Non Gold Medalists as Pros

1. Which Olympic Boxers who did not win a gold medal have been the most successful as pros?

2. And which non Gold medalists did better as pros than the Gold medal winner in their division? This doesn't mean they neccessarily were pro champions or stars...just better than the Gold Medalist in their division.

 

Really?

 

Well...I guess I could have spent hours coming up with some bullshit forumula to "prove" a case could be made for Pac-Bradley being a close fight, (even though I know that isn't remotely true and, as usual, I am just looking for attention) but that would just be plain stupid and a waste of time.

Or..I could spend even more time trying to convince folks that fighters with undefeated records are better than those with losses. But...wait..that would be also really stupid and expose my over-reliance on BoxRec.com and my complete lack of knowledge of any fighters from more than a few years ago. (Damn...I hope nobody asks me about Saoul Mamby).

 

Floyd Mayweather Jr (bronze medal, 1996 Olympics)

Mike Tyson (lost to Henry Tillman, 1984 Olympics)

Miguel Cotto (lost to Abdullaev in 2000 Olympics)

All were more successful in the pros than the fighters who beat them in the ams

 

Really?

 

Poor mikE...as usual...looking for the negative attention. Kinda sad.

 

Roy Jones for q#1.

 

Roy Jones *

 

Off the top of my head...

Roy Jones
Willie DeWit
Riddick Bowe
Andrew Golota
Brian Nielsen
Duncan Dokiwari
Virgil Hill
Amir Khan----ahahahahaha.
Francesco Damiani
Paea Wolfgram
Laurent Boudouani
Chris "Thunder" Byrd. LOL.
Rhoshii Wells
Holyfield
Davids Tua, Izon, and Defiagbon (What a lemon he turned out to be!)
Ingemar Johannson
Big John Tate
Thomas Ulrich
Antonio Tarver
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Michael Carbajal
Andre Dirrell
Tim Austin
Daniel Santos
Egerton Marcus
Hector Lopez
Wayne McCullough

 

Tyson didn't go to the Olympics. Those were the U.S. Olympic Trials, LG.

 

Tyson didn't represent the US in the Olympics, so I wouldn't include him.

Here's an interesting one...Biggs -Damaini. Biggs beat Damiani for the gold medal in '84. Which one had the more successful pro career. Neither won a world title (unless you actually count the WBOgus title Damiani held briefly then). Damani beat Biggs head to head, but Biggs fought a higher level of competition...but he lost to most of them.

What do you think?

 

I think it's not very interesting.

 

Vitali :crafty:

Egerton Marcus? The bum who retired with a detached retina? Lewis former sparring partner I believe :dunno:

 

Who would you make your top 5 out of that list?

 

Actually...you don't think much at all (especially when you post). Or matter, either.

 

I forgot that Marc Leduc was a Canadian Jr. Welter silver medalist. He got hammered in the finals against a Cuban, but he was fighting injured. Leduc was one of the first boxers to come out as openly gay after his career ended.

 

In no order:
1. Jones
2. Holyfield
3. Floyd Jr (even though I despise his shitty persona)
4. Maybe Carbajal
5. Virgil Hill

As an aside Marc Leduc beat Leonard Dorin, the former WBA lightweight quitter, pretty easily in the Barcelona quarterfinals. Leduc could have been a good pro, but he never panned out.

 

We were all watching Leduc back then because he was a native Kingstonian. He trained at the Wally Elmer boxing club in Kingston under Colin McPhail. I used to see him downtown in Kingston. Nice guy.

 

True, good point. I wouldn't count RJJ either, he was the rightful Gold Medallist in Seoul.

 

Mike McCallum lost in the Quarterfinals of the 76' Olympics in the Welterweight Division.

Some guy named Jochen Bachfeld won the Gold.

 

Roy did win the Val Barker Award, and he outlanded the other guy something like over 2-1. The other guy tried to raise Roy's hand. I remember watching and my stepdad saying, "Come on, knock him out or you'll lose the decision".

Same year Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis for the Gold Medal in the 100m, only to get stripped.

 

I thought our British posters would get a couple of these guys: John H. Stracey, Wayne McCollough, Maurice Hope and Alan Minter.

 

Wow, I didn't even know Minter or Hope were medallists. I remember the story of Irish Chris Finnegan though. He was supposed to give a urine test, but the one thing he could never do is piss while someone was watching him. Hours went by, no piss. So he goes off to a bar to celebrate his gold medal, followed by International Olympic Committee representatives. After hours of beer, he jumped up and called out in a loud voice, "WHO WANTS SOME PISS???"

The test, of course, came back negative for PEDs. ::

 

I forgot a few others like Paolo Vidoz, but I think even his own family would have had a hard time remembering him.

 

Ingemar Johansson was the first I thought of. Ed Sanders who beat him in the finals got killed (literally) early in his pro career.

Jose Torres is another, his conqueror Laszlo Papp only turned pro late in his career because of the Communist government of Hungary back then

From the more recent games there are several paper titlists such as Felix Sturm (fought under different name then), Sultan Ibragmov (lost in finals to Savon), Ruslan Chagaev (lost in quater finals of the same games) and Sam Peter

 

Good one. Didn't know that, at all.

 

Yeah, stumbled on that one by accident a few years ago myself. Surprised me to.

 

I know he's shit, but future Light Heavyweight Champ Jean Pascal was eliminated in the first round of the 2004 Olympics.

The Gold Medal winner was Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov. I post this because Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov is probably the greatest name ever.

 

gayderbekov was a great fucking amateur. look at the list of pro guys he beat.

 

Gaydar? :: ::