, beating some of the world’s greatest fighters along the way. Following his first professional victory over, Okacha Boubekeur. John Conteh went onto contest 39 fights. Despite his well reported struggles against the masa nations of the political and financial power brokers of the boxing world he nevertheless challenged for the world championship on seven occasions, winning it four times. In his post-boxing life, John became an actor in tv and film. Appearing in Man at the Top and Tank Mailin. He has also become a hugely successful after dinner speaker. In 2017 he was awarded the MBE. He was considered by many knowledgeable boxing observers to be Britain’s finest light heavy weight boxer of all time.